Functionality of the FreePBX database

[lgaetz (Lorne Gaetz)]

@LSpark

I’m trying to understand the exact purpose of the FreePBX asterisk … database

There are two things that you might be referring to when you say ‘asterisk database’. There is a MySQL database named asterisk where most FreePBX GUI settings are stored and the Asterisk internal sqlite database, the astDB.

@LSpark

whenever you change something with the GUI FreePBX first works on a database, then after you hit apply it overwrites the Asterisk config files.

Generally yes this is correct. But not all GUI settings are written to MySQL. Some are written to the astDB and some are even written directly to the conf files.

@LSpark

So Asterisk doesn’t actually read anything from the FreePBX database while it’s working right?

This is generally correct, but there are call scenarios that do reference MySQL on the fly such as speed dialing a Contact Manager contact.

@LSpark

Example: I call an extension so Asterisk needs to lookup the configuration related to said extension, so it retries that info from the config files stored in the usual Asterisk folders.

This is partially correct. Calling an extension requires both the config loaded from the Asterisk conf files and settings stored in the astDB.

Time group migration

A quick top level view of FreePBX operation: User enters data in a FreePBX GUI form and hits submit User data can be written internally to a number of locations, either the astdb, an asterisk MySQL table, or in rare cases a flat conf file, or a combination of these. Most modules write to mysql, follow-me is a good example of a module that writes to the astdb, and voicemail admin writes its config to voicemail.conf. When you create a new extension, all three get written to. When the user finall…