path: root/doc/distributed_devstate.txt

===============================================================================
===
=== Distributed Device State
===
=== Copyright (C) 2007-2008, Digium, Inc.
=== Russell Bryant <russell@digium.com>
===
===============================================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- IMPORTANT NOTE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This document includes some information about using the res_ais module for
distributed events.  However, it is important to note that res_ais is still
considered experimental, as the module exposes the binary format of events
over the network between servers.  This format is still subject to change
between 1.6.X releases.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- INTRODUCTION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Various changes have been made related to "event handling" in Asterisk.
One of the most important things included in these changes is the ability
to share certain events between servers.  The two types of events that can
currently be shared between servers are:

   1) MWI - Message Waiting Indication
      - This gives you a high performance option for letting servers in a
        cluster be aware of changes in the state of a mailbox.  Instead of
        having each server have to poll an ODBC database, this lets the server
        that actually made the change to the mailbox generate an event which
        will get distributed to the other servers that have subscribed to this
        information.

   2) Device State
      - This lets servers in a local cluster inform each other about changes in
        the state of a device on that particular server.  When the state of a
        device changes on any server, the overall state of that device across
        the cluster will get recalculated.  So, any subscriptions to the state
        of a device, such as hints in the dialplan or an application like
        Queue() which reads device state, will then reflect the state of a
        device across a cluster.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- OpenAIS Installation
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- Description ---

The current solution for providing distributed events with Asterisk is done by
using the AIS (Application Interface Specification), which provides an API for
a distributed event service.  While this API is standardized, this code has
been developed exclusively against the open source implementation of AIS called
OpenAIS.

For more information about OpenAIS, visit their web site:

    http://www.openais.org/

--- Download ---

To quickly downlaod OpenAIS, just check it out of svn:

$ svn co http://svn.osdl.org/openais/trunk openais-trunk

--- Compile ---

$ cd openais-trunk
$ make PREFIX=/usr

--- Install ---

By default, the current Makefile installs the libraries into /usr/lib/openais/,
which is a little bit inconvenient.  So, open up the Makefile, find the lines
that start with "LIBDIR=" to define the lib installation directory, and remove
the trailing "openais" so it just gets installed in /usr/lib/.

$ sudo make install PREFIX=/usr

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- OpenAIS Configuration
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Basic OpenAIS configuration to get this working is actually pretty easy.  When
you install it, it will put some default configuration files into /etc/ais/.
Edit openais.conf ...

$ ${EDITOR:-vim} /etc/ais/openais.conf

The only section that you should need to change is the totem - interface
section.

totem {
    ...
    interface {
    interface {
        ringnumber: 0
        bindnetaddr: 10.19.0.0
        mcastaddr: 226.94.1.1
        mcastport: 5405
    }
}

The default mcastaddr and mcastport is probably fine.  But, you need to change
the bindnetaddr to match the network address that the nodes of your cluster
will communicate on.

The one other thing that you need to do is create a user called "ais".

$ sudo adduser ais

See the OpenAIS QUICKSTART file for more information on installing,
configuring, and testing OpenAIS.

$ cd openais-trunk
$ less QUICKSTART

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Running OpenAIS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While testing, I would recommend starting the aisexec application in the
foreground so that you can see debug messages that verify that the nodes have
discovered each other and joined the cluster.

$ sudo aisexec -f

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Installing Asterisk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Install Asterisk as usual.  Just make sure that you run the configure script
after OpenAIS gets installed.  That way, it will find the AIS header files and
will let you build the res_ais module.  Check menuselect to make sure that
res_ais is going to get compiled and installed.

$ cd asterisk-source
$ ./configure

$ make menuselect
  ---> Resource Modules

If you have existing configuration on the system being used for testing, just
be sure to install the addition configuration file needed for res_ais.

$ sudo cp configs/ais.conf.sample /etc/asterisk/ais.conf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Configuring Asterisk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, ensure that you have a unique "entity ID" set for each server.

*CLI> core show settings
   ...
   Entity ID:                   01:23:45:67:89:ab

The code will attempt to generate a unique entity ID for you by reading
MAC addresses off of a network interface.  However, you can also set it
manually in the [options] section of asterisk.conf.

$ sudo ${EDITOR:-vim} /etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf

[options]
...
entity_id=01:23:45:67:89:ab


Edit the Asterisk ais.conf to enable distributed events.  For example, if you
would like to enable distributed device state, you should add the following
section to the file:

$ sudo ${EDITOR:-vim} /etc/asterisk/ais.conf

[device_state]
type=event_channel
publish_event=device_state
subscribe_event=device_state

For more information on the contents and available options in this configuration
file, please see the sample configuration file:

$ cd asterisk-source
$ less configs/ais.conf.sample

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Basic Testing of Asterisk with OpenAIS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have OpenAIS successfully installed and running, as well as Asterisk
with OpenAIS support successfully installed, configured, and running, then you
are ready to test out some of the AIS functionality in Asterisk.

The first thing to test is to verify that all of the nodes that you think should
be in your cluster are actually there.  There is an Asterisk CLI command which
will list the current cluster members using the AIS Cluster Membership Service
(CLM).

*CLI> ais clm show members

=============================================================
=== Cluster Members =========================================
=============================================================
===
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
=== Node Name: 10.19.2.255
=== ==> ID: 0xa1302ff
=== ==> Address: 10.19.2.255
=== ==> Member: Yes
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
===
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
=== Node Name: 10.19.6.187
=== ==> ID: 0xa1306bb
=== ==> Address: 10.19.6.187
=== ==> Member: Yes
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
===
=============================================================


The next thing to do is to verify that you have successfully configured some
event channels in the Asterisk ais.conf file.  This command is related to the
event service (EVT), so like the previous command, uses the syntax:
"ais <service name> <command>".

*CLI> ais evt show event channels 

=============================================================
=== Event Channels ==========================================
=============================================================
===
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
=== Event Channel Name: mwi
=== ==> Publishing Event Type: mwi
=== ==> Subscribing to Event Type: mwi
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
===
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
=== Event Channel Name: device_state
=== ==> Publishing Event Type: device_state
=== ==> Subscribing to Event Type: device_state
=== ---------------------------------------------------------
===
=============================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Testing Distributed Device State
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The easiest way to test distributed device state is to use the DEVICE_STATE()
diaplan function.  For example, you could have the following piece of dialplan
on every server:

[devstate_test]

exten => 1234,hint,Custom:mystate

exten => set_inuse,1,Set(DEVICE_STATE(Custom:mystate)=INUSE)
exten => set_not_inuse,1,Set(DEVICE_STATE(Custom:mystate)=NOT_INUSE)

exten => check,1,NoOp(Custom:mystate is ${DEVICE_STATE(Custom:mystate)})


Now, you can test that the cluster-wide state of "Custom:mystate" is what
you would expect after going to the CLI of each server and adjusting the state.

server1*CLI> console dial set_inuse@devstate_test
   ...

server2*CLI> console dial check@devstate_test
    -- Executing [check@devstate_test:1] NoOp("OSS/dsp", "Custom:mystate is INUSE") in new stack

Various combinations of setting and checking the state on different servers can
be used to verify that it works as expected.  Also, you can see the status of
the hint on each server, as well, to see how extension state would reflect the
state change with distributed device state:

server2*CLI> core show hints
    -= Registered Asterisk Dial Plan Hints =-
                   1234@devstate_test       : Custom:mystate        State:InUse           Watchers  0


One other helpful thing here during testing and debugging is to enable debug
logging.  To do so, enable debug on the console in /etc/asterisk/logger.conf.
Also, enable debug at the Asterisk CLI.

*CLI> core set debug 1

When you have this debug enabled, you will see output during the processing of
every device state change.  The important thing to look for is where the known
state of the device for each server is added together to determine the overall
state.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Question, Comments, and Bug Reports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For now, please direct all feedback to Russell Bryant <russell@digium.com>.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------