Hardware Node |
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The system is design around the concept of a "Hardware Node". Each Hardware Node is a 64-bit AMD or Intel server that meets Blue Wave's supported hardware list. VoipFlow requires only one Hardware Node to function; however adding two or more Nodes creates a more reliable and scalable system. Each Node is then subdivided into multiple "virtual" servers. The functionality of the system then lives within multiple virtual servers rather than on the primary Linux installation. The installation of VoipFlow includes these virtual servers for example:
- Database Servers
- Web Application Servers
- DNS Servers
- VOIP Routing Servers
- Monitoring Servers
In addition to these, a new virtual server is installed for each PBX. A typical real world VoipFlow installation may contain hundreds of virtual servers spread across the available hardware nodes. VoipFlow includes seamless management of these resources.
It is important to note that the VoipFlow application is not simply a web/database application. Rather the VoipFlow application is a complete system including many components. VoipFlow makes it easy to manage all of these moving parts from one central location.
Scalability
When capacity is reached within the Node cluster, a new Node is added in the data center and VoipFlow is installed on it. As new PBX's are added to the system they will be assigned to this Node as it is now the least used Node in the system. Optionally the system administrator can "balance" the Nodes, which will spread the PBX's across the Nodes evenly. This method of scalability allows the service provider to have complete control of the scalability of their system. Following are some examples of how this can be used.
In some cases a particular virtual server may be consuming more resources than others, for instance the database virtual server. In this scenario you can assign this virtual server to a dedicated Hardware Node. This will allow the virtual server to have the full resources of the Hardware Node.
Similarly, suppose the database virtual server needs more resources than the Hardware Node has. In this case a more powerful Hardware Node can be added to the system and the database virtual server can be migrated to the new Hardware Node. The original Node can then be used as a backup, or to provision new PBX's onto.
Reliability
Each Hardware Node within the system is assigned a backup Hardware Node. VoipFlow includes monitoring and failover utilities that will detect failure of a Hardware Node or Virtual Server and will automatically relocate services to the assigned backup Node.
In addition, the core VoipFlow services are fully redundant. For instance, there are two primary VOIP routers that will fail over among themselves as needed. BlueWave has gone to great lengths to ensure there is no single point of failure within the VoipFlow platform.
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