@flaxking said in Push and Pull – Using VS Code with Azure Repos:

I've been pretty satisfied with Azure DevOps so far, but calling it 'Azure' seems to be a marketing move and ends up being a misnomer.

I love the fact that Azure can advertise giving customers DevOps for free.

@thanksajdotcom said:

You always have the weirdest issues...

At least you know I can't make this stuff up, right?

Sometimes you need to dive deep down the rabbit hole to really understand what's happening. Has that ever happened to you?

In my last post we started down the path of configuring Azure Repos and Azure Pipelines for the purpose of deploying Azure functions from VS Code using these services. In this post, we pick up the process just after having tested and confirmed our Azure repo networknerd-repo1 is properly integrated with VS Code. I had intended to document all steps in the same way as in previous posts (all steps, including hurdles to jump), but since Azure Pipelines got the best of me for the better part of a couple of weeks, I’ll do my best to help readers avoid banging their head against the wall as long as I did. Consider this my attempt at an Azure Pipelines prequel.

Get the full story here.

Alright - I got it fixed per your suggestion, @JaredBusch. Thank you again for the help. Next time we have a roamer like this, we'll have a plan of action that makes life easy on everyone and doesn't hose the system.

I see an empty conference center where VMworld once sat.

If you’ve never attended VMworld in person, it’s a completely overwhelming experience for the first time attendee. Now that it’s virtual and free to attend, it’s more accessible to us all. But it can still be overwhelming. I wanted to take a few minutes to educate the community on some hidden gems that will allow you to make the most of your experience.

Get the full story here.

I can't get there (using thanksaj.com or www.thanksaj.com).

@thecreativeone91 said:

What don't you just make a new AD Group (or use an exisiting one that applies) and give the group permissions to the sysvol folder (or even just a sub folder if needed).

So in this case it really is just as simple as share permissions and folder permissions I guess. I was thinking there had to be something enabled in AD as well. Maybe I was over thinking it.

@scottalanmiller said:

That's why I had to have this thread, I forget some of these!

Maybe you should start a database of SAM analogies.

@MattSpeller said:

I enjoy camping and look for spots I know have zero phone coverage. Unplugging feels good.

Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?
[Takes a bite of steak]
Cypher: Ignorance is bliss.

Knowing things are ok is comforting, but if you know there is a problem and can do nothing to help, well, that adds stress.

I don't use the call center module either (and am on Elastix 2.4). Do you know if the call center module has its own log, or have you tried tailing the asterisk logs?

@DenisKelley said:

VeeamOne Free is also a really nice utility to look at what's going on in your VMWare environment. Plus, it's pretty friendly.

http://www.veeam.com/virtual-server-management-one-free.html

Are you running it on the same server as your Veeam B & R install or on a different server?

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

Thanks - I only used it because I've seen it used other places.

Might be used some places I haven't seen. But in case someone is searching, they would search on FreePBX, not FPBX, I assume. Just in case others are looking for information later.

I can just picture someone saying "I can't get FPBX to work with my OBFN using a VM on ESXi running on OBR10 local disk." And it makes me chuckle a little.

We're pulling the trigger in about an hour to move from Mimecast (using them for spam filtering and archiving) to SpamTitan. Just like with Mimecast, SpamTitan will give us a cloud spam filter and archiver for our corporate mail.

As you can probably guess, we don't have all the data on our mail server any longer that has been put into Mimecast over the past couple of years for people who have left the company or even for existing users. I sent the powers that be a list of personnel who had e-mail accounts and had left the company some time during our Mimecast stint and let them know unless we extract the data or have Mimecast extract it, that data is gone forever. And in addition to that, for people with active mail accounts, we would not have messages they deleted themselves (i.e. emptied their deleted items).

We had a choice to either get all of the data for every user from Mimecast for a very large sum or extract some of it ourselves from their platform (a very slow, laborious process that requires babysitting because you can only extract so much at a time) with no way to get it all before service cuts off at midnight this Sunday.

Management sent me a list of about 30 addresses they wanted to retain for folks who have already left the company. That's no problem. We have almost all of it extracted.

But, what the president did not understand until today was that we may only have 90 - 95% of all active users' mailboxes (or less, depending on how they manage their e-mail). He seemed ok with the accounts they collectively chose to keep.

It makes me wonder, would it be best to go ahead and extract all the data for all C-level folks and IT personnel just to have it and put it in the new archive for legal reasons? My boss did not seem to think that was needed.

What would you do?

I'm guessing based on what you mention here that you have a VMWare environment. DRS is VMWare's Distributed Resource Scheduler and will allow you to set rules and thresholds in place for VMs to be migrated to other hosts if the load is too high on a specific host in the cluster. They also have Storage DRS which operates in a similar way.

I'm not sure you ever actually specified what you mean by outbound calling issues. Do you get a busy signal, all circuits busy now, some other error, etc.?

Check the trunk settings, and make sure you have disallow=all in there and allow=ulaw under it (need to check Vitelity documentation on this). If I remember right, Vitelity requires separate trunk setups (at least in the Elastix sense of the word trunk) for inbound and outbound calling. Hopefully you do not have allow=ulaw&g729 because I have seen instances where Elastix (at least in 2.4) will actually try to use g729 outbound, and you get one-way audio.

You could do a tcpdump on the Elastix box, make some calls when this situation happens, download the tcpdump to your machine, and open with Wireshark to see a visual flow of traffic. That may give you some insight.

@scottalanmiller said:

Please provide a screenshot of the connector details.

And what anti-spam provider are you using? Is it on-premise or in the cloud? Is the anti-spam device setup to accept mail from your mail server even if you have the send connector configured correctly?

What about trying to use Veeam Cloud Connect with one of their certified storage providers? I believe they utilize backup copy jobs to transfer the data from your environment to the storage provider's repository and get your data offsite. The two I have talked with so far (GlobalDataVault - met them at VMUG UserCon DFW, SingleHop - having a call with them next week) charge you a rate based on whether full backups fit within a specific TB chunk of storage. If all of your full backups make 1.25 TB on a full backup, I believe you still have to pay the rate for 2 TB. But they also monitor and test your backups for you. The monthly rate stays more predictable that way I guess, and they have specific retention periods that are included in the cost.

I really want to utilize cloud connect and one of the storage providers for offsite backups and DR. I just have to sell it to the big boys once I have options. I'd love to use Backblaze B2 as a target since the storage is dirt cheap, but I am not sure I could make it work as a cloud connect repository.

@scottalanmiller said:

@MattSpeller said:

@scottalanmiller what's the HP equiv I can look up? dell seems to command a premium on ebay and I want an R510 for my own junk

xbyte is your ticket there. Nothing will compete in price.

Yep - through XByte the R610 with 6 300 GB 10K SAS, PERC6i, redundant PSUs, dual Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.26 GHz, Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709c Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet cards (2 of these) is about $1500. AMAZING.

But I agree the R510 is worth a look. We have one that is an ESXi host at another site with 7200 RPM SATA drives, and it is running like a champ.

I'm getting close to moving away from Broadvox Fusion here in the next couple of weeks for my SIP provider at our HQ. This is an Elastix PBX that runs phones for 5 of our locations and has worked great. Fusion has been pretty solid in terms of service but not great in the customer service department if you have an issue that isn't mission critical. This may give some insight into what dealing with Fusion has become - http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1263799-obtaining-a-csr-from-your-sip-provider.

We use T.38 for faxing and have 15 concurrent call paths right now. I don't see us needing more call paths than that. We'll need E911 for all locations, 194 or so DIDs (with 4 of these being TF). We need the option of international calling but won't use it much. In fact. I will probably have it disabled with the carrier until someone asks. Disaster recovery routing, inbound CNAM, outbound CNAM for about 5 DIDs, and directory listing are included in my quotes.

I have narrowed the list of options to NexVortex, Intelepeer, Intermedia, and WCS. I've used NexVortex with one of our other branches that has its own PBX and feel they are a solid choice but a little more expensive than other options. WCS is a little pricey and probably my last choice. Intermedia is the cheapest (and will literally cut my phone bill in half) and seems like a very viable option here. I'm also intrigued by Intelepeer and have heard good things about them. They were recommended to me by a fellow community member and are just slightly more expensive than Intermedia. Intermedia and Intelepeer are month-to-month, which I really like. NexVortex would be a 3-year deal to secure great pricing with unlimited trunks should we have a spike in call traffic.

Can anyone offer some feedback on Intermedia, Intelepeer, or WCS in terms of customer service and reliability? All the features seem to be there as well as support for Asterisk as the PBX. I'm looking more for feedback on experiences you have had with these companies as SIP providers (whether it be with number porting and implementation, ongoing support for issues large and small, etc.). I'm looking to sign with one of these in the next 2 weeks and really don't want other options.

Thanks in advance!