Project DiaStar™ Server - ISO Install
From ProjectDiaStar
This simple installation is the recommended method for quickly and easily setting up a DiaStar™ server. Here is an overview of how it works:
* Obtain a Dialogic® DNI board * Request a free DiaStar™ License * Download a single .ISO file which contains CentOS and DiaStar server packages * Burn the .ISO image onto a CD * Install the Dialogic® DNI board in the system * Boot a system with a blank disk drive from the CD * Install the CentOS 5.2 operating system and everything needed for the DiaStar™ server from the CD * Finish licensing and configuration
Installing from the .ISO file is intended to produce a standard DiaStar™ server "appliance". Changes to the operating system - such as different kernel versions - are not recommended here. More advanced users can take advantage of the full build and install process to produce a custom system.
Contents |
Obtaining Dialogic® T1/E1 Network Interface Boards
The Dialogic® "DNI" series of T1/E1 network interface boards are used with DSS to connect to the PSTN. The boards are available in different densities and form factors:
* Name Form Factor # Ports # Spans * -------------------------------------------------------- * DNI/300TEPHMP PCI 30 1 T-1/E-1 * DNI/601TEPHMP PCI 60 2 T-1/E-1 * DNI/1200TEPHMP PCI 120 4 T-1/E-1 * DNI/2410TEPEHMP PCIe 240 8 T-1/E-1 * DNI/310TEPEHMP PCIe 30 1 T-1/E-1 * DNI/610TEPEHMP PCIe 60 2 T-1/E-1 * DNI/1210TEPEHMP PCIe 120 4 T-1/E-1
You will need at least a single span board. For more details on the boards, go to [1].
They are available from Dialogic® Channel Partners worldwide. To locate a partner, go to [2].
Obtaining the Free DiaStar™ License
A license - available free of charge - is needed to activate the DiaStar™ Media Engine before the software can be used. The license is tied to a DNI board serial number in the system., so you will need the board(s) before requesting the license. Serial numbers start with "NB" and are found on the box and on the board itself. Once you have the board(s), request the license by emailing license@projectdiastar.org.The license will emailed within 24 hours. Include the type of board(s), all serial numbers and the number of ports that will be in use in the system.
Getting and Preparing the ISO file
The .ISO file should be downloaded from the Project DiaStar™ Download page. [[3]]
Once the download is complete, use a CD drive that has write capabilities, along with the appropriate CD burning software. Note that a bootable ISO image must be created from the downloaded file rather than simply copying the file to the CD.
There are also files for DiaStar™ clients included on the ISO file. These are found in the extras directory and may be used for installation on the client system when desired.
Pre-Installation
The Dialogic® DNI board should now be installed in a full-length PCI or PCI express slot in the system.
Note: The DiaStar™ Media Engine will not operate in a system with more than 4GB of memory. Verify that the system does not have more than 4 GB of memory.
Installing from the CD
Put the bootable CD in the drive on the system on which the installation will be done and boot the system from the CD.
** Important Note: This install will overwrite everything on the system's hard drive! **
At the boot prompt, simply hit "Enter". Do not use any other possible boot options or the automatic DiaStar™ Server installation will not take place.
The installation requires little interaction. The main task is setting up the IP characteristics for the system. Here are some guidelines for doing this:
* Edit eth0 and enable IPv4 support. DHCP can be used, but a static IP address is better on a system acting as a server * The system name defaults to "diastar", but may be changed * Set Gateway and DNS server addresses if desired
Once this is done, the remainder of the installation is "hands off".
Post-Installation
For post-OS installation configuration tasks, access the system either by the terminal used during installation or by secure shell (ssh) access. All post-installation work should be done as user "root". The root password is "opendialogic".
Verifying the Installation
After the system has rebooted prior to the installation, there are several things that you may do to check that the installation was successful:
* /usr/dialogic exists and has a number of subdirectories * Anaconda, the CentOS system installer, creates its logs in the /root directory * Dialogic system processes are running. A "ps ax | grep dialogic" done at the system prompt will show 11 dialogic processes up and running
DiaStar™ Media Engine
The DiaStar™ Media Engine has already been installed as part of the ISO install, but some further configuration is needed. First, the license file (see Obtaining the Free DiaStar™ License, above) tied to the DNI board's serial number must be copied to the system. "sftp" is the most convenient way to do this. Next, connect to the DiaStar™ Media Engine Command Line Interpreter:
# telnet localhost
(user: root, password: public)
Once in the CLI, apply the license:
CLI> conf system ipmedia stop CLI> conf license directory <license_directory_path> CLI> conf license activate <license_file_name>
Next, configure your PSTN hardware:
CLI> show hardware
(do this to get DNI device ID)
CLI> conf hardware pstn <dev_id> <span_no> protocol <network_protocol_value>
(do this once for each span on each board)
Network Protocol Values: 1 - 4ESS 2 - 5ESS 3 - CAS 4 - DMS 5 - E1CC 6 - NET5 7 - NI2 8 - NTT 9 - QSIGE1 10 - QSIGT1 11 - R2MF 12 - T1CC 13 - DASS2 14 - DPNSS
The following example sets the protocol for device 2 trunk 1 to NET5 (6).
CLI> conf hardware pstn 2 1 protocol 6
Finally, apply changes, restart media processing and exit the CLI:
CLI> conf system pstn apply CLI> conf system ipmedia start CLI> quit
Loopback Testing
The most convenient way to verify that your system works is by connecting two spans to one another, back-to-back. This is known as a loopback configuration. An oubound call from one side arrives as an inbound call on the other.
A special cable known as a crossover cable must be used when two spans on a T1/E1 board are connected. Note that you will need at least a dual span board (or two single span boards) to do this sort of arrangement. A crossover cable connects the transmit leads on one side to the receive leads on the other. Here are two references to pinout diagrams - [4] and [5]
The cable should be plugged into the first and second spans of the DNI card. For quad or octal cards, these are the two jacks closest to the three red/yellow/green LEDs on the back of the board. In the DiaStar configuration file, these spans correspond to devices "dtiB1" and "dtiB2".
When using loopback cables for testing using an ISDN protocol, one side of the ISDN connection must be set to USER and the other side to NETWORK. The default setting is USER.
To change to NETWORK, in /usr/dialogic/data, edit the config file produced when the DNI boards were configured. These files will begin with "gnetworkonly", contain a shortened form of the protocol selected during board configuration and have a file type of "config". For example, a quad span DNI running NET5 ISDN is named gnetworkonly_hmpqsb_4_net5.config.
There are separate sections, each starting with [CCS] in this config file for each T1/E1 span on the board. Each section has the following line:
Setparm=0x17,0 ! ISDN Protocol Mode. 0 = USER_MODE; 1 = NETWORK_MODE
This one is set to USER mode. (0) Make sure that span connected to each end of the loopback connection is different - one set to USER (0) and one set to NETWORK. (1)
Once the file is edited, the changes made in the text config file must be activated by stopping the system services, processing the file with the fcdgen utility and then starting the services. For example:
# dlstop # fcdgen gnetworkonly_hmpqsb_4_net5.config # dlstart
The DiaStar™ Media Engine uses the same installation and configuration scripts as HMP 3.1LIN. In the event that the instructions in this Wiki are not sufficient, additional details can be found in the HMP documentation here.
DiaStar™ Server
The DiaStar™ Server runs as a service daemon. After the initial installation, it will not be running as prior to starting it for the first time, its configuration file must be created:
# service diastar config
This creates the file /etc/diastar/diastar.conf and starts the service.
Once the configuration file has been created the DiaStar™ Server may be started and stopped with:
# service diastar start # service diastar stop # service diastar restart
Use man diastar.rc for more details
The default DiaStar™ server log location is /var/log/diastar . Multiple log files will be created and each capped at 2MB.
Note that the initial installation is done with logging set to "verbose". If densities greater than 120 channels are being run, this should be changed in /etc/init.d/diastar by setting "verbose=no" and restarting the DiaStar™ service.
The server may also be run in console mode with various configuration file and logging options. Full instructions for using the DiaStar™ Server are found here.
