yeah... totally!! In my world doing something very similar to that is a quite standard and familiar practice. If you take a copy of all the config files in the /etc/asterisk directory from a working node, and copy them onto a different machine containing a brand new clean installation the new system will "become" the original one. Similarly (and perhaps more interesting to this application), you can configure a system locally, make it work and take the contents of its /etc/asterisk directory and put them onto any other properly installed system, and it will "become" the node that you configured locally. I do stuff like that all the time, particularly when I upgrade a Limey Linux installation (since by its nature, there is no reasonable or sane "online" upgrade process for the OS itself). Remember, some people have stuff outside the /etc/asterisk directory that are unique to their installation, such as voice ID files, custom written stuff, such as shell scripts and stuff, and lets not forget about those who run chan_irlp and other such things that contain a number of files not in the Asterisk config directory. Also, if you are making a "pre-configured" package, make sure that the system you are putting it on is running the latest distro (ACID or Limey Linux, etc). Some older (and in some cases VERY older) systems do not have the features available in their OS and/or Asterisk distro to deal with some of the newest and latest features. Like basically, that's what our portal does when it configures a system for you. It makes a set of Asterisk config files, and downloads them into your system and it "becomes" whatever you told the portal it was supposed to be (well, at least most of the time :-) ). You know, if you have more then one system in on different IP addresses (and presumably different locations) all configured identically with the same node number, it will more or less create a game of "Allstar Roulette". All the systems will be fighting to for registration of that one node number, and at some unknown time periodically, the system node database distribution system takes a "snapshot" of everyone's IP addresses and distributes the system node list to the distribution servers (like nodes1, nodes2, etc..). So at any given time, anyone could have any of the IP addresses of any of those systems in their distro list, and that's what, at that moment, their systems would connect to if they made and outbound connection, or would accept and inbound connection from if one was made. Im not really sure if this is a desirable condition, but it might be fun if someone is up late some night and is really majorly bored or something :-). JIM WB6NIL
From: keith@handscombe.co.uk To: app_rpt-users@qrvc.com Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 07:36:58 +0100 Subject: [App_rpt-users] Would this work?
Hi all it's g7dnt Keith on nodes 2498 & 27333. I have used Ghost a disk clone tool to bit copy my Allstar node disk and the original 40gb disk was cloned on 10 minutes all tested and is now a backup of my system I have been asked to make a node replacement so can I;
Clone my disk again and test as usual on my system then take the other Asterisk folder from the other Allstar node and over write my config. Then login and reset the root password to match the other persons node. At this point telephone the other node owner and get this node turned off.
Once he has turned this node off then turn on the cloned node with that Allstar configuration folder at my location and test node 2259.
Before I do the above I thought I would ask as the other node is 300 miles away and I am trying to help a node owner out in building a new node pc preconfigured that he could plug n go.
Many thanks
Keith G7DNT
2498 & 27333 Allstar 5503 IRLP and Echolink _______________________________________________ App_rpt-users mailing list App_rpt-users@qrvc.com http://qrvc.com/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users