Sorry for the delay...
 
For the setup in question:
 
The hardware:
IBM SystemX 3650.
8 core Xeons, E5*.
48GB RAM
Virtualization is done by VMWare ESXi, mostly 4 or 5.
Network is all Cisco.
 
3 VM Boxes that reach an average of 400 calls during working hours.
FreesSWITCH there is very old(1.0.6).
4 CPU Cores
2GB
64 bit Centos 5.2
local dialplan XML
no transcoding
xml_cdr
very stable.
 
Servers have several virtual machines with a lot of different things running, FSs have priority on hardware resources...
 
We have some other VM boxes(FS Sep 2011) with less load(270 calls avg) that do trancoding(25 calls avg g729<->g711), no quality issues but the FS clock drifts a lot(up to 10 minutes a day), VMware's fault -> http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/Timekeeping-In-VirtualMachines.pdf
fsctl sync_clock solves the problem but might ruin CDRs so BEWARE!
 
There are several other VMs in quite a few hardware setups, but none of them has impressive call volumes...
 
P.S.: Please don't shout at the age of the installs... they have served us well! :D.
 
[ ]s,
 
Wesley Akio
TuntsCorp.com


On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Chris Mylonas <chris@opencsta.org> wrote:
OK 400 calls is on the very high end of what I would have put on a VM.  If you wouldn't mind explaining your VM set up that would be great.


On 15/05/2012, at 10:54 PM, Wesley Akio wrote:

As said before, it depends heavily in your setup... We do virtualize FreeSWITCH and aside from a few glitches it has been good... We have approx 400 calls per VM. Later when I hit the office I can describe my setup in detail.

Sent from mobile, sorry for the typos....

Em 15/05/2012 09:42, "Saugort Dario Garcia Tovar" <dgarcia@anew.com.ve> escreveu:
Hi, Chris

That depend of your enviroment. First you have to take a sort of scientific approach: define, trial and test again and again until the result be consistent.
Second tell us about your enviroment:
    - Real hardware: the server that will run your vm. ¿Are blades, small server, etc? VM software used (VMware, OpenVZ, XEN, Jails...)?
    - ¿How you set your VM? cpu, cpu cores, memory, disk, #nic?
    - ¿How many calls have you handle in the real world?
    - ¿Transcoding?
    - ¿Have you tested your VM?

Virtualized enviroment for VoIP are growing. I am consultant for contact center services, and I have receive a lot of questions about virtualization. A solution provider can give some guidence about sizing and technical considerations but at the end the final word is:  YOU HAVE MAKE A LOAD TEST TO TEST YOUR ENVIROMENT AND IDENTIFY POSSIBLE ISSUES BEFORE GO TO PRODUCTION!!!!

Virtualization solutions will  do their homework to make VoIP a secure option. Look this paper for wmware:
http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2012/01/voip-performance-on-vsphere-5.html
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/voip-perf-vsphere5.pdf

On 5/15/2012 4:42 AM, Chris Mylonas wrote: 
Hi FS Users,

What is the consensus about using virtualized servers for real-time voice (RTP)?  Even up until a few years ago it was hard to guarantee the CPU cycles to the voice nodes.
Virtualizing the signalling (SIP) has always been favourable in terms of HA.

If the entire host is under control, is it safe to say - we can virtualise voice?
Does it depend on what else is shared in the host - say it would be silly to put a high load database server on the same hardware node...

Thanks for your inputs
Chris
_________________________________________________________________________
Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
consulting@freeswitch.org
http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com

FreeSWITCH-powered IP PBX: The CudaTel Communication Server
http://www.cudatel.com

Official FreeSWITCH Sites
http://www.freeswitch.org
http://wiki.freeswitch.org
http://www.cluecon.com

FreeSWITCH-users mailing list
FreeSWITCH-users@lists.freeswitch.org
http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
http://www.freeswitch.org


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--
Atentamente,
Dario García
Consultor.

CCCT, Nivel C2, Sector Yarey, Mz,
Ofc. MZ03a.
Caracas-Venezuela.
Teléfono: +58 212 9081842
Cel: +58 412 2221515
dgarcia@anew.com.ve
http://www.anew.com.ve

_________________________________________________________________________
Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
consulting@freeswitch.org
http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com

FreeSWITCH-powered IP PBX: The CudaTel Communication Server
http://www.cudatel.com

Official FreeSWITCH Sites
http://www.freeswitch.org
http://wiki.freeswitch.org
http://www.cluecon.com

FreeSWITCH-users mailing list
FreeSWITCH-users@lists.freeswitch.org
http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
http://www.freeswitch.org

_________________________________________________________________________
Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
consulting@freeswitch.org
http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com

FreeSWITCH-powered IP PBX: The CudaTel Communication Server
http://www.cudatel.com

Official FreeSWITCH Sites
http://www.freeswitch.org
http://wiki.freeswitch.org
http://www.cluecon.com

FreeSWITCH-users mailing list
FreeSWITCH-users@lists.freeswitch.org
http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
http://www.freeswitch.org


_________________________________________________________________________
Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
consulting@freeswitch.org
http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com

FreeSWITCH-powered IP PBX: The CudaTel Communication Server
http://www.cudatel.com

Official FreeSWITCH Sites
http://www.freeswitch.org
http://wiki.freeswitch.org
http://www.cluecon.com

FreeSWITCH-users mailing list
FreeSWITCH-users@lists.freeswitch.org
http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
http://www.freeswitch.org