Asterisk using Vm-Ware

[Mtasvt]

I've been doing research to see about virtualizing our asterisk servers. And most of the information I have googled and searched on these forums are all roughly 2 years or more old. Most the information I have found says you can virtualize asterisk and SIP/IAX will work fine, but anything that requires hardware (Digium T1/PRI cards, Analog line card, etc) is a no go with ESXI. And on the same premise any feature that requires hardware timing has issues.

Since all of the information is two years old and considering how popular asterisk and its derivites are nowadays as an easy cheap and highly effective (and resellable) VoIP/PBX/IVR/ect solution I would like to think these issues had been resolved, but since I can't find a concerete answer one way or the other after a good bit of googleing and forum searching, I figured I'd ask here.

Can asterisk be virtualized and use Hardware add on cards such as digital T1/PRI card, analog line cards, etc with the use of the newest ESXi 4 version virtual host?

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Community -I am sorry to say many of the same limitations still exist - VMware cannot virtualize speacialty cards like analog line cards or digital line cards - hardware timing has as the performance of vSphere and the speed and capabilities has iumproved -

[Mtasvt]

Not the answer I wanted to read, and shocking considering the wide spread usage of asterisks servers. Especially by smaller ISPs that host for small/medium size businesses. I would think they would get a fair chunk of change from these ISPs if they could virtualize their asterisk boxes and thus condense how much rack space they need in the data center.

But thank you for the prompt response.

[Hernan11]

Hi, sorry to bother you. I have a similar question to the one posted on this thread.

I would like to confirm(if possible) you if vmware doesn`t support any digital cards(E1/T1/SS7) used with asterisk from vendors such as Digium or Sangoma

Thanks a lot, regards

Hernan

[Jeff808]

Resurrecting this from over a year ago 'cause it's the exact same question I have. Has anything changed on this front? We're using ESXi 5.1 and have an analog phone card we'd like to put in the host and assign directly to an Asterisk VM.

[weinstein5]

This is still a limitation - 

[Jeff808]

Does that mean these cards definitely can't be used or is it more like it's hit and miss and it's worth a shot to try?