Brooktrout SR140 question

JayGordon · ‎11-17-2006

Although I realize that it's very new, does anyone have any experience with Brooktrout's SR140 "card" in a VMWare environment? More Specifically, is anyone aware of any issues (compatibility, config, etc.) between the SR140 and VMWare in a blade server environment?

Thanks!

dpomeroy · ‎11-17-2006

What VMware product are you asking about?

You will not get any additional cards to work in ESX.

Virtual_Scott · ‎02-26-2007

Jay, Have you done any testing on this or implemented it? We are looking at the SR140 to put on a VM with Rightfax. Rightfax has tested and approved the SR140 but not sure about in a VM. I am running ESX 3.0.1.

sbeaver · ‎02-26-2007

Your not going to get the brooktrout card to work in a VM in ESX

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Virtual_Scott · ‎02-26-2007

Why is that?

Ken_Cline · ‎02-26-2007

Based on http://www.excelswitching.com/products/sr140/index.cfm - it should "work" - I'd be interested to see how well it works since it's likely to be timing sensitive (may have to bump MIN CPU reservation)...

Ken Cline VMware vExpert 2009 VMware Communities User Moderator Blogging at: http://KensVirtualReality.wordpress.com/

admin · ‎02-26-2007

It would seem that it could work since it's IP based. Kind of how we deal with USB devices over IP.

Chris

Virtual_Scott · ‎02-26-2007

But the SR140 is a software faxing card and does Fax-over-IP. This is NOT a physical board you put into a server. It shouldn't have to touch anything in the VMkernel. It will only modify the VM's Windows 2003 operating system. Am I totally wrong will this or do people not know about the SR140 NOT being a physical fax board.

Ken_Cline · ‎02-26-2007

Scott,

As Chris & I both said, it will likely (should) work - I don't know that anyone here has tried it yet, but I, for one, am interested in hearing how it works. The SR140 appears to have some pretty decent scalability on physical HW, I'd like to know how well it scales in a VM...

KLC

Ken Cline VMware vExpert 2009 VMware Communities User Moderator Blogging at: http://KensVirtualReality.wordpress.com/

Virtual_Scott · ‎02-26-2007

Well, we have ordered an 8-channel SR140 and will be running it with Rightfax 9.3 feature pack 1. I will try to post something after we have it up and running.

JayGordon · ‎04-04-2007

Sorry for the delayed response...lost the link here...

We are currently running a pilot w/ two RF 9.3 servers running VMWare, and two SR140 virtual boards. So far, things are running pretty well, with the following exceptions:

Though 95% of our outbound faxes are sending just fine, we have identified 8 fax numbers that repeatedly fail transmission. When sending to them, we typically receive a "transmission error", but I have not yet been able to find a root cause. In troubleshooting, we have successfully sent faxes from a fax machine, but cannot do so through the RF system...

Our partners initially believed the problem lied with one of our telco carriers because we were having issues with one of them. However, the telco issue has been resolved and we still cannot send faxes (through RF) to these numbers, regardless of the carrier.

This issue has been passed to Brooktrout for further analysis...will keep you posted with any new developments.

My only other issue at this point is with the reporting... Any reporting from our second server simply mirrors the data from the first server. Our partners have reviewed the SQL db and found that every fax listed in the tables has the same server GUID, therefore preventing any distinction in the query.

All in all, I have to admit that the installation went very smoothly and the SR140s appear to be working well (my opinion may change, depending on what we determine from the above issues!).

Feel free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer them (or get the answer from my server team).

Jay

Virtual_Scott · ‎04-04-2007

Jay, We are in the process of setting the same solution up. We have a VI3 and a VM with Win2003 and the SR140 virtual board. We currently don't have VOIP so are setting up designated Cisco routers to do FOIP. We are having some trouble configuring the routers it seems. We have 2801 routers. What routers are you using and do you have an example config? We have two VIC2-4FXO= in the router and POTS lines connected to our PBX. We were just told that we need PVDM2-8= card do you know if that is correct. It sure helps to know that someone else is running this. Did you call Brooktrout and tell them you are running the SR140 on a VM and what did they say? Supported or not supported?

JayGordon · ‎04-04-2007

Scott,

I will run your questions by my network team and get back to you with answers...

As for the Brooktrout question though...they do NOT support VM (though I have an agreement with them to support it unofficially).

Virtual_Scott · ‎04-04-2007

So can I ask how you got the unofficial agreement?

JayGordon · ‎04-04-2007

How many fax servers do you have?

We also have two Cisco routers (2800 series) using FOIP, but with T1 VoiP lines. Additionally, we have two VWIC cards and two PVDM-32 cards (one for each gateway). I think you would be correct in stating that you need a PVDM2-8 card.

As a heads up, we ran into a small problem during installation w/ using H323 vs. SIP. We tried configuring the routers both ways with no success, but found that the issue was that the servers were not set to scan the correct port. Bottom line is, I believe that RF would work with either protocol, but just be aware of the RF settings. Don't want you to beat your head against a wall like we did!

FredPeterson · ‎04-05-2007

Get Feature Pack 1b and HotFix 3.

DST issues and it fixes a number of small things that could add up.

Virtual_Scott · ‎04-06-2007

We only have one fax server. We were going to use SIP but I am not exactly sure of the difference between H323 and SIP. What do you mean by the RF server not scanning the correct port. What did you have to do to make it scan properly? Because you have an unofficial deal with Brooktrout do you know if they are planning to support the SR140 in vmware soon? Thanks

Scott

JayGordon · ‎04-09-2007

H323 and SIP both work fine w/ RF...the problem we had was that RF was configured to receive requests on the wrong port, so it was never actually communicating correctly. Once we synced up the gateways and servers, we were good to go.

As for support, we are basically receiving a best-effort type response to any issues, which is how I would imagine they would handle anything going forward. I don't know whether or not they have future plans to "officially" support VM, though I would tend to doubt it since it would be more of an OS support than anything...

Virtual_Scott · ‎05-17-2007

Got a question for you. We have our SR140 and RightFax up a running but we are having an issue with some of the faxes being sent. Faxes going to a regular fax machine work because the fax machine picks up and gives a cng tone so rightfax continues sending the fax. We are having a problem with places like walmart and target that don't send a cng tone. Walmart has a voice answering service and if it hears a cng tone from the incoming call it forward to walmarts faxing machines. the problem we are having is setting our routers, rightfax, sr140 what ever it is to just send the fax on pickup. This would send a cng tone to where ever we are trying to fax to so them walmarts system hears the cng tone and continues with the faxing. Anyone have any thought on how to get this to work? thanks

Virtual_Scott · ‎06-05-2007

Jay,

Did you ever resolve your transmission error on those few faxes? Most of our faxes go except for a few.