IP Office Failover

[powlaz]

Today I am having an IP500 control unit installed, replacing my first gen IP406. We will also be upgrading our software to the latest and greatest version . . . whatever that may be. I trust that our vendor has this all under control.

What they don't seem to have under control is an answer to this question. In the event that the IP Office system goes down what can I do to make sure that we don't have one second of downtime or miss even just one call or fax?

Our setup:

T1
IP500 Control Unit
Analog Trunk w/ 7 lines. 4 for phone, 3 for fax. The primary purpose of these lines is to serve as backup in the event that the T1 goes down.
Analog Phone Module
Digital Station Module (x2)

I also have a Partner system that was taken down when we put the IPOffice in 5 years ago.

All of our phone and fax lines run through the T1 and the IPOffice.

A recent power failure helped me remember that we can't take the IPOffice down or manage extended power outages because we lose so much functionality. I'm interested in knowing if anyone has experience with setting up a failover system for the IPOffice.

I'm looking to explore all ideas so please don't hold back.

Thanks a million for taking the time.

MJ

 

[intrigrant]

IP Office does not have full redundancy, only CM has that.
If you really need that then you have to invest at least ten times as much as with IP office.
A IP Office solution is called "Redundancy" where you can have a backup system taking over the IP Phones from the main system and also the VM Pro if present.
This does mean that the IP Phones will reboot if contact is lost with the main system and then try to reregister with the main system, if that fails the phones will register to the ackup system.
This procedure will take a minute or ten and then the phone can make calls again BUT, lines connected to the main system are not available.

 

[amriddle01]

Indeed the IP Office does not offer that kind of failover, even systems that do cannot do it in the timeframe you are talking, it takes minutes not seconds to happen and when the main system is back up it takes minutes to go back again

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[cmnstr]

I haven't spent enough time with the new resiliency feature, but why couldn't you have two IP Office systems and have half of the phones register to one system and half to the other with 1 PRI on each system. This way only half of the phones would have to reboot and the other PRI could pick up the slack to eliminate downtime. I know it does not work for this particular configuration since they have digital phones, but in a true IP environment wouldn't this keep the system at least 50% functional at all times?

 

[amriddle01]

Yes, but it would also double your installation,trunk and hardware costs at the same time

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[amriddle01]

VM would also be an issue in that cnfiguration as would having the main numbers/DDI's on different trunks

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[cmnstr]

True, but I have a client in the financial services business that says that even one minute of downtime can cost them thousands of $$. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen, but it may be worth it to some people. I am trying to work this out for my customer but the big difference is that he already has two PRI so they already pay that part.

 

[cmnstr]

On PRI the DID's could be redundant if set up correctly by the provider. If I take down one circuit calls are still processed, just on a reduced level.

 

[amriddle01]

Then you need to sell them a system that is designed to work that way not two that aren't, a lot has to happen for a handover that's why it take minutes (up to 10). If one of your customers PRI's goes down do the numbers/DID's from it go to the other trunk? If not it will not work

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[amriddle01]

I was typing before your second post, so ignore the second half, I have seen that happen with BRI not PRI...that's UK though

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[cmnstr]

Not sure if that was for me or the original poster. For mine, if one circuit goes down all calls will continue to work, as well as all DID's. All information is programmed on both circuits. Of course, it depends on the provider. They have had a circuit drop in the past and did not lose any calls.

Didn't want to hijack the post, just throwing options out so the original poster has something to take back to his vendor.

 

[cmnstr]

No problem

 

[cmnstr]

Just tossing out options. You are one of the true experts here so I am not one to argue about IP Office.I I am still a couple of stars short of the MVP list so my input is not nearly is highly regarded.

Wait, that doesn't make me sound so sharp. Does couple of stars short of MVP list = couple of donuts short of a dozen?

 

[amriddle01]

Those stars are a measure of the amount of time I spend on here (too much) not of the quality of my posts/advice
Powlaz, you need to spend one hell of a lot of money to achieve instantaneous failover like that and that's if it possible that quick, I am not so sure

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[TomMills]

Those stars are a measure of the amount of time I spend on here (too much) not of the quality of my posts/advice"

i'll second that

http://www.twitter.com/tem1985

See what my brain does when it's not thinking about phones.

 

[powlaz]

Thank you everyone for your contributions thus far. I had no idea that this idea would be so far out of reach. What I mean to say is that we probably won't be spending an exorbitant amount of money to make this happen.

However that's not to say I didn't get an idea. If it would theoretically take minutes for the IPOffice system to handover to another IPOffice or the like then I believe my best option is to keep an extra IP Office system on the shelf. If a component goes bad I can simply swap it out.

This was our first plan but as I mentioned we didn't want to lose even one second of talk/fax time. The owner of the company fears that the call that will make our year will come in while the phones are down and noone will know it.

If a sophisticated system can't narrow my downtime to seconds then I think I have my answer.

My best personal solution was to connect our analog lines to the old Partner system. The biggest problem with this solution was that it cost $99 to forward each number we would want to keep alive (7 altogether). I suppose one could argue that $700 may be a pittance in comparison to what might come in on "that call" but . . .

Do you find that most of your clients or the companies that you work for don't have a backup for failed PBX hardware?

MJ

 

[tlpeter]

I would place two ipo's or go for a CM




ACS - Implement IP Office
ACA - Implement IP Telephony -- ACA - Design IP Telephony
ACA - Voice Services Management
______________
Women and cats can do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea!

 

[TheSmash]

What about 2 x IPO's in a resilient SCN with SIP trunks on the resilient IPO.

If you were using a Non-Geo number you can set this to failover to the SIP number in the event that the Primary IPO or PRI wend down. Given the IP handsets take 3 minutes to re-register but this should be pretty seamless...

...or dig deep and go CM ;o)

Don't ask me, I didn't design it.

 

[Pepp77]

Just had a thought - if you have two systems on the same site and you have a power failure surely that means both systems would lose power and so resilience would be lost.

How about having a decent non-geographic number setup with failover to say a multiline feature line - that way if the main system with the PRI on it went down you could have a selection of analogue phones receive the calls on this featureline and onsite power would not be an issue.

 

[TheSmash]

Pepp, that's just my idea but simpler! ;o)

Don't ask me, I didn't design it.