VM Replacement: Octel 250 to NuPoint (640 or Std) ??

[MitelInMyBlood]

640 or the Std NuPoint, what's the main diff? On the surface seems to be capacity, but what else?

Part of big picture as planned u/g replace SX2K with resilient 3300 MCD

Current situation:

Octel Overture 250 (stable as Gibralter, 10 yrs no unscheduled down time)(none..not even once)

1400 users
3000 capacity Don't use VM fax Main use is for tel answering and multi-level single-digit menu trees, off-net blind transfers.

48 ports (so far very adequate, zero congestion)

40 ports answering, 8 ports dedicated to MWI. More MWI than needed but that way there's 1 MWI port on each TIC card & has worked well. Don't argue w/success

220 hrs msg storage, avg utilization 25%, peak 30%
GMR (Raid 0)

Don't need capacity overkill, just need solid reliability.
Wanting UM to interface w/Outlook & Exchange without expense of Exchange w/UM component and CAL $

Suggestions?
Thnx!!!

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Never mind, figured it out myself - Duh... RTFM

 

[kwbMitel]

Still, Although your track record with the Octel is stellar, should anything go wrong with it you will be SOL. If COV integrations haven't been pushed into the "Not Supported" column yet they soon will be.

You've been around long enough to know that there are no guarantees. I've worked with both the Octel and the Nupoint (back to centigram 4.0) and I prefer the Nupoint for flexibility and configurability. The Call Manager function (used to be Call Agent) is very flexible for call flows.

If UM is your goal, Nupoint will do the trick.

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Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

The (proposed) new NP is exactly the goal here, to replace all the ancient hardware that we've been telling Mgmt they need to replace. We still have many line cards in service that were originally bought for and installed in the old SG. Mitel's announcement of EOS for the 2K was the match to finally light the fuse and their results at this year's Interop was the final deciding factor in which way to go.

Thank you, and thank you!!

Clearly though the organization is large, it is nowhere large enough to justify a 640 and from the looks of things the upgrade incentive program will save many $$$$.

I've heard rumblings however that the 640 is fully redundant. Any truth to that? If so I think there's enough money in the budget to go that way, but didn't want to kill a fly w/a sledghammer.

I would prefer to see it running on something stronger than the DL320, like perhaps a DL360 & SCSI drives stead of the DL320 and Sata.

Don't misunderstand, money **is** a concern, but looking at the original Octel order where they spent something in 6 figures in late '99 to dodge an imaginary Y2K bullet, I'd say they got their money's worth & it's time to look at doing it again.

 

[Lundah]

The 640 is fully redundant, it actually consists of a cluster of 2 servers attached to an external RAID array. I have 3 of them (one for VM-I have about 25,000 users on it now, one for UM-not yet in service, and a lab unit).

The clustered servers can be finicky at times, I've had a couple of occasions where the 2 servers are fighting for control of the ports and that causes all sorts of fun issues.

For the scenario you described, the standard NP setup should be just fine.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks. That's kinda how I feel - absolutely no need for this level of complexity in something for no more than 14~1500 users tops users. I think I'm going to vote against this idea and instead suggest they look at putting it on a stronger server (DL360) stead of the 320.

Also in looking at MLP vs. my discount, it still seems like I can do considerably better on the server hardware going to HP direct. I looked but didn't see any indication anywhere that this had a magic bullet somewhere and had to total package or turnkey system, so I'm assuming Mitel will still support me running on -my- DL360/G5 vs their DL320. Am I wrong?

 

[Lundah]

The 640 platform runs on DL360's, so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to load the standard release on it as well.

As far as being able to run NP on a server that you didn't buy from Mitel: there's no technical reason it shouldn't work, assuming the server meets the performance requirements. However, I have no idea if they'd sell you the software without the hardware, and you run the risk of Mitel telling you it's not a supported installation if things hit the fan.

 

[kwbMitel]

I don't think Mitel cares where you get the hardware as long as it is on their supported list.

There is a much improved expanded list on Mitel ONline for supported servers running Mitel Standard Linux 8.3.15.0

The recommended version until recently was the HP Proliant DL360.

There are other options from HP, Dell, IBM and Sunfire now as well.

My recommendation? Get the most powerful machine on the list. Nupoint is going thru a development curve right now that is off the charts. You don't want to be left with a server that can't implement new services a year down the road.

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Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks. Will check out the Sun.

 

[LoopyLou]

Good you found out what you needed. There is a 640E voicemail as well that has the 640 software but not two controllers like the 640.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

No point in using 640 software if I don't have the redundant controllers. I was simply trying to decide the worthiness of having them. The old Octel has worked so flawlessly for so many years that any VM outage on a "new" system would be too visible for comfort, especially in a setting such as ours where the phones and VM simply have to work.

 

[fissure]

kwbmitel wrote "There is a much improved expanded list on Mitel ONline for supported servers running Mitel Standard Linux 8.3.15.0", can someone point me where to find this on Mitel online?

 

[kwbMitel]

You can find the Qualified hardware list in the Mitel Documents under Mitel Standard Linux.

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Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.