Scaling Servers on AWS for High Availability

PortSIP PBX offers application server scaling capabilities to accommodate an increasing number of users and calls, thereby catering to your evolving business needs. For more information, please refer to the PBX Cluster article.

This guide provides a detailed, step-by-step process for scaling application servers using PortSIP PBX High Availability (HA) on AWS.

Prerequisites

  • The PortSIP PBX HA must be successfully deployed as the article: High Availability Installations on AWS.

  • Please read the guide PBX Cluster before processing.

  • Currently, the PortSIP PBX supports the scale of the following application servers:

    • Media Server

    • Queue Server

    • Meeting Server

    • IVR Server

  • Each EC2 instance must have a static private IP and can't use DHCP, and the EC2 for the Media Server must associate an elastic IP

Please don't install multiple application servers on a single EC2 instance.

Preparing the Linux servers(EC2 instances) for installing the application servers, assume we install the following application servers:

  • Meeting Server: The IP is 172.31.16.137 , the hostname is ip-172-31-16-137

  • Queue Server: The IP is 172.31.16.138 , the hostname is ip-172-31-16-138

  • Media Server: The IP is 172.31.16.139 , the hostname is ip-172-31-16-139. The elastic IP is 54.215.234.52

  • IVR Server: The IP is 172.31.16.140 , the hostname is ip-172-31-16-140

Supported Linux OS

  • Ubuntu 24.04, only supports 64-bit OS.

Preparing the Linux Host Machine for Installation

Tasks that MUST be completed before installing cluster servers.

  • Ensure the server date-time is synced correctly.

  • Ensure each EC2 instance has been assigned a Static Private IP address.

  • For the Media Server, each EC2 instance also needs an Elastic Public IP address.

  • Install all available updates and service packs before installing the application server.

  • Do not install PostgreSQL on the Server.

  • Do not install TeamViewer, VPN, or similar software on the host machine.

  • The server must not be installed as a DNS or DHCP server.

  • Must execute all Linux commands as the root user. please su root first.

Create EC2 Instances

Please follow the below steps to create the EC2 instances for the application servers. The steps are almost the same as the High Availability Installations on AWS. but please pay attention to the below points。

Meeting Server

  • Section Network settings：

    • Select the same VPC and Subnet used in PBX HA nodes.

    • Select the same security group used in PBX HA nodes.

    • The Auto-assign public IP option must be selected to Enable.

  • In the Advanced network configuration > Network interface 1 section, enter the IP 172.31.16.137 for the Primary IP field.

Queue Server

  • Section Network settings:

    • Select the same VPC and Subnet used in PBX HA nodes.

    • Select the same security group used in PBX HA nodes.

    • The Auto-assign public IP option must be selected to Enable.

  • In the Advanced network configuration > Network interface 1 section, enter the IP 172.31.16.138 for the Primary IP field.

Media Server

  • Section Network settings:

    • Select the same VPC and Subnet used in PBX HA nodes.

    • Select the same security group used in PBX HA nodes.

    • The Auto-assign public IP option must be selected to Enable.

  • In the Advanced network configuration > Network interface 1 section, enter the IP 172.31.16.139 for the Primary IP field.

  • Allocate an Elastic IP and associate this Elastic IP address to this EC2 instance for this media server. In this example, it's 54.215.234.52.

IVR Server

  • Section Network settings:

    • Select the same VPC and Subnet used in PBX HA nodes.

    • Select the same security group used in PBX HA nodes.

    • The Auto-assign public IP option must be selected to Enable.

  • In the Advanced network configuration > Network interface 1 section, enter the IP 172.31.16.140 for the Primary IP field.

Deploying Meeting Server

Please follow the steps below to deploy the Meeting Server.

  1. Sign in to the PortSIP BPX web portal as the system administrator.

  2. Select the menu Servers > Meeting Servers.

  3. Click the Add button, enter the server information as shown in the screenshot, and then click the OK button to save it. Please remember the server name meeting-server-1, we will use it in a later step.

  1. Perform the below commands on the PBX HA node ip-172-31-16-133 only. The execution may take some time, so patience is required. Please do not interrupt, restart, or shut down while the process is in progress.

  • -s: Specify the service that will be installed. For the meeting server, it should be meeting-server-only.

  • -n: Specify the server name that you entered in the above step 3; In case is meeting-server-1.

  • -a: Specify the server's private IP address, in case it's 172.31.16.137.

cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
/bin/bash extend.sh run -s meeting-server-only \
-n meeting-server-1 \
-a 172.31.16.137

This server status will be Online in the PBX Web Portal after it's successfully installed.

Deploying Queue Server

Please follow the steps below to deploy the Queue Server.

  1. Sign in to the PortSIP BPX web portal as the system administrator.

  2. Select the menu Servers > Queue Servers.

  3. Click the Add button, enter the server information as shown in the screenshot, and then click the OK button to save it. Please remember the server name queue-server-1, we will use it in a later step.

  1. Perform the below commands on the PBX HA node ip-172-31-16-133 only. The execution may take some time, so patience is required. Please do not interrupt, restart, or shut down while the process is in progress.

  • -s: Specify the service that will be installed. For the meeting server, it should be queue-server-only.

  • -n: Specify the server name that you entered in the above step 3; In case is queue-server-1.

  • -a: Specify the server's private IP address, in case it's 172.31.16.138.

cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
/bin/bash extend.sh run -s queue-server-only \
-n queue-server-1 \
-a 172.31.16.138

This server status will be Online in the PBX Web Portal after it's successfully installed.

Deploying Media Server

Please follow the steps below to deploy the Media Server.

  1. Sign in to the PortSIP BPX web portal as the system administrator.

  2. Select the menu Servers > Media Servers.

  3. Click the Add button, enter the server information as shown in the screenshot, and then click the OK button to save it. Please remember the server name media-server-1, we will use it in a later step.

  1. Perform the below commands on the PBX HA node ip-172-31-16-133 only. The execution may take some time, so patience is required. Please do not interrupt, restart, or shut down while the process is in progress.

  • -s: Specify the service that will be installed. For the meeting server, it should be media-server-only.

  • -n: Specify the server name that you entered in the above step 3; In case is media-server-1.

  • -a: Specify the server's private IP address, in case it's 172.31.16.139.

cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
/bin/bash extend.sh run -s media-server-only \
-n media-server-1 \
-a 172.31.16.139

This server status will be Online in the PBX Web Portal after it's successfully installed.

Deploying IVR Server

Please follow the steps below to deploy the IVR Server (Virtual Receptionist).

  1. Sign in to the PortSIP BPX web portal as the system administrator.

  2. Select the menu Servers > IVR Servers.

  3. Click the Add button, enter the server information as shown in the screenshot, and then click the OK button to save it. Please remember the server name ivr-server-1, we will use it in a later step.

  1. Perform the below commands on the PBX HA node ip-172-31-16-133 only. The execution may take some time, so patience is required. Please do not interrupt, restart, or shut down while the process is in progress.

  • -s: Specify the service that will be installed. For the meeting server, it should be vr-server-only.

  • -n: Specify the server name that you entered in the above step 3; In case is vr-server-1.

  • -a: Specify the server's private IP address, in case it's 172.31.16.140.

cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
/bin/bash extend.sh run -s vr-server-only \
-n vr-server-1 \
-a 172.31.16.140

This server status will be Online in the PBX Web Portal after it's successfully installed.

Configuring the IP Address Whitelist

This step is mandatory; without it, the service will not work.

To prevent the PBX from limiting the cluster servers' request rate, we need to add the cluster servers' IPs to the whitelist in the PBX.

To do this, please follow the below steps:

  1. Sign in as the System Administrator

  2. Select the menu IP Blacklist > Add.

  3. Enter the cluster server IP, as shown in the screenshot below, and choose a long expiration date.

  4. Repeat the above steps for each cluster server.

Managing Servers

Perform the below commands on the PBX HA node ip-172-31-16-133 only, even if it is not the current active node.

In the below media server example commands, use the parameter -s to specify the service name. PortSIP PBX supports these services:

  • media-server-only

  • queue-server-only

  • meeting-server-only

  • vr-server-only

You can replace the media-server-only with another service name, such as mentioned above, and you also need to replace the -a 172.31.16.139 with a corresponding server IP address.

Upgrade Server

First, please ensure you have upgraded the PBX HA as per this guide: Upgrading High Availability Installation. After that, perform the below command to upgrade the server:

cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
/bin/bash extend.sh run -s media-server-only \
-n media-server-1 \
-a 172.31.16.139

Start Server

 cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
 /bin/bash extend.sh start -s media-server-only -a 172.31.16.139

Restart Server

 cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
 /bin/bash extend.sh restart -s media-server-only -a 172.31.16.139

Stop Server

 cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
  /bin/bash extend.sh stop -s media-server-only -a 172.31.16.139

Remove Server

 cd /opt/portsip-pbx-ha-guide/ && \
 /bin/bash extend.sh rm -s media-server-only -a 172.31.16.139

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