A2billing and Asterisk 1.8

iconsa · **Joined:** Thu Apr 10, 2008 10:33 pm **Posts:** 37

Guys,

Based on the fact that asterisk 1.4 will not be supported past middle of 2011, I am wondering if anyone has been able to make a2billing work with Asterisk 1.8.
I am also interested in finding out if the AGI vs DEADAGI issue has been resolved since deadagi in these version have been eliminated.

Thanks
Marcias

jroper · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm **Posts:** 4065

Hi

We have not tested with 1.8 as yet, but we are reliably informed that there have been few if any changes to dial-plan syntax, which caused a problem or two with 1.4 to 1.6.

I also had a conversation with Russell Bryant of Digium at Astricon regarding deadagi and agi.

Some history:

Deadagi allowed the processing of commands after the call was hung up, e.g. rating and adding the CDR to A2Billing, AGI stopped processing as soon as both channels hung up, which meant that sometimes the CDR were recorded and sometimes not, depending on the hangup order and speed of hangup.

Russell tells us that AGI now includes the behaviour of processing calls is the same as Deadagi, and there should not be a problem, but if there is, then it needs to be reported, and he will get it fixed.

I would advise that you use deadagi while it is available, as it is well tested, and for those who are using 1.8, and experimenting with it, do a check of the A2Billing CDR against master.csv to ensure that no CDR go missing, until we have confidence that AGI does what they say it does - reliably.

Joe

lyolic · **Joined:** Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:59 pm **Posts:** 26

Quote:

but we are reliably informed that there have been few if any changes to dial-plan syntax

What are you talking about? a2b dial-plan syntax is very clean and simple

Quote:

[a2billing]
exten => _X.,1,Answer(1)
exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php,1)
exten => h,1,Hangup

middletn · **Posted:** Thu Nov 25, 2010 7:43 pm

I've been testing a2b and asterisk 1.8, and all seems fine at the moment, calls are billed correctly etc. I have changed deadagi to simply agi.

Anyone come accross any major issues with combo?

regards

jervin · **Joined:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:46 am **Posts:** 16

exten => _X.,1,Answer
exten => _X.,2,Wait(2)
exten => _X.,3,AGI(a2billing.php)
exten => _X.,4,Wait(2)
exten => _X.,5,Hangup

lyolic · **Joined:** Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:59 pm **Posts:** 26

Quote:

deadagi in these version have been eliminated

you are wrong

Quote:

I've been testing a2b and asterisk 1.8, and all seems fine at the moment, calls are billed correctly etc. I have changed deadagi to simply agi.

For what did you changed deadagi to agi?

What kind of dial-plan syntax do you use:

Quote:

exten => _X.,1,Answer(1)
exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php,1)
exten => h,1,Hangup

or

Quote:

exten => _X.,1,Answer(1)
exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php,1)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

middletn · **Posted:** Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:52 pm

Sorry don't understand the question, I simply used

exten => _X.,1,AGI(a2billing.php,1)
exten => _X.,n,Wait(2)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

Don't need to have an answer call, simply works. Oh I needed to set the asterisk version to 1.6 to get rid of pipes in dial command

regards

jroper · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm **Posts:** 4065

Hi

For wholesale and IP-PBX billing termination, in fact almost all VoIP termination, you should not answer the call, as you their CDR records will show the time you answered the call, not when the called party answers the phone.

Jpe

lyolic · **Joined:** Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:59 pm **Posts:** 26

middletn wrote:

Sorry don't understand the question

I'm talking about the following syntax

Quote:

exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php,1)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

and

Quote:

exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php,1)
exten => h,1,Hangup

jroper can you comment changes in syntax?

iconsa · **Joined:** Thu Apr 10, 2008 10:33 pm **Posts:** 37

Guys,

I spoke directly with technical support at DIGIUM they were the ones who informed me that DeadAGI had eliminated and the issue is that DEADAGI requires to take some actions once the call has been completed. Some users might find that AGI actually works but I not sure if I can say that it is reliable.

Maybe Areski would be nice enough to clarify this issue since it can be a problem for future Asterisk version. I have also a good friend that has been testing version 1.8 of Asterisk and according to him its full of bugs for which he has gone back to version 1.6.

Take care,
Marcias

jroper · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm **Posts:** 4065

Hi

The difference between deadagi and agi used to be as follows:-

-- agi exits as soon as the call finishes.

-- deadagi can do some other commands even after the call has ended.

So when a call ends A2Billing has to do stuff like calculate the cost of a call, write the CDR record, and update the balance, and so on. As you can see this cannot be done with agi, as the script exits on hangup with out doing the remaining necessary stuff, which may account for some of the problems that people report who say, "the call is only charged when the other end hangs up first."

However, I am assured by Digium that in later versions of 1.6.2, and in 1.8, agi has been re-written to work in the same way as deadagi, however, while deadagi exists, and we know it works, I am of a mind to keep using it, while the new agi gets thoroughly tested by us and you, so my advice for the moment would be to use deadagi in all cases, despite the warning messages, until we can say with certainty that there are no issues with the new agi.

Joe

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