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4. Getting more information

4.1. Getting a QueueMetrics temporary licence

We believe that the best way to understand what QueueMetrics is and how useful it is for you, is to try it with your own production system. That’s why we give a 30-day free evalutation key that you can use.

You can get it from: http://queuemetrics.com/sendDemoLicence.jsp

4.2. Getting help

If you are still experiencing issues installing or running QueueMetrics on TrixBox, we suggest you check out the following resources:

  • The QueueMetrics User Manual is the definitive guide to QueueMetrics. It explains all the features, graphs, reports and configuration options at length. You can read a browsable version at http://queuemetrics.com/manuals/QM_UserManual-chunked/
  • The QueueMetrics FAQs at http://queuemetrics.com/faq.jsp are a collection of common solved problems that some people have experienced with QueueMetrics. If you are struck by an error message, this is the first place to check.
  • The QueueMetrics forum at http://forum.queuemetrics.com will help you in pin-pointing issues and getting community support. It is also helpful to see what other people are doing with QueueMetrics.
  • AstRecipes is a wiki collecting Asterisk "recipes", aimed mostly at call-center users - see http://astrecipes.net
  • You may contact Loway if the issues are still unsolved - see http://queuemetrics.com/contact.jsp for all relevant contact information.

4.3. Common differences between TrixBox and AsteriskNOW

This is a summary of the main differences we may find when installing AsteriskNOW instead of TrixBox.

  • The default MySQL password is empty in AsterisNOW and is passw0rd for TrixBox.
  • When installing the qloaderd, yum reports a warning message related to a GPG import process; you can confirm the message pressing y and the install process will continue.
  • The default administration credentials, for AsteriskNOW freePBX GUI are: admin as user and admin as password.
  • The queue_log daily or weekly file rotation is disabled in AsteriskNOW.

4.4. Common problems and solutions

4.4.1. Avoiding queue_log file rotation

With a standard TrixBox install, the queue_log file is rotated daily or weekly along with the other Asterisk logs found in /var/log/asterisk. The queue_log file contains essential information on how the call-center is going which is used by QueueMetrics to report on the well-being and the actual work being performed by your call-center, and you surely want to keep that data in a safe place for cross-period analysis.

The queue_log file is not automatically rotated daily or weekly by the standard AsteriskNOW distribution. You should skip this step.

4.4.1.1. Disabling log rotation

Disabling log rotation is actually quite easy: go to /etc/logrotate.d and look for a file named asterisk. If you run TrixBox, you’ll find something like:

/var/log/asterisk/*log {
   missingok
   rotate 5
   weekly
   create 0640 asterisk asterisk
   postrotate
       /usr/sbin/asterisk -rx ’logger reload’ > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
   endscript
}

There may as well be other sections where other files are rotated. You just delete the section above and the queue_log file will no longer be rotated.

4.4.1.2. What if my queue_log has already been rotated?

If your queue_log has already been rotated, you’ll want to join the remaining pieces together. That’s very easy:

  • First, stop Asterisk and Qloaderd.
  • Make a backup of all queue_log* files
  • Rename the existing queue_log to queue_log.now.
  • Execute the following commands (this example is for 5 leftover pieces, you may find a different number on your system): 
cat queue_log.5 >> queue_log
cat queue_log.4 >> queue_log
cat queue_log.3 >> queue_log
cat queue_log.2 >> queue_log
cat queue_log.1 >> queue_log
cat queue_log.now >> queue_log
  • Remove all files but queue_log itself
  • Purge the queue_log table of the Queuemetrics database
  • Restart Asterisk and Qloaderd.

Now your QueueMetrics will work just fine.

4.4.2. Stopping and starting QueueMetrics

You can stop and restart the QueueMetrics application by issuing the commands

/etc/init.d/queuemetrics stop
/etc/init.d/queuemetrics start
/etc/init.d/queuemetrics restart

You can also stop and start Qloaderd using the same syntax:

/etc/init.d/qloaderd stop
/etc/init.d/qloaderd start
/etc/init.d/qloaderd restart

4.4.3. Setting QueueMetrics memory limits

QueueMetrics is a complex application and it is developed in order to be used by multiple parallel users. This means that if you have a large data set and many users running queries on it, you may start getting "Out of memory" errors.

To fine-tune the amount of memory used by your system, you can edit the file /etc/init.d/queuemetrics and modify the option:

JAVA_OPTS="-Xms128M -Xmx128M"

The Xms parameter is the amount of memory that Java uses on startup for its object heap; and the Xmx is its maximum allowed size. For best speed, keep both to the same value unless you have experience in tuning Java memory requirements.

4.4.4. Installing the SSH Java client in Trixbox

If you do not have a SSH client available, you can install one in TrixBox itself by following this procedure:

  • Use a web browser and go to http://myservr/maint - if asked for login and password, use user maint password password
  • From the PBX drop-down menu, select PBX settings / Module Admin (on the left-hand menu) / Check for updates online.
  • Under System Administration, click on Java SSH and select Download and Install, then click the Process button at the bottom of the page.
  • The system will ask you for confirmation; go ahead and install the module.
  • If FreePBX shows an orange label stating that changes must be applied, click on it and apply them.
  • From the left-hand menu, now select Tools
  • You should now find Java SSH and click on it

A terminal window will open (it may take a while waiting for the Java client to load).

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