Switching to VoIP

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Chapter 3: Linux as a PBX

Monitoring Asterisk

There are several ways to monitor Asterisk. Most notably, the Asterisk CLI console

application (asterisk –r) offers a real-time console log. When you launched Asterisk

with the

-v option, this was enabled. The more v’s, the more detail goes into the con-

sole log. The same is true of the logfiles that Asterisk puts out.

Asterisk’s logfiles

In addition to standard output and standard error, which you can redirect using the

shell, Asterisk has some important logfiles. They are stored in /var/log/asterisk by

default. If you want them to be stored elsewhere, edit /etc/asterisk.conf as such. The

three ASCII logfiles enabled upon installation are:

event_log

Stores Asterisk system events, when triggered according to the Asterisk

configuration

messages

Stores debugging, error, and warning messages generated by most Asterisk

modules

cdr-csv

Stores the Call Detail Record, or CDR, which records the channels, actions, and

durations of each call placed through the softPBX

Chapter 10 covers Asterisk’s logfiles in much greater detail.

Astman

The Asterisk Manager is a text-based socket API that allows management applica-

tions to monitor and control the Asterisk server. One such application is Astman,

which is included in the Asterisk distribution. Astman allows ...