Installation

If you run a CentOS-based PBX system, you can use the easier RPM install; if not refer to the manual install below.

Automated installation (RPM)

You can just run the following commands on your PBX:

wget https://yum.loway.ch/loway.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/loway.repo
yum install uniloader

Uniloader will be installed under /usr/local/uniloader and will be added to the system path. A basic configuration will be set in /etc/sysconfig/uniloader; Uniloader will be immediately run as a daemon and it will start automatically on reboot.

You will be able to control Uniloader by entering:

service uniloader start
service uniloader stop
service uniloader restart
Uniloader also adds a separate "tracking" service for Asterisk events - see Event tracking.

Installation under Systemd (CentOS, Debian/Ubuntu)

If you run Systemd, installing Uniloader is very easy. First find the pachage you want to download under https://downloads.loway.ch/software/uniloader/

mkdir /opt/loway/uniloader
cd /opt/loway/uniloader
wget https://downloads.loway.ch/software/uniloader/uniloader-24.05.1.tar.gz
tar zxvf tar zxvf /root/uniloader-24.05.1.tar.gz
cd uniloader-24.05.1

./install.sh

The automated install script will:

  • install Uniloader system-wide (so you can call it from any shell)

  • create configuration and init scripts for all services below

  • start the service uniloader (though it won’t work until you edit its credentials and restart it) and make it startable on reboots

  • install a script called ./check.sh that you can use to check the settings for each of the services, by using the configuration you specified for each unit. This makes it very easy to make sure it is correct.

For each service, we keep a separate configuration file under /etc, that is the one you are generally supposed to edit. If you make a change to the configuration files, make sure you issue a systemctl restart so that the new configuration can be picked up.

If you choose to enable any other service, it’s up to you to make sure that it is correctly restarted on boot.

To update, just download the new version osf Uniloader as you did, and run the install script again. When updating, configuration files are not changed, while unit files are replaced with the current version.

A quick recap of Systemd commands might help:

  • systemctl restart uniloader will restart the service, so a new configuration can be picked up

  • systemctl status uniloader will show the status of the service (if it’s running or not), and the last lines of its logs.

  • journalctl -u uniloader will show a complete log, that you can then filter appropriately. You can pass multiple -u services that you want to see, and you’ll see the logs in the correct order.

  • systemctl enable uniloader will make sure that this service will start on boot

  • systemctl daemon-reload is needed if you make any change to the unit scripts. Usually not needed.

  • journalctl --disk-usage shows the size of the logs

Uniloader

  • Service name: uniloader

  • Configuration file: /etc/uniloader

  • Testing: ./check.sh upload that will use the currect configuration and make sure the destination QM server is reachable.

We strongly suggest always using the HTTP driver to connect to QM - this makes it easy to send data to a local instance, a remote instance you control, or a QueueMetrics Live instance. Remember to enable the user webqloader on QM, and set a password for it.

URI=http://127.0.0.1:8080/queuemetrics
LOGIN=webqloader
UPASSWD=Secret1234
TOKEN=

Make sure you restart the service after making any changes.

You can also turn-on the splitter for Uniloader by uncommenting the right line, and the editing the example splitter file and /etc/uniloader_splitter.json

Unitracker

  • Service name: unitracker

  • Configuration file: /etc/unitracker - you must set up the correct AMI credentials

  • Testing: ./check.sh unitracker will make sure that the AMI credentials used by Unitracker are working

  • This service must be enabled manually if needed.

By default, only MOH tracking is enabled. You may want to enable parkings or, more commonly, outbound tracking. In this case, do not forget to set up the "hidden channels" mask to decide which calls you don’t want to track.

AudioVault

  • Service name: audiovault

  • Configuration file: /etc/audiovault

  • Testing: ./check.sh audiovault that will try requesting a (non-existent) file as if it were an external client. You are expected to see no errors there.

  • This service must be enabled manually if needed

  • In order to run this effectively in production, it’s strongly advisable to put an HTTPS proxy in front, as per its documentation.

Freeswitch

  • Service name: uniloader-freeswitch

  • Configuration file: /etc/uniloader-freeswitch

  • Testing: ./check.sh freeswitch that will check ESL credentials

  • This service must be enabled manually if needed

  • When enabiling this service, you must make sure that the queue_log file that this service generates and the one being imported by Uniloader match - so do not forget to check /etc/uniloader as well.

  • This service is meant to run all of the time and never being restarted, as it will lose events if it is restarted during its operation.

Manual installation

The Uniloader can be downloaded from https://downloads.loway.ch/software/uniloader/

The package contains:

  • Uniloader binaries for all supported architectures (i386, amd64, arm7, arm64),

  • A sample extensions_queuemetrics file,

  • A sample splitter file.

Just copy the file "uniloader_xxx" for your architecture (Intel 32 / 64 bit, ARM 7, ARM64) into your computer and make it executable:

cp ./bin/uniloader_arm7 ./uniloader
chmod a+x ./uniloader

To test it, run:

./uniloader -?

It should output a result like:

NAME:
   uniloader - the data upload companion for QueueMetrics and QueueMetrics Live.

USAGE:
   uniloader [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

VERSION:
   22.11.3 - build: 1234-20230511.0849/8300761 - OS: darwin/arm64 - RT: go1.17.5

COMMANDS:
   help, h  Shows a list of commands or help for one command

   Diagnostics:
     pbxinfo  Loads PBX information
     test     Runs environment tests

   Services:
     upload, u  Uploads a source file to a QueueMetrics or QueueMetrics Live instance
     track, t   Tracks Asterisk events and creates relevant queue_log entries.
     fsw        Parses FreeSwitch mod_callcenter events
     av         Runs AudioVault - a media storage server for QM (experimental)

   Tools:
     cfgfile   Reads and writes a configuration file
     user      Creates or alters users
     qmdb      Performs direct operations on QueueMetrics' database
     asterisk  Performs direct operations on Asterisk queues

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --src value, -s value  The source queue_log file to be uploaded (default: "/var/log/asterisk/queue_log")
   --cacert value         An optional CA Cert file in .pem format, or 'insecure' to skip any certificate validation
   --verbose-back-end     Enables verbose back-end logging. Default: false.
   --read-pipe            The source file is a Unix pipe
   --help, -h             show help
   --version, -v          print the version

If it does, it is working.

Running in production

Uniloader produces a verbose log on STDOUT that should be redirected to a file and periodically rotated.

You should also make sure that Uniloader is started when the PBX boots and that in case it should crash it is automatically restarted.

We advise running Uniloader using 'nice' so that it has reduced access to scarce CPU resources in case of high load / contention with the PBX - while the PBX voice quality quickly degrades on a resource-starved system, Uniloader does not really care about small delays in data uploading.

We also advise adding Uniloader to the command path, so that its many debugging functions can be accessed easily.

Example: Uploading data to a local QueueMetrics system

This is the most common scenario when using a locally installed QueueMetrics system.

nohup nice \
./uniloader -s /var/log/asterisk/queue_log \
	upload --uri "mysql:tcp(1.2.3.4:3306)/queuemetrics?allowOldPasswords=1" \
    		--login queuemetrics --pass javadude --token P001 \
        	>> /var/log/uniloader.log &

Will upload the queue_log file located at /var/log/asterisk/queue_log to the remote "queuemetrics" database on server 1.2.3.4 with login "queuemetrics" and password "javadude", using the default partition "P001".

After you start it, check the file /var/log/uniloader.log to make sure there are no errors. The most common error is that you did not create the correct grants for your MySQL user to upload data remotely.

If everything seems to work, log in into QueueMetrics, select "Edit system parameters" and make sure that the default partition is P001.

# This is the default queue log file.
default.queue_log_file=sql:P001

At this point, log off; log on again and click on "Mysql storage information"; select partition P001 and select "Autoconfigure queues". Now the default queue "00 All" will include all of your queues and you can see your historical and real-time status.

See also One Asterisk instance, one local QueueMetrics instance.

Example: Uploading data to a QueueMetrics Live system

You received your QueueMetrics Live access information; and in the received email you find that your instance is called "ABCD" and the password is "1234".

nohup nice \
./uniloader --src=/var/log/asterisk/queue_log \
     upload --uri https://my.queuemetrics-live.com/ABCD \
            --login webqloader --pass 1234 \
            >> /var/log/uniloader.log &

At this point Uniloader will start feeding the remote database. You can login at any time by visting the address https://my.queuemetrics-live.com/ABCD and logging in as "demoadmin" and the password you were given.

The first time you log in, click on "System diagnostic tools" and then "Live DB inspector" to see data being uploaded. When your database is complete (this may take a few minutes, depending on how much data is on your PBX), go back to the home page and click on "Mysql storage information"; select partition P001 and select "Autoconfigure queues". Now the default queue "00 All" will include all of your queues and you can see your historical and real-time status.

See also One Asterisk instance, one hosted QueueMetrics Live instance. If you run a Yeastar system, see the chapter dedicated to Yeastar MyPBX.