Asterisk is a complex system, composed of many resources. These resources make use of the filesystem in several ways. Since Linux is so flexible in this regard, it is helpful to understand what data is being stored, so that you can understand where you are likely to find a particular bit of stored data (such as voicemail messages or log files).
The Asterisk configuration files include
extensions.conf, sip.conf,
modules.conf, and dozens of other files that define
parameters for the various channels, resources, modules, and functions
that may be in use.
These files will be found in
/etc/asterisk. You will be working in this folder a
lot as you configure and administer your Asterisk system.
Asterisk modules are usually installed to the
/usr/lib/asterisk/modules folder. You will not
normally have to interact with this folder; however, it will be
occasionally useful to know where the modules are located. For example,
if you upgrade Asterisk and select different modules during the
menuselect phase of the install, the old
(incompatible) modules from the previous Asterisk version will not be
deleted, and you will get a warning from the install script. Those old
files will need to be deleted from the modules
folder. This can be done either manually or with the
“uninstall” make (make uninstall) target.
There are several resources that require external data
sources. For example, music on hold (MOH) can’t happen unless you have
some music to play. System prompts also need to be stored somewhere on
the hard drive. The /var/lib/asterisk folder is
where system prompts, AGI scripts, music on hold, and other resource
files are stored.
The spool is where Linux stores files that are going to change frequently, or will be processed by other processes at a later time. For example, under Linux print jobs and pending emails are normally written to the spool until they are processed.
For Asterisk, the spool is used to store transient items such as voice messages, call recordings,[16] call files, and so forth.
The Asterisk spool will be found under
the /var/spool/asterisk directory.
Asterisk is capable of generating several different kinds
of log files. The /var/log/asterisk folder is where
things such as call detail records (CDRs), channel events from CEL,
debug logs, queue logs, messages, errors, and other output are
written.
This folder will be extremely important for any troubleshooting efforts you undertake. We will talk more about how to make use of Asterisk logs in Chapter 24, System Monitoring and Logging.
[16] Not call detail records (CDRs), but rather audio recordings of
calls generated by the MixMonitor() and related
applications.