VICIdial Carrier Server IP: Which Server Uses the Trunk

The Server IP field on a VICIdial carrier looks trivial: type an IP address, click submit. But it answers an important question that is easy to get wrong in a multi-server setup: which box actually uses this trunk? Get it wrong and the carrier exists in the database but never lands in the conf on the server you expected.

Each carrier record is associated with a specific server. The Server IP field is where you declare that association, and it has one special value that changes the behavior entirely.

One server or all servers

Set Server IP to a real address, such as the dialer that should place these calls, and the carrier is generated into that box's conf only. Other servers in the system ignore it. This is what you want when a particular trunk belongs to a particular dialer, for example a regional SIP trunk tied to one machine.

Set it to 0.0.0.0 and VICIdial puts the carrier entry on every active Asterisk server. That is the move when you want the same trunk available everywhere, so any box can route through it without you duplicating the record per server.

flowchart TD
  A[Carrier saved] --> B{Server IP value?}
  B -->|Real server IP| C[Conf written on that box only]
  B -->|0.0.0.0| D[Conf written on all active boxes]
  C --> E[That server can route]
  D --> F[Every server can route]

On a single-server box, this distinction barely matters: the Server IP is just that one machine's address. On a multi-server system it is one of the first things to check when calls work from one dialer but not another.

How it ties into the generated conf

VICIdial builds each server's Asterisk config from the carrier records assigned to it. The Server IP is the filter that decides inclusion. Combined with the Active flag, it determines whether the trunk appears in a given box's Conf file at all. If the record is active but pinned to the wrong IP, the Trunk is effectively absent on the box you are testing from.

This is also why you cannot fix a missing trunk purely from the Dialplan. The routing lines can be perfect, but if the carrier was never generated onto that server, there is no peer for the Dial command to reach. Server IP comes first in the chain.

For how Server IP fits the rest of the carrier fields, see our carrier integration guide. If you are splitting trunks across boxes for resilience, our post on multiple carriers and failover covers the routing side.

Wrap-up

Server IP decides where a carrier lives: one box by its address, or every active box with 0.0.0.0. On a single-server setup it is just your server's IP; on a cluster it is a routing decision. Most VICIfast customers run a single dedicated box that is live in under 40 seconds, which keeps this field simple. See our pricing to get one running.