Solved 3CX Debian OS Update Failed (upgrade to version 18 and Debian 9 to 10 failed)

[Topper]

Hello,

Last weekend I tried to upgrade my local 3CX PBX server from version 16 to version 18 including the upgrade from Debian 9 to 10.

After starting the upgrade I get an email after a few minutes with the title; 3CX Notification: 3CX Debian OS Update Failed
with the message; 3CX attempted to update your 3CX Debian OS at xxxxxx.my3cx.nl from Debian 9 to 10 and failed.

In the attached log file I don't see any errors and it ends with the following lines;

....
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/3CXEventNotificationManager.service → /lib/systemd/system/3CXEventNotificationManager.service.
Successfully updated
W: --force-yes is deprecated, use one of the options starting with --allow instead.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/3CXHotelModule01.service → /lib/systemd/system/3CXHotelModule01.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/3CXHotelModule01.service → /lib/systemd/system/3CXHotelModule01.service.

After this the upgrade was rolled back, now I would like to perform this upgrade on our 3CX PBX, what can I do?

The full log file is attached to this post

Gr. Roel

 

[Agathocles Prodromou]

Hi @Topper ,

It seems that the appstream (package) is most probably causing the upgrade to fail and revert back to V16.

Unfortunately I cannot advice you how to handle it as we do not know anything about your setup and it also is something we have not tested. This service may or may not be needed by your system and also may or may not have dependencies that other services rely on. So removing it should be done with caution. (should you decide to do that)

In any case, before performing the upgrade be sure to take a full backup of your 3CX and if possible a backup of the instance too.

 

[Topper]

Hi @agp ,

Thank you for your response, I had already seen that this error message is in the log file, but this does not seem to me to be the error that prevents the installation from proceeding.
This is because this error is located at the top of the logging and that the installation continues after that.

I'm assuming the logging stops with an error message and then rolls back the installation, so the error should be at the end of the log file.

Gr. Roel

 

[Agathocles Prodromou]

Hi there,

Based on the logs we gather of failed upgrades (for troubleshooting purposes) I can assure you that the same error occurred later on, just before the system reverted to V16.

 

[Topper]

Hi @agp

Thank you for your response, can you advise me on how I can make the upgrade successful then?

Gr. Roel

 

[Agathocles Prodromou]

Unfortunately there is not much we can do at this point because as I said this is an O.S related issue on a self hosted system.

A few of your options (without this given as an official 3CX Support advice) are:
1. Run appstreamcli refresh-cache --force --verbose to see exactly what appstream doesn't like and take action accordingly
2. Remove appstream and try to upgrade
3. Migrate to a fresh V18 instance

If you decide to go with #3, which is the best way to migrate to V18, follow these steps:

1. Plan your migration out of business hours
2. Take a full backup of 3CX
3. Shut down the old instance
4. Setup a new instance using the V18 ISO and restore from Backup

Do not keep both instances running at the same time.
Always take a backup of 3CX as well as the instance before migrating.