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3CX on Hyper-V 2012 with replicas

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alextza

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Hi

I seem to have encountered a fairly serious issue using 3CX on Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012, when implementing a replica of the 3CX (v12) VM. Upon performing a Planned Failover of the VM, the replica's 3CX server reverts to the free edition. If I go to the Active license page on the Management Console, I get an error "Unexpected error: Error license License:50 System: 0". The same error appears in the System Activity log on startup:

16-Feb-2014 11:38:48.144 [CM501002]: Version: 12.0.33463.0
16-Feb-2014 11:38:48.144 [CM501001]: Start 3CX PhoneSystem Call Manager
16-Feb-2014 11:38:48.144 [CM501010]: License Info: Load Failed - Error licence Licence: 50 System: 0
16-Feb-2014 11:38:47.960 [CM501007]: *** Started Calls Controller thread ***

The license box is greyed out so I cannot re-enter the license key to re-activate 3CX on the replica.

Please advise as to how at least to manually get 3CX running on the replica!
 
I am not exactly sure of the term "replica of the 3CX (v12) VM" in this instance. However, the following may help.

Each instance of 3CX requires a license, so if the failover implies, in your case, a failover to another machine also running another copy of 3CX, then a license for this copy is required.

Now then, assuming the above not to be the case, then consider how this may affect you -
3CX uses a combination of the IP address and the MAC to check whether the license usage terms are being followed. If there are too many changes of either and/or both in some period of time, they will de-activate the license thereby forcing a call into support who will then try and ascertain the validity of the change. In your case, you are likely getting a new MAC assigned as you have not set-up the VM to always use the same one. As a result, you may have triggered their security trap into thinking the software is moving around in violation of the licensing terms thereby forcing the call in.

Search the blog for more details on failover, cluster, VMware, high availability, etc. and you will see more info on the subject. There was also some talk of 3CX being aware of the situation and trying to formulate other methodologies to overcome similar situations such as yours.
 
--- Subject to review from 3CX staff and policy compliance ---

As pointed out before, the MAC address is one of the parameters verified to maintain the license activated. Depending on how you run your "replica", you could think of MAC cloning.

--- The above is NOT professional advise and only 3CX can determine if this meets the licensing terms ---
 
The failover replica is an offline clone of the original VM and is only ever active if the original is shutdown/offline/dead. Both the original and clone have identical MAC/IP addresses so it seems the hardware check involves some additional identifiers?

I found doing a restore of the current 3CX configuration on the replica puts the replica 3CX back into it's licensed state. Not exactly seamless but at least there is a way of getting the server running again.
 
That is normal because during the re-import it reloads the license and goes and re-activates. There is a limit to that and 3CX will cut that off. I am unsure of how many activations it will allow before you need to call them. This is a ticking time-bomb solution and it may reach the maximum activations just when you need it most...
 
Thanks for the warning. I will be contacting my local 3CX reseller for clarification of the license situation.
 
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