3CX Server - Services require 2 reboots to start properly

[lbond]

Hello all,

My team and I run a 3CX Server (Windows 10) that has most of its 3CX services stop, and unable to be re-ran until 2 reboots.
The 3CX server is up to date, and the issue is infrequent, but we would like to prevent future instances of this occurring.

I've attached images below. "Before Reboot.png" shows the services that were running before the first reboot. "After Reboot 1.png" shows all the services running after the first reboot, and an error message that shows up when I try starting the Database Server service, which was getting hung up when trying to start initially. "After Reboot 2.png" shows all the services running after the second reboot, and everything worked fine after that

Any assistance that can be offered would be greatly appreciated

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

To first ghet a bit more information:

• What exact version of 3CX are you running?
You can check in "3CX MC >> Dashboard >> Information >> Version"

• Are you running any third party software or antivirus/antimalware software on the host too?

• How many extensions are configure on this PBX and what specs does the machine have?

What you can do as a quick test is set all 3CX Services to Automatic(Delayed Start) and see if that helps.

 

[lbond]

To first ghet a bit more information:

• What exact version of 3CX are you running?
You can check in "3CX MC >> Dashboard >> Information >> Version"

• Are you running any third party software or antivirus/antimalware software on the host too?

• How many extensions are configure on this PBX and what specs does the machine have?

What you can do as a quick test is set all 3CX Services to Automatic(Delayed Start) and see if that helps.

Thanks Chris,

We're currently running 3CX Version 18.0, Update 3 (Build 461)

There are no antivirus programs running on this machine aside from Windows Defender. We do use Atera RMM to remote in and handle patch management, Screenconnect for remote access, and Wireshark/PingPlotter 5 for diagnostic purposes

There are 25 extensions on the PBX. It has 8x Xeon E5-2640 v4 cores (VMware virtualized), and 16gb RAM

Since the issue is so infrequent, I can adjust those settings, but it may be a matter of months until I'm able to verify whether that solves it or not.

Below you can see the updated settings, all except Hotel Service are set to Delayed Start

 

[Saqqara]

Exclude the following folder for Windows Defender

• C:\Program Files\3CX Phone System\*
• C:\ProgramData\3CX\*

As per info in this post https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/phone-system-installation-windows/

Under the recovery tab for the services, you could change 'First failure' to 'Restart the service' - restart server after x x minutes

 

[lbond]

Exclude the following folder for Windows Defender

• C:\Program Files\3CX Phone System\*
• C:\ProgramData\3CX\*

As per info in this post https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/phone-system-installation-windows/

Thanks, I'll go ahead and do that as well.

Hopefully this solves the issues we've been having with it

 

[VoIPTools]

What we can all agree upon is that this is not normal.

I will admit that I am not a big fan of running 3CX on a desktop operating system (Windows 10/11). Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, makes it nearly impossible to restrict when SOME automatic updates take place. Having Windows patches take place on an unscheduled basis is a BAD IDEA for a production system. This problem does not apply to Windows server operating systems.

Further, Windows 10/11 has a lot more bloatware (from Microsoft) built-in. Our support team works with thousands of 3CX servers on a regular basis, and I have to say 3CX works better on a Windows server operating system and even better on Linux. As a long-time (37 years) Windows admin it pains me to say it, but for this purpose, Linux is better than Windows.

My advice -- backup your Windows 3CX and restore it on Linux. Let the firestorm begin...

 

[Saqqara]

Have to agree with VOIP Tools, install 3CX on Debian on the virtual host machine as long the vm platform is supported - https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/phone-system-installation-windows/