3CX v18U5 failed to establish a TCP connection to activate.3cx.com

[davide.bonavita]

Hi there,
after renewing our subscription I've tried to refresh the license but the server fails to communicate with the activation service.
- The server version is 18.0 Update 5 (Build 418), from what I've read in the other posts it should only fail for versions < U5
- I've tried using 8.8.8.8 as only dns server and reboot the server, no luck. This is the output of dig:

root@ip-172-26-12-148:~# dig activate.3cx.com

; <<>> DiG 9.11.5-P4-5.1+deb10u5-Debian <<>> activate.3cx.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1339
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;activate.3cx.com.              IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
activate.3cx.com.       300     IN      A       104.18.40.127
activate.3cx.com.       300     IN      A       172.64.147.129

;; Query time: 4 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Mon Aug 21 15:09:48 BST 2023
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 77

- I can ping the service, I can only curl the url with https://

root@ip-172-26-12-148:~# ping activate.3cx.com
PING activate.3cx.com (172.64.147.129): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.64.147.129: icmp_seq=0 ttl=49 time=0.747 ms
64 bytes from 172.64.147.129: icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=0.720 ms
--- activate.3cx.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.720/0.734/0.747/0.000 ms


root@ip-172-26-12-148:~# curl -I https://activate.3cx.com
HTTP/2 404
date: Mon, 21 Aug 2023 14:13:28 GMT
content-type: text/html
x-powered-by: ASP.NET
cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
set-cookie: __cf_bm=qL1W0tfJYGvByuufi8RgHYBq.54.KGOF2353E.nydu4-1692627208-0-AWzVoE7Pb+OmiP9E1vnQe4yZs7DVMy0A9JvFljRF15UQegBYn0sM39WWe2KUCbz/667Ygg7kncDW14GnUiQSBRc=; path=/; expires=Mon, 21-Aug-23 14:43:28 GMT; domain=.3cx.com; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: 7fa37a0fc81020d5-IAD

- There are no rules that restrict the outbound traffic

 

[turkeyman]

4 month upgrade timeframe is not long enough... I have systems that have been running smoothly for 10 years. No normal admin would expect or anticipate this situation.

I renewed my license before, but I didn't realise that I needed to login and do the "Refresh License Key Information" step until it was too late.
Surely it's clear that this is unbelievably idiotic system design!

I'll try manually updating the package...
Super weird that if updating 3cx is just an `apt upgrade` away, no questions asked... then why would the update button in 3cx refuse to install the update citing that maintenance has expired? Is that just another anti-customer decision? Or should I expect breakage with various parts of the system out of sync with other parts when I update manually?

 

[turkeyman]

FUUUUUUU.... okay, so I tried the apt upgrade technique mentioned in the thread linked above. Just updated the 3CX package, no debian system updates.
After the upgrade, the system restarted and the license refreshed, so that problem has been corrected, but now for reasons unknown, no ip phones or the 3CX app seem to be able to connect to the PBX!
Literally no phones work at all!!
This has gone from bad to catastrophically worse!!

I have tried reinstalling a new 3CX VM, but the install instructions don't fu***ng work! This is not stuff that should be hoisted on someone by surprise with no time for testing and no sound path to resolution.

 

[bitn2]

FUUUUUUU.... okay, so I tried the apt upgrade technique mentioned in the thread linked above. Just updated the 3CX package, no debian system updates.
After the upgrade, the system restarted and the license refreshed, so that problem has been corrected, but now for reasons unknown, no ip phones or the 3CX app seem to be able to connect to the PBX!
Literally no phones work at all!!
This has gone from bad to catastrophically worse!!

I have tried reinstalling a new 3CX VM, but the install instructions don't fu***ng work! This is not stuff that should be hoisted on someone by surprise with no time for testing and no sound path to resolution.

I dont understand your problem... What isnt working installing the pbx?

 

[bdg]

I just had to deal with a u5 server that had an expired license. I was able to get it updated without re-installing.
I had to stop ntp, change the date, do the update to u6, wait, re-enable ntp, then rinse and repeat.
Step by step to do those things:
1) Log into the console or ssh as root run these:
systemctl disable systemd-timesyncd
date -s 2023-10-20 (my license was valid on this day)
2) log into the management console and update the system
3) Wait about 5 minutes
4) Enable timesync again:
systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd
5) Get logged back into management console and verify it updated.
6) Repeat steps 1-5 until on the latest u8 and your license is getting validated by the server again.

Thank you 3cx for the top tier support

This is the way!

However after running
systemctl disable systemd-timesyncd
you should also run
systemctl stop systemd-timesyncd

After you change the date using
date -s [your date before expiration]
you can run
date
to see that it has infact changed and did not revert back to current time. This is how I realized the timesyncd was still syncing the time.

Also, you can do all updates before starting and enabling timesyncd. No need to enable between updates to log in.

Thanks rmauer, you saved me from a headache!

 

[MarcelvanBeek]

Same problem here on a windows server.

Solution was easy with above info : change system date to a date before expiration, then update.