Backup Trunks

[infoalan]

We started a conversation like this in a different post but it never really got answered. Hoping for some insight...

Our trunk to the SIP provider goes down periodically for 10 minutes. Weird since on Elastix it never went down BUT Elastix and Cisco allow a primary trunk and secondary trunk using the same DID so it may have but just failed over to the backup.

So my question is this... is there a way to add a backup aka failover aka secondary trunk with the same DID?

Example One:

5615551212 JFK-A.voicepulse.com userABC123 Pwd12345
5615551212 JFK-B.voicepulse.com userABC123 Pwd12345

Example Two:

5615551212 Miami.voip-provider.net user789 pwd98765
5615551212 Chicago.voip-provider.net user789 pwd98765
5615551212 Houston.voip-provider.net user789 pwd98765

Whenever we try to add a trunk it says that DID is already in use and thus can't add it.

Our provider gives us 1 DID with 4 simultaneous trunks and they have two sites for failover. (Voicepulse)

We just became 3cx partners and want to roll this out to our clients but the single trunk connection makes us nervous.

On a SEPARATE note... we are still trying to figure out why it goes down (usually at 11pm but not always) The internet stays up, the firewall reports no issue, and Voicepulse tells us exactly if there is ever any outage. Weird. But not as critical and easier to troubleshoot if we had the JFK-B failover in place as then we could see if both trunks go down or just one.

3CX has MORE features the Cisco UC devices (kinda shocking) so very surprised we can't add the secondary/backup trunk.

Thank you in advance for any help!

 

[eagle2]

Sorry,

could you describe more clearly what is your idea. I can't understand exactly what you want / mean.
Probably this is the reason your post never been answered.

What is your idea of backup trunks -- just another trunk to the same provider in the same 3CX server, or what ?
If this is another trunk (should be set as another provider), there should not be any problems with DIDs.
You need to set correspondingly the outgoing and incoming rules for both trunks (providers).

Another question is if the backup trunk registers to the same server of the provider, whether this makes sense at all. Almost sure if the primary trunk fails, the second one will fail also.


Try setting 'ALLOWSOURCEASOUTBOUNDVP' parameter to '1' in Advanced custom parameters menu. It could fix your problem with the provider, or try changing the period when re-registration occurs (in provider's settings).

The recommended way is to make a log and post it to 3CX support (issue a ticket).

Regards

 

[infoalan]

Backup trunks are pretty straight forward.

TWO or more trunks to the same provider with the same credentials and the ONLY difference is the host name. Just like in the example. VoicePulse has JFK-A.voicepulse.com and JFK-B.voicepulse.com.

It's like redundant DNS servers. If one of their backbones goes down or a server has an issue, they always have one up. In Elastix and Cisco you can enter both with same credentials DID but it won't even let you enter it in 3CX once it sees the same DID.

Have never seen only having a connection to just one server so assume I am missing something.

 

[eagle2]

Hi,

you may create 2 providers in your 3CX: JFK-A and JFK-B.

For each of the providers you must create separate DIDs.
These DID numbers may be the same between the providers, within one provider you must have unique DIDs (logical).
You may create an outbound rule where as first priority is JFK-A and second priority is JFK-B.

Configuring DIDs is a little bit tricky -- read the blog and follow guidelines literally.

Regards

 

[infoalan]

There is only 1 provider and 1 DID number (multiple trunks though).

As soon as we enter the same DID, 3CX says can't do that.

We don't have any other DIDs to enter.

You mention reading a blog but which blog?

As soon as we enter the second (identical) DID, 3CX says no even though it's a different host server on the same provider.

 

[eagle2]

Even having only 1 DID number you must set it as DID. Mind the following guidelines (from 3CX blog):

http://www.3cx.com/blog/docs/did-voip-provider/

http://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/sip-trunks/ - Updated link

You MUST define 2 providers in 3CX server: JFK-A and JFK-B. Then you can have your DID number 5615551212 with each of them.

Regards

 

[infoalan]

Thanks.... I'll take a look at those blogs in detail...

It always stopped us when it saw the same DID...

We'll check it out....

 

[infoalan]

Those blog videos just show how to add a provider. Pretty straight forward.

When we add VoicePulse as a second provider for JFK-B and enter the same DID, it says "A line with this Number already exist. Pleas enter another one and try again."

Same problem.

We want one provider to JFK-Primary.voicepulse.com and one to JFK-Secondary.voicepulse.com but with the SAME DID number, authentication ID and password. Works easily on Elastix and Cisco but doesn't appear to be possible on 3CX but we must be missing something.

Really very simple stuff. Same provider, same DID, just different SIP Servers. All under "Voip Providers".

 

[eagle2]

May be it makes sense to have a look at your system. If possible to provide me remote access (Remote Desktop or TeamViewer) I think I can set it. Send me a PrivateMessage with details.

Regards

 

[infoalan]

Sure.

We can use Join.me or our private help/support tool if you want to coordinate a time to look together.

 

[netswork]

It seems like your provider would be using round robin DNS or some sort of load balancing with no need for multiple trunks to the same carrier. If they had an outage and needed to fail over their redundancy should kick in and modify the IP for the DNS record or what ever their method was.

 

[za-myvbx]

Hey infoalan,

Any resolution yet?

We are sitting with the same problem. Provider: Switch Telecom
First SIP server: sip1.switchtel.co.za
Second SIP server: sip2.switchtel.co.za

Obviously these servers are geographically separated and they are connecting to different backbones.

We are not trying to protect against DNS failure, so the comment by netswork does not apply.

If we lose registration on sip1.switchtel.co.za, sip2.switchtel.co.za can be used. Our provider's network is configured in such a way as to allow you to be connected to both sip servers simultaneously. If the IN- and OUTBOUND rules are irrelevant (which I think it would be), it is a moot point.

Our customers has one SIP trunk with 30 channels and 100 numbers in their DDI / DID. The exact same config is present on both sip1 and sip2.swithtel.co.za.

When trying to configure two VOIP Providers, we also get the error: "A line with that Number already exists. Please enter another one and try again."

The aim is to have both sip1 and sip2 registered with the same credentials and allow our provider to manage redundancy within their network.

If this is not possible at the level of creating two VOIP Provider accounts, are there any alternatives, keeping in mind that the login credentials and DDI / DID are the same, only difference is the host name / IP?