Cloud or on-prem during these times?

[orange2]

I have a 25-user 8SC customer who have had a seamless 3CX experience for ~4 years with it running on-prem on an HP gen8 Microserver under Win10 serving 100% Snom 710/715 phones. Now they are all working remotely and thus the 3CX workload is totally different.

Remotely they are having endless audio issues mainly via the (pretty hopeless) WebUI, but also via the app, with a mix of Mac and Win (all fully patched). Their office WAN is 300/80 fast DSL.

Thus I am wondering whether moving the app to Lightsail (for simplicity) might be a good idea.

Two questions: Would a cloud move be a good idea? And if I leave it there when they all are back working in the office, will the SBC handle their in-office requirements?

 

[Alphabetic]

Hi

Did you say remote users are using the Web Client softphone / Mobile App?

Audio issues - can you elaborate? call drop? one way audio? stuttering? robotic? sounds like underwater?

What is the spec of your 3CX server?

Is it the same for all 25 users?

is the problem replicable every time?

are you recording calls? If so, can you listen back to a call - Is the call fine or can you hear the audio issue?

What build are you running?

Has 3CX passed the firewall test?

it doesnt matter on site or in the cloud as long as the set up is correct you should have no problems.

 

[Saqqara]

What other traffic is using the internet link, with people working remotely are you using vpn's which will take alot of bandwidth.

Have you tried setting up QOS for 3CX traffic.

 

[orange2]

Hi

Did you say remote users are using the Web Client softphone / Mobile App?

Audio issues - can you elaborate? call drop? one way audio? stuttering? robotic? sounds like underwater?

What is the spec of your 3CX server?

Is it the same for all 25 users?

is the problem replicable every time?

are you recording calls? If so, can you listen back to a call - Is the call fine or can you hear the audio issue?

What build are you running?

Has 3CX passed the firewall test?

it doesnt matter on site or in the cloud as long as the set up is correct you should have no problems.

Remote users were all using Snoms in the office, but now are all using either web client or the desktop app. App when all attempts to get the web client failed.

One way or no way audio

Pentium processor with 10gb RAM and SSD

Not identical for all users no. It seems to wax and wane. One user with a brand new MacBook Pro 16" I failed to get any audio via the web client whatever I tried and thus gave up and went to the app which worked.

Build 16.0.4.504 on WIn10 Pro

No calls recorded, firewall test passes

 

[orange2]

What other traffic is using the internet link, with people working remotely are you using vpn's which will take alot of bandwidth.

Have you tried setting up QOS for 3CX traffic.

Yes they are using VPN heavily, so this might be it. That would point to the cloud being a good plan then wouldn't it? But if I do, will the SBC cope when they return to work? (ie back to mainly phone calls and far less remote/video usage)

 

[weimerd]

Yes they are using VPN heavily, so this might be it. That would point to the cloud being a good plan then wouldn't it? But if I do, will the SBC cope when they return to work? (ie back to mainly phone calls and far less remote/video usage)

I'm using this setup here. 3CX in the cloud (using azure here).
Two offices, both connecting with SBC to3CX cloud machine.
local phones connecting to 3cx via sbc.

Works like a charm on both offices. And in actual home office times it is even better as all are using vpn to our local data center. But data stream of phone calls are directly routed to the 3cx cloud machine.

btw: The cloud machine does not need to be powerful at all. On Azure I tested it with the B1s machine (1vCPU, 2Gig Ram, SSD Premium) and the system works fire stable for 50 users.

 

[craigreilly]

Yes they are using VPN heavily, so this might be it. That would point to the cloud being a good plan then wouldn't it? But if I do, will the SBC cope when they return to work? (ie back to mainly phone calls and far less remote/video usage)

You could alway goto the cloud temporarily, then bring it back on site when this returns to normal.

Just a thought; What happens to the call quality if the VPN is off, and they try the webclient or softphone? Its going to the same place, but now not using the VPN.
Or, have them try a mobile 3cx app...

 

[Alphabetic]

Are they connecting locally (over VPN) or over the internet?

is FQDN resolving over the VPN?

try external address?

 

[orange2]

I'm using this setup here. 3CX in the cloud (using azure here).
Two offices, both connecting with SBC to3CX cloud machine.
local phones connecting to 3cx via sbc.

Works like a charm on both offices. And in actual home office times it is even better as all are using vpn to our local data center. But data stream of phone calls are directly routed to the 3cx cloud machine.

btw: The cloud machine does not need to be powerful at all. On Azure I tested it with the B1s machine (1vCPU, 2Gig Ram, SSD Premium) and the system works fire stable for 50 users.

Thanks for that!
How many phones do you have going through the SBC? And what is it running on?

 

[Alphabetic]

https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/intermediate/configuring-remote-extensions/

Run an SBC on a Raspberry Pi.

they can have up to 30 EXT each but for your set up I would consider 2 SBC and split the load.

 

[weimerd]

Thanks for that!
How many phones do you have going through the SBC? And what is it running on?

I'm using SBC one Raspberry4 per location. I tested it with 40 users and it wasn't under load.

Used Raspbian light as basic.

 

[cobaltit]

Will a SBC work is a generalization. That's like saying will 3CX work. SBCs can be sized depending on the load. The general requirements are here:

https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/

Do not use a Raspberry Pi 4 per @weimerd . While there have been threads saying it works, the Pi 4 is not officially supported yet. Stick to the requirements on the page above. In fact, if you move to the cloud you can just uninstall 3CX on the current box and install the Windows SBC on that and you should be fine.

 

[orange2]

Many thanks all