Deploying on Lightsail - PBX Express vs. Manual

[Adraenyse]

Greetings!

I made a comment earlier on the Lightsail announcement about how PBX Express doesn't name the Lightsail instance, so you are stuck with a horribly long random default instance name, but that's in the announcement area so I'm bringing it up here.

I really think that should be rectified since we provide the hostname, the least PBXE could do is use the API to name the instance as it creates it with the hostname. There's no reasonable way to keep track of the instances otherwise, not to mention the names don't fit on the summary screen so you're at a real loss just glancing at your deployment page.

Further to that, since I am fairly new to deploying virgin 3CX systems (been maintaining others but now installing my own), is there a loss of fuctionality between letting PBXE setup your Lightsail instance, or simply rolling your own and then doing the manual install, so that I can name the thing in the meantime.

Do I lose anything by opting for a manual install vs. PBXE, other than it just takes longer?

Cheers

 

[cobaltit]

So nothing that I know of. PBXexpress is just automation and it *shouldn't* do anything you couldn't do manually. That being said I don't know if Lightsail sources the install from the 3CX ISO vs doing a vanilla Debian install and then installing the package. If it installs from the 3CX ISO AND you can't provide an ISO for Lightsail (or any other provider for that matter) then that may pose an issue in the future. 3CX as implied that at some point installs not using the 3CX provided ISO may not qualify for support.

 

[sbv3000]

ive just set up an aws with 3cx express and let the automatic process handle everything. seemed much easier than a manual setup. need to ensure the aws permissions etc are all correct, but the 3cx guide has it all.
as far as naming, i've added a tag to my instance, added the tag column to the dashboard, that might work for you.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @Adraenyse

Please note that currently it is not possible to choose the name of the Instance when deploying with PBX express. I would recommend posting this as a feature request to our ideas section of the forum https://www.3cx.com/community/forums/3cx-ideas/ . All posts are reviewed by their corresponding Departments and, if feasible and voted for by other users as well, may be implemented in an upcoming service pack or update.

There are some differences between using the PBX express and manually installing the PBX. The first is that you can only use a 3CX FQDN. If you want to use a custom FQDN you need to do a custom install.
Also the installer only uses the default ports (5060, 5090, 443). if you require different ports then you need to do a custom install.

 

[Adraenyse]

@sbv3000 For EC2 I would agree, but with Lightsail the setup is extremely easier.

@YiannisH_3CX So if I want to install a Professional licence and use a custom domain, I can't use PBX Express anyways.

Are there any other notable differences to be aware of? You mention "some", are there more?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

@YiannisH_3CX So if I want to install a Professional licence and use a custom domain, I can't use PBX Express anyways.

That is correct. To use a custom FQDN you need to provide a certificate and we cannot ask for a private key in an online tool.

Are there any other notable differences to be aware of? You mention "some", are there more?

Nothing that i can think of.

 

[Adraenyse]

OK. Since this post I've deployed a few instances in Lightsail manually and it's pretty fast and easy. The only thing you really need to do is open up the ports afterwards, but I've just created an API in AWS that I just call and it does it for me. So doing it manually is not really any harder or slower than PBX Express, so I can name my instances and static IPs and be happy.

But I still believe PBX Express at a minimum should take the name provided for the host and rename the instance via the API as it's creating it. Even if it used the hostname and didn't ask the user for it, it's better than awsapspo_xrandom9_x902df.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Glad to see you are finding the installation process easy and thank you for the update and the feedback. You also post your suggestion as a feature request to our ideas section of the forum https://www.3cx.com/community/forums/3cx-ideas/ .