Solved Google Cloud PBX Express DNS Issue

[Keith T Atwood]

i Have a PBX Express setup in the google cloud platform that has been running for over 1 year. Recently the Fully Qualified Domain Name of acs.3cx.ca is not resolving

3xc.ca is using:

ns-cloud-a1.googledomains.com. ['216.239.32.106'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=86400]
ns-cloud-a2.googledomains.com. ['216.239.34.106'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=86400]
ns-cloud-a3.googledomains.com. ['216.239.36.106'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=86400]
ns-cloud-a4.googledomains.com. ['216.239.38.106'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=86400]

There is no record for acs.3cx.ca (which now cannot be changed in 3CX)

id 6919 opcode QUERY rcode NXDOMAIN flags QR RD RA ;QUESTION acs.3cx.ca. IN A ;ANSWER ;AUTHORITY 3cx.ca. 299 IN SOA ns-cloud-a1.googledomains.com. cloud-dns-hostmaster.google.com. 1 21600 3600 259200 300 ;ADDITIONAL

How can 3CX add this record back into the google nameservers?

Thanks,
Keith

 

[Keith T Atwood]

Ok, I see this in the backend

3CX failed to establish a TCP connection to activation.3cx.com.
Ensure that the local or border firewalls are configured to allow outbound traffic to activation.3cx.com

 

[Saqqara]

What version are you running, you should be on 15.5 SP6 or 16

https://www.3cx.com/blog/news/pbx-upgrade-update-6/

 

[Keith T Atwood]

It was set for automatic updates ON.

I see in Updates

Release/Beta	Name	Status	Installed Version	Online Version	Description
Beta	New 15.5 SP6 BETA	Out Of Date	15.5.12663.5	15.5.15060.6	New 15.5 SP6 BETA Update Available

However, if i try to do the update it just logs me out and doesn't do anything

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @Keith T Atwood

It appears that your repository is not correct so you are only seeing Beta updates.

Try the following:

Check your Debian version cat /etc/debian_version

Then access your sources list file: nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/3cxpbx.list

Depending on your Debian version you need to have the following:

deb http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/debian jessie main for Debian 8
or
deb http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/debian stretch main for Debian 9.

Save any changes and update the system with apt-get update

Then check for available versions of the PBX by using: apt-cache policy 3cxpbx

This should give you a list with the top being V16.0.0.1581

If you are running Debian 8 do not attempt to update to V16 as it will fail. Instead upgrade to V15.5 Sp6 by using apt-get install 3cxpbx=15.5.15502.6

If you are already running Debian 9 then you can just perform an apt-get upgrade and V16 will be installed.

 

[Keith T Atwood]

in order for me to make any changes or process the update i need to 'su root' but the admin password does not work. i did not set any root password in the pbxexpress setup

 

[StefanW]

this is handled by GCP login SSH Keys, try and connect to the instance via GCloud SSH command or from the web terminal. There is no other password then the users of the project it self.

 

[Keith T Atwood]

cat /etc/debian_version
RETURNS

8.7

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/3cxpbx.list
RETURNS

deb https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ /


If I try to modify I get...

[ Error writing /etc/apt/sources.list.d/3cxpbx.list: Permission denied ]

apt-get update
RETURNS

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?


apt-cache policy 3cxpbx
RETURNS

3cxpbx:
Installed: 15.5.15060.6
Candidate: 15.5.15060.6
Version table:
*** 15.5.15060.6 0
1 http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/debian/ jessie-testing/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
15.5.12663.5 0
1 http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/debian/ jessie-testing/main amd64 Packages
15.5.10244.4 0
1 http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/debian/ jessie-testing/main amd64 Packages
15.5.10072.4 0
1 http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/debian/ jessie-testing/main amd64 Packages
15.5.6354.2 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.5.5932.2 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.5.3849.1 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.5.3554.1 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.5.1694.0 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.5.1136.6 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.5.715.6 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages
15.0.62928.5 0
500 https://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ Packages

apt-get install 3cxpbx=15.5.15502.6
RETURNS

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

 

[cobaltit]

You need to elevate those commands via su. You seem to be connected as a non-privileged user.

 

[Keith T Atwood]

quote
Sunday at 5:03 PM

in order for me to make any changes or process the update i need to 'su root' but the admin password does not work. i did not set any root password in the pbxexpress setup

end quote

Seem to be going in circles....

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi Keith,

you can type sudo su to elevate if you are in Google Cloud

 

[Keith T Atwood]

Yes, that worked. it now shows me on
Enterprise Annual

15.5.15502.6 This user to Show NFR Professional. I now see the Upgrade to Debian 9 Option in the Updates, but clicking the Upgrade button just logs me out and does not upgrade. Also, my domain acs.3cx.ca is still not resolving...

 

[Keith T Atwood]

Can anyone shed some light on how to get my domain resolving again?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi @Keith T Atwood

Debian upgrade will fail because the Debian 8 repositories are no longer there ( I believe they moved it to their archived repo back in February). You have a few options for this if you are interested and if you wish to go to 3CX V16 which is the latest.

As for your FQDN, it is no longer registered because you were not on 15.5SP6 and as a result did not communicate with the activation server for a while so the domain was automatically removed most likely.

You can get it back by doing the following:

1.) Backup your current V15.5SP6 with everything except "License Key Information & FQDN" and download the backup for safekeeping

2.) Remove the current installation with apt-get remove 3cxpbx

3.) Install V15.5.SP6 again and then use your backup file during the installation wizard via the option “Restore existing backup”

4.) You will then be able to enter your key and choose a new FQDN. Since yours is still free you should be able to pick the same one.


Once this is done and everything is up and running you should consider moving to V16, I will be happy to help with that.

 

[Keith T Atwood]

Thanks for your help. I’ll go through and do the backup, reinstall and restore.

On a side note, I’m glad this happened to my NFR system and not a customer. If I had deployed one of my customers to this pbxexpress system and they had no phones for over a week, I would be in a legal battle. I certainly understand the need to keep up with the latest and provide security updates, but a system breaking because it did not automatically update and then having to perform a wipe/restore. I would say this is not ready for prime time yet.

You guys are doing good work there at 3CX. Please realize that most customers are coming from Nortel/Mitel PBX’s that were installed 15-20 years ago and have rarely needed regular maintenance.

There is a lot of value in a system that can be ‘set up and forget about it’

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi Keith,

Our Support Department, Partners and the Forums can be of assistance in case something stops working of course, and I think the advantages of a software-based PBX speak for themselves when compared to monolithic systems.

But I should not digress from the subject . Let me know if I can assist further and look forward to helping you to upgrade to V16 on Debian 9. As for your customers, please ensure they are all on V15.5SP6 as a bare minimum, especially if they use 3CX FQDN because this is the oldest release that can communicate with our Activation Server. Please refer to this part specifically:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/fqdn-management-allocation/#h.9wczlzx5rbke

 

[Keith T Atwood]

Just a follow-up. Doing a backup and restore was not possible. The domain *.3cx.ca is no longer available, they now use my3cx.ca so I needed to touch every phone and put in the URL.

In the end, i just made a new system from scratch.

Thank God this was only my NFR system and not a customers, I would have been driving all over the countryside resetting phones.

Lesson learned

 

[darwin]

I have a cloud PBX Express test system setup in google cloud for a prospective client,

The upgrade to V16 has occurred recently
The client has only 1 SIP provider, however since the upgrade to V16 the dashboard says there are 2/2 SIP Trunks up. If I add a second SIP TRUNK it shows 3/3 and so on. If I remove them all it still shows 1/1 SIP TRUNKS up.

Why is this so?

A am also getting the following error message in the Activity Log every 20 minutes or so.

29/04/2019 11:38:20 - There's another STUN server that resolves to the same IP: 158.69.11.6:3478/UDP fk=0; ignored

However, V16 has no options for STUN servers any more
Sometimes the PBX does not resolve the SIP TRUNK provider's URL. Iif i use the IP addres it seems to resolve it ok

 

[JohnS_3CX]

@darwin

We have a sticky note for this on the top of the General forum https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/trunk-counter-shows-an-extra-trunk-in-v16.64809/

What provider are you currently having trouble resolving?

 

[darwin]

ok, thanks for that, can I turn off webmeeting

things like this dont help diagnose problems