Installation Best Practices

[sjarrell]

We are setting up a new 3cx Professional System, switching from Switchvox. I have a few questions regarding installation best practices.

First a little background. We currently have about 35 users, 25 of which are in one location and the other 10 located individually across the country. We will be adding more of both types in the future. Currently we have our 3cx system installed on Amazon Lightsail (Debian) however we do have the ability to provision a EC2 server if needed, or we could locate a server in our office (that's where our Switchvox server is currently located). Here are my current questions:

1. Since we have a large number of users located in one location remote from our cloud based server are we going to run into any issues. I have read about installing the SBC for these types of installations but I'm wondering if this is preferable or should we just locate the server in our main office? Up to what number of users is the SBC capable of providing 100% reliable service?

2. If we do decide to use the SBC and stay with Amazon Lightsail, it appears that there isn't a way with Lightsail to provision port forwarding. It looks like everything is Natted from the outside to inside IPs. Is this going to present a a problem?

3. Is there any advantage of using Windows over Debian? We are a Windows shop and are much more familiar with the Windows operating system, however our Switchvox system is Linux based and we've had 0 issues with it, it's been rock solid and we haven't had to deal with the underlying operating system at all.

I'm sure I'll have other questions, but this will get us started in the right direction.

Thanks!!

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi,

You can see the recommended hardware guide here, which also has SBC information:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/

An SBC is a good solution because you can have them at all your sites and will make it easier to manage the phones (removing the need to manage many STUN ports per site)

A VPN can also serve you well as the phones will appear local to the PBX, and you can also log on to their UI via your management console (if you need that kind of thing for detailed management)

Debian is less resource intensive, it will not run the extra overhead windows has and can leave more system resources for your PBX. Our Debian ISO should make life easier if installing it locally

For cloud deployments you also have the option to deploy via PBX express that will set up your ports too.

I would recommend getting a trial license and testing it, you will also have access to the Pro features for 40 days so you can set up any advanced features needed. During that time you can see how well the system works for you and get help in the forum before launching it for production, or take advantage of our network of available Partners that can help you make a smooth transition

 

[sjarrell]

Hi,

You can see the recommended hardware guide here, which also has SBC information:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/

An SBC is a good solution because you can have them at all your sites and will make it easier to manage the phones (removing the need to manage many STUN ports per site)

A VPN can also serve you well as the phones will appear local to the PBX, and you can also log on to their UI via your management console (if you need that kind of thing for detailed management)

Debian is less resource intensive, it will not run the extra overhead windows has and can leave more system resources for your PBX. Our Debian ISO should make life easier if installing it locally

For cloud deployments you also have the option to deploy via PBX express that will set up your ports too.

I would recommend getting a trial license and testing it, you will also have access to the Pro features for 40 days so you can set up any advanced features needed. During that time you can see how well the system works for you and get help in the forum before launching it for production, or take advantage of our network of available Partners that can help you make a smooth transition

Thanks John. We already have a trial license and we're in the process of setting it up now. Very, very impressive!

We have very, very few (only 3 I believe) physical phones in our office. Almost everyone else uses the Windows or web client. I assume that your recommendation that if we want to keep a cloud based server vs having it in-office would be to install a stand-alone Debian machine to act as the SBC?

Thanks!

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Exactly, a small machine or VM can be used for SBC (according to your needs of course) that will serve the desphones in the office

 

[sjarrell]

Perfect. Thanks. I'll either do that or just forego the cloud server and put the server in our office with perhaps a failover (Enterprise) server there as well. That may make more sense.

 

[cobaltit]

1. Since we have a large number of users located in one location remote from our cloud based server are we going to run into any issues. I have read about installing the SBC for these types of installations but I'm wondering if this is preferable or should we just locate the server in our main office? Up to what number of users is the SBC capable of providing 100% reliable service?

Zero users on the SBC provides 100% reliable service. Beyond that there's a serious drop-off to something like 3 nines.... . Nothing is 100% reliable, but the SBC works just fine. As the SBC is only as reliable as the hardware it's installed on, the power source powering it and the internet access it uses to reach 3CX you can see why there is no 100%.

 

[sjarrell]

Understood completely. Thanks!

 

[MaxH]

Perfect. Thanks. I'll either do that or just forego the cloud server and put the server in our office with perhaps a failover (Enterprise) server there as well. That may make more sense.

I'm using an intel NUC for testing and plan to build a second for failover. I firmly believe that Debian is the way to go. In Windows 10 you can natively SSH in PowerShell to your PBX. I've only been testing for a few days but it's been rock solid and DID Logic (SIP provider) have been a pleasure to work with.

Good luck on your project!

 

[sjarrell]

Thanks very much for the information! I will be going with Debian. I'm setting up the two machines right now.