Licensing

[Chris W.]

Ok, so I was able to test my 3cx setup with few providers, I also purchased few phones to test with and I love all of it. I currently had free license. I purchased Standard licensing for 4 lines but I made a mistake as I wanted pro, emailed 3cx about this few days ago but they did not get back to me (I guess they were all party for the new years and did not come back. Hope they can solve my licensing with the license.

Anyway I have few concerns and not sure how should I go about it. I have read few things about people having issues with licensing when they were converting from free tier to paid one, currently I did setup my POC/Test environment, but I want to move it towards what is the final destination. I have two offices, and they have cable company phone lines and internet that is provided. I would like to setup two servers, one in each office that will deliver the PBX to each office. Each office will have 1 main number and 8 trunks. They also have Dynamic IP, so it will change occasionally. (either side).

What could be the best system that I could setup in such scenario? I don't want to go with cloud solution, I would like to have a server in each location to handle its PBX system. I would love to setup a 3cx cluster (if such thing would be possible). I would love to have something where both or one 3cx could work and deliver the PBX services to both offices, but if that internet link would fail the other PBX which is like a standby could pickup and keep the other office alive. I did read about some fail-over functionality but I am not sure how it works. Can I have two 3cx servers running at the same time but only one serving my two offices and then when internet link goes down the other could take over? I am quite new to 3cx and just starting to get a hold of it. I love the product, and hope to make it all work for my two offices the best way possible. I have many clients with different needs and if it all works well I would love to see if I can hook them up on such or similar solutions

 

[eddv123]

Hi Chris W,

3CX are back open for business, if someone has not come back to you I would chase them up:
https://www.3cx.com/company/contact/

In regard to upgrading your licence from PBX to paid they can just upgrade the existing key (which sounds like they have already done) if you want PRO upgrade on top of that however I think you will need to pay to get this upgraded (since they key is already set as standard).

As for deployment I cannot tell you what the "best" option would be as you would need to fit/scale 3CX to your customer. If you know them and the site(s) you should be able to answer that question yourself. Your options for 2 office deployments are as follows:

Site 1 PBX, Site 2 connect phones via SBC or VPN (I would not recommend STUN for more than 1 x IP Phone). This option does not give you fail-over but gives you the option to manage all IP handsets from one server. You could have a backup PBX in Active standby mode however as the SBC does support Fail-over: https://www.3cx.com/docs/3cx-tunnel-session-border-controller/

2 x 3CX systems bridged: This option would not give you the ability to manage all IP phones via the one system. However you can do things such as view presence and dial extensions of another system. It would not give you a valid fail-over option either: https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/connecting-pbx-bridges/

1 x cloud system, fail-over: I know you said you did not want a cloud system but I have included it as it does cover both your options. 1 x cloud system for both sites (phones connected by one of the remote methods mentioned above). You can then have a Enterprise licence to cover fail-over.

Check and confirm the settings you require from this page here: https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/.

One thing I would note is that the fail-over option on the PRO licence is a lot of hard work. If you are new to 3CX I would not attempt this. I would look at getting an Enterprise licence to give you a better experience.