Migrate from on-premises to SBC

[Phill]

Hi,

I am an amateur sysadmin for a charitable organisation. Currently we have 3CX running on-premises due to some complications we ran in during initial setup some 18 moths ago. Initially we tried to set up an SBC with our provider, but we hit multiple issues with getting it running. 18 months later we have managed to remove these hurdles and believe a better solution would be to migrate to an SBC.

What would the best way to do this be? If I can get our provider to set up 3CX on their infrastructure can we run our existing 3CX server and an SBC connected to our providers instance on the same subnet? Unfortunately my time is very limited, so I'm hoping to migrate one handset and do some testing using a soft phone, then transfer each handset one by one. Obviously eventually we would just end up with the SBC on premises?

Any suggestions / recommendations?

 

[AWS2P]

hi Phill,
you should start here, and provide more details on your install
https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/information-to-provide-when-requesting-help.67558/

 

[AWS2P]

SBC connected to our providers instance on the same subnet?

Do you mean with a VPN ? if so you don't need a SBC as phone are seen as same as if local

 

[Phill]

• 3CX Version, Standard Annual 16.0.676
• Server OS, Debian 9.10 will probably use Ubuntu LTS when migrated
• Is the 3CX Server Hosted and where? On premessis currently, but hope to move to hosted
• IP Phone Make/Model/Firmware Cisco 7962G
• Provisioning Method: Local planning to move to SBC
• Trunk Provider or Gateway Make/Model cloud phone
• Has the Firewall Checker passed: YES
• Are custom Phone Templates being used: don't know

 

[Phill]

Do you mean with a VPN ? if so you don't need a SBC as phone are seen as same as if local

No, we want to migrate to SBC whit hosted server.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi Phil,

First point to keep in mind, the system is not compatible with Ubuntu, you must use Debian 9 (stretch)
https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/installing-debian-linux-pbx/

Second important point, you are using unsupported phones that are not vetted to work with SBC, and although they can probably work fine locally-only if you spend the time to configure them, they come with a lot of limitations even if they were supported out of the box (take a look at the limitations of the supported 79xx series to get an idea https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/cisco-7940g-7960g/#h.xxaqfkri8bzy) . I would suggest to move to supported phones before continuing below https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/

Third important point, if you are not using a 3CX supported provider, you will have to make sure your current provider works with 3CX over the internet without requiring a hardware gateway or dedicated VoIP modem. https://www.3cx.com/partners/sip-trunks/

If you choose to go ahead:

You can have the server hosted online on any of the supported cloud services, or one of your own choosing so long as you ensure the ports are open as per our recommendations. https://www.3cx.com/docs/ports/

Alternatively, you can also use our PBX Express wizard to take care of this for you, it's a complete solution that supports Google, OVH, Amazon, Azure or VPS cloud provider (Openstack API v2/v3 compliant) and builds the machine for you and takes care of the firewall rules. You can restore a backup of your current system using this method, quickly and easily. https://pbxexpress.3cx.com/

Your office where the phones are will need a machine that will act as the 3CX SBC. Here are the guidelines on hardware recommendations both for the PBX and SBC
https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/

When the system is up and running, you will connect the SBC to it during the SBC setup
https://www.3cx.com/docs/3cx-tunnel-session-border-controller/

Once both the restored PBX and SBC are running it's time to setup your phones to work over SBC. You will need to arrange a time when the migration will happen, this is where you may encounter a problem with current unsupported devices, and where supported devices begin to shine as they can take advantage of the below features:

1. Resetting a supported phone with 3CX firmware, will make the phone appear on your dashboard, under the phones section.
2. You simply select the phone, click "Assign Ext" and in a few moments the device will autoprovision and become registered
3. You repeat this for all the phones you wish to add to all your extensions (and extensions can have multiple devices if needed - ie. a manager that has two offices on two different floors)

The phones are now ready to use and all that's left to do is setup your automatic backups and recordings location (if needed) for safety.