Migrating from Google Cloud to AWS

[Martyn Barlow]

Hi,

We have a live 3CX instance running in Google Cloud. I would like to move it to AWS and wondered if this was possible by approaching it as follows.

1. Using PBXExpress create a new instance in AWS but using a different license key (I have a spare available which can use temporarily) and using a different FQDN.
2. Take a backup from the live instance including FQDN and license info (not sure you can do this without it mind you).
3. Shut down the live instance in Google Cloud.
4. Restore the backup to the new AWS instance.

Will this work, am I missing a step(s) or is this simply not possible?

It's the sort of thing I'd usually just give it a go but considering it's a live system and we're more reliant on telecoms than ever at the moment due to home working I'm reluctant to proceed without assurances.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cobaltit]

Why do the hassle of creating the instance with a different key. Just backup, shutdown the Google instance (don't delete) then restore to AWS. Not sure what spinning up an instance with a different key gets you.

 

[Martyn Barlow]

I did try doing as you suggested last week but it failed. I discovered that PBXExpress tried and failed multiple times over and I then got an error stating that I could not request an SSL cert any longer (LetsEncrypt restriction I guess). Therefore, I'd hoped by doing the way I'm suggesting that I'd avoid this potential issue based on an assumption that the SSL cert would be copied over when restoring from the backup.

Have I got the wrong end of the stick here?

 

[cobaltit]

Yes. I believe I made a feature request for this that 3CX should read the cert from the backup but it does not so your method won't work. If you've blown through your allotment of LE tries (I think it's something like 5 in a week) then you'll probably want to wait a week and try it again. The other option is you can just try to restore it manually. I don't really use PBX Express so I'm not sure if it gives you the same option a manual install would. But a manual install will eventually give you the option to continue the install using a self-signed certificate. I don't know that it will work with apps/clients but at least phone traffic will work fine and 3CX will try nightly to update the certificate until it can. I had to do this for one customer where 3CX kept trying to generate the cert when I had a still valid cert from the old system AND there was another issue causing the restore to fail that had nothing to do with the FQDN but since it kept trying early in the process it used up all the attempts. I did the install with a self-signed and after the attempt counter reset it properly renewed the cert. We had no smart phone usage at this site so YMMV