No ext. Access to CDR files on Linux version

[uk04]

I have transfered our PBX from a Win PC to a Linux PC using then 3CX Debian Image. Everything worked fine including the CRM integration. But I am missing the call details I have been figuring out from the CDR Files.
The "single file per call" data are in the directory /var/lib/3cxpbx/Instance1/Data/Logs/CDRLogs and I would like to access them from a PC in the LAN. But the Samba deamon is not installed by the 3CX Debian Image. Any advise how this could be handled?

Thanks in advance

 

[edossantos]

Can't you install Samba in your server? Maybe you can try via FTP? Or you can configure 3CX to send the information to a remote server through a TCP connection, which can store it locally.

 

[uk04]

I could install it, but 3CX did advise not to add features in order to keep the compatibility for OS updates. How serious would you estimate the risk to loose the compatibilty. FTP could be an option, but would double the delay time. The TCP sockets are the last possible option, because of lost data due to interrupted operation.

 

[edossantos]

I could install it, but 3CX did advise not to add features in order to keep the compatibility for OS updates.

It's better to keep the installation as clean as possible, but if you need the tool, use it... Any other solution will overcomplicate things in my opinion...

 

[uk04]

It's better to keep the installation as clean as possible, but if you need the tool, use it... Any other solution will overcomplicate things in my opinion...

Thanks for the support and best regards.

 

[VoIPTools]

What we did is to build a filesystemwatcher that detects when a new CDR file is created. This event then is exposed through SignalR. In the event we publish the entire contents of the CDR file. We then created a local service that subscribes to the SignalR events. This way, we didn't have to access the files directly, and the events are real-time. To catch up if either the local service or SignalR service was down, we also created a REST API that allows us to query the list of unprocessed CDR files and download the individual files.

This is all built into our Exporter tool if you don't want to build it yourself.

 

[uk04]

What we did is to build a filesystemwatcher that detects when a new CDR file is created. This event then is exposed through SignalR. In the event we publish the entire contents of the CDR file. We then created a local service that subscribes to the SignalR events. This way, we didn't have to access the files directly, and the events are real-time. To catch up if either the local service or SignalR service was down, we also created a REST API that allows us to query the list of unprocessed CDR files and download the individual files.

This is all built into our Exporter tool if you don't want to build it yourself.

Thanks for your reply. We had a working solution, but with the change to a Linux based PBX we could not access the files. Now we have installed the samba deamon and everything works fine.

Thanks and best regards.

 

[VoIPTools]

I think setting up Samba is a very reasonable approach.

Like you, we initially went down the Windows / Samba shared folder route. I have to admit, however, that I personally found setting up Samba to be less than intuitive (and I see myself as a reasonably technical person).

Let's be honest, we have found a lot of 3CX partners struggle with setting up a Windows share properly (usually a security issue), so, in our case, asking partners to install and configure Samba was NEVER going to be broadly successful. And as others have mentioned I was a little concerned about making changes to the 3CX environment.

What we were looking for was a single solution that would work for thousands of 3CX installs on Windows and Linux, and could be easily implemented by partners with varying degrees of expertise. To be sure, the last thing I needed was to be held responsible for mucking up thousands of 3CX servers!

Glad you found a solution that meets your needs.

 

[uk04]

You are perfectly right. The samba solution is just for a on-premise PBX running within a secured LAN. But this is our customer base.

We have stopped activily propagating the 3CX PBX when it moved to version 14.0. We came to the conclusion, that 3CX will go completely into the cloud based business.

In 1992 we have started selling and installing ISDN-PBX and we have been very enthusiastic about the additional possibilities with the ISDN-Tapi. But beside of some special application (press-photo-transmission) there has been very little interest in these abilities. The attention of the usual people went to the mobile phones, because their main interest is talking. The German Telekom offers the SIP-Trunk at a broader base since 2017 and they believe to switch the last customers within 2020. With Skype and Zoom you can handle worldwide video-communications over the internet, so what are the benefits of the CTI with PBXs. The main areas are CallCenter Management, Calling from Contacts, Call History analyses and Presence Status handling.

And now I come to my point. Handling is the key.

Car manufactors concluded very early on a standardized use of the pedals for speed, break and clutch. In the mobile phone (smartphone) world we have seen a very rapid focus on two handling schemes (Apple iOS and Google Android). On the browser side we are on the way to also two schemes (Google Chrome and Firefox).

In terms of CTI the market is far away from a standardized handling scheme which makes server side CTI rather difficult. As I learned from your home page, you have started the project of a Debian-3CX-Relay, which I will further investigate for the restart of our 3CX business.



best regards