Notice: New Apple Push Service Requires HTTP/2. Is Your Windows Compatible?

[MichaelB_3CX]

A heads-up from our development labs: The latest update to the Apple Push Notification service (APNs) requires the use of HTTP/2 and will be included in the upcoming V16 Update 5. This essentially makes Apple Push Notification service only compatible with operating systems that support HTTP/2. Windows platforms will be affected, as HTTP/2 support i...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[mcsvoip]

Thanks. Help me understand a little more. 3CX v16 on Windows (say 2012 R2) does (or will not) not support HTTP/2 because the OS itself does not support it, even though 3CX uses its own web engine and not IIS?

 

[cobaltit]

Windows 2012 isn't supported for v16 anyways (although this may have just been updated based on this). I thought 2012 was ok originally.

https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/

 

[nitrox]

Is it possible to know the release date of the 3CX app for iphone? You are saying that is going to be released on January. We are getting to mid January and you haven't released yet. We need to solve a couple of problems related to push and i hope the app is going to work better than the actual version.

 

[techclarity]

We have a lot of instances of v16 SP3/4 on Windows Server 2012 R2. Will push and new iOS app work on these instances if we do not upgrade to SP5? If so, for how long?

 

[StefanW]

@techclarity

lets split it into 2 simple categories

A)
You do not update to Update 5 v16 (somewhere mid-Feb.) then regardless of your OS iOS Push will stop in November 2020 as Apple is changing the way how push needs to be sent. I would not bank on this date as other changes may are needed prior.

B)
You are on v16 U5 mid-Feb. but you do not use an HTTP/2 supporting Windows OS, then it will not work as Windows does not know not to send HTTP/2 requests. Point taken Windows writes it quite odd, but the .net core 'HTTPclient' is part of IIS (even we dont use IIS) implementation, and all OS under Win 10 and Server 2016 cant do it. Given that the OS has done 6 years, a refresh is needed or switch to Linux if you are comfortable with it.

 

[nitrox]

Hi, what happen if I upgrade 3CX pbx to 16 SP5 but i forget to update some ios client? Is it still working or i need to upgrade the app as well?

 

[StefanW]

@nitrox , you cannot forget it, as iOS will auto-update the clients and the iPhones automatically.

 

[mcsvoip]

Thanks @Stephanw. So the options would be to backup & restore to a supported OS for v16 SP5 (Linux distro, Windows 10, or Server 2016 or greater), or an in-place upgrade from Server 2012 R2 to Server 2016 or Server 2019 would work in the cases where it's needed, I'm assuming.

 

[StefanW]

@mcs2 given that currently we have only U4, but in principle yes - the update to U5 is then simple inline button press.

On my personal experience, windows inline update... never worked for me.

If you use VMs, better keep the instance you have now, make a new VM, set it all up in peace (on the OS of your choice), copy the backup over, restore, check, shutdown old VM, change IP on new VM, wait up to 10m until all phones will re-register --> good to go. The same way I moved ours 2 years ago to a newer OS.

 

[techclarity]

@techclarity

lets split it into 2 simple categories

A)
You do not update to Update 5 v16 (somewhere mid-Feb.) then regardless of your OS iOS Push will stop in November 2020 as Apple is changing the way how push needs to be sent. I would not bank on this date as other changes may are needed prior.

B)
You are on v16 U5 mid-Feb. but you do not use an HTTP/2 supporting Windows OS, then it will not work as Windows does not know not to send HTTP/2 requests. Point taken Windows writes it quite odd, but the .net core 'HTTPclient' is part of IIS (even we dont use IIS) implementation, and all OS under Win 10 and Server 2016 cant do it. Given that the OS has done 6 years, a refresh is needed or switch to Linux if you are comfortable with it.

Stefan, thanks! Will the new iOS app work with v16 Update 4 or will Update 5 be required? Just trying to figure out timing as to when we need to get these instances Windows operating system upgraded.

 

[StefanW]

it will need U5 to work

 

[craigreilly]

Just got done updating a bunch of machines from 2008 to 2019... adding my 2012 PBX to the list now.

 

[prime5]

Will anything change on the 3CX clients running Windows 7? The Desktop software app or web client changing due to these things? I have some clients that will be doing the extended support for Windows 7 updates for the next year most likely.

 

[Evolute IT]

Will anything change on the 3CX clients running Windows 7? The Desktop software app or web client changing due to these things? I have some clients that will be doing the extended support for Windows 7 updates for the next year most likely.

This only affects the PBX server.

 

[StefanW]

For the time beeing it is only applicable to the host on which 3CX is installed on.

In the future surely the Windows APP will change to HTTP/2 as it contains many processing benefits (for the user performance and productivity increase). This change would apply to the client OS. No works have been made/started to do this switch, but it has been discussed internally. I would assume that the switch will come before the Win 7 ESU ends in 2023...

 

[giwm]

So if we don't care about Apple Push Notification, we'd probably be fine on 2012 R2, just 'unsupported' essentially?

 

[StefanW]

So if we don't care about Apple Push Notification, we'd probably be fine on 2012 R2, just 'unsupported' essentially?

I strongly do not recommend this! QA has removed testing on this platform nor will our development team check compatibility and available libraries on those systems. Also, a re-install is already blocked on this OS. Only the Update function of an existing install lets you pass.

 

[Seskoi]

Hi,

I just upgraded to the latest version of 3CX to 16.0.5.611.
After the update I received confirmation by e-mail that 3CX "noticed that I'm running 3CX on an unsupported operating system", which is WS 2012 R2 and found out this post.
Will restoring a backup from version 16.0.4.493 will give us a little extra time to plan the upgrade from WS 2012 R2 to 2019 momentarily until November 2020?
Because for now, it seems like the best solution, considering some users working from home due to the virus are using iOS as their main device and upgrading from Server 2012 to 2019 will take some time and physical travel.
Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[mcsphones]

I would think, unless 3CX support says otherwise, that you could in-place upgrade from Server 2012 R2 to Server 2016/2019 and then 3CX v16 would be supported.
Or, since restoring 3CX is easy enough, spin up a new VM (or PC/server) and reinstall 3CX and restore your backup.