On-Premise 3CX Pro in VLANd network considerations

[wesThreecx]

Our typical network setup is VLANs routed through a pfSense firewall. We are now deploying 3CX Pro into these setups.



We appear to be successful in most aspects but some of our 3CX configurations might be completely unsupported and lead to restrictions in functionality.



Pragmatically speaking, the driver behind the VLANs is to meet the requirements for restricting what each device/user type might access locally and remotely.



3CX brings some different considerations. Typical scenario: We will have Windows users (VLAN2) using the Webclient, the same user may have a trusted mobile device (VLAN3) and a BYOD (VLAN4) running the 3CX apps. A users desk phone will be in VLAN5 and the 3CX server in VLAN6. Remote desk phones and mobile apps access 3CX using a custom FQDN with LetsEncrypt certificate.



Other than some question marks over phone provisioning, we have not experienced any issues using 3CX in our in-house system, with this VLAN setup and using no router phones. IVR, rules, groups, transfers all work how we want them to.



Our question is whether anymore of the experienced installers/users out there can advise what loss of 3CX functionality we will have in using 3CX in the deployment described.

Thank you for any advice you might provide.

 

[SweetAction]

We are huge pfSense users and have similar setups without issues. The main thing to think about is can the endpoint (IP Phone ,app, etc) communicate with the 3CX server? This communication needs to be both ways and unsolicited (PBX starts the connection state by telling IP Phone to ring OR IP Phone starts the connection state via outbound call). It needs to be as close to real time as possible - so your inter-vlan routing needs to be quick and unmodified.

VLANs don't matter if packets can flow.

Only possible thing I see from your setup is anything relying on MultiCast (PNP Phones, MC Pages, etc) - you need to route the MC packets to the PBX as well.