Solved PBX Express

[bardellm]

Hi. Does anyone know if there is a way to install 3CX on Google Cloud without PBXExpress automatically provisioning a 50GB SSD disk?
If not, what is the best way to install 3CX directly onto a manually provisioned VM (without using PBXExpress, nor Google Cloud Marketplace)?

I am a light 3CX user (1 user, very few calls) so I want to keep withing Google's free tier (ie. 30GB disk).
I'm a Debian novice, so any help / instructions would be gratefully received. Thanks

 

[Evolute IT]

The GCP marketplace image is the best way to customize the VM. It will allow you to choose the VM size and storage size.

Deployment Wizard (formerly PBXExpress) doesn't allow these options.

 

[bardellm]

I believe any product / image installed from the GCP Marketplace is outside of the free tier.
Google's language is vague:

Google Cloud Marketplace products and Premium OS licenses​

You incur normal expenses for any Google Cloud Marketplace products and premium OS licenses you use, even if your Compute Engine use is covered by the Free Tier.

 

[bardellm]

Is there a good / simple way to install 3cx to GCP without Deployment Wizard and without Marketplace?

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

The only 3CX Supported methods of deploying in google are:

1. 3CX Customer Deployment wizard which will deploy a 50GB machine on Google and there is no way to change this.
2. Use Google's Marketplace which allows you to specify disk size.

Manually installing 3CX on a Debian machine is no longer supported and WILL render the instance an unsupported configuration so I would not recommend it.

I do not know if Marketplace deployed instances are automatically excluded from Google's free tier but if you are not 100% sure I'd recommend looking into this as that would be the best option for your case, provided of course it indeed is not excluded.

 

[Evolute IT]

I believe any product / image installed from the GCP Marketplace is outside of the free tier.
Google's language is vague:

Google Cloud Marketplace products and Premium OS licenses​

You incur normal expenses for any Google Cloud Marketplace products and premium OS licenses you use, even if your Compute Engine use is covered by the Free Tier.

Actually, what that means is that if the software is paid or the VM size you choose is bigger than freetier ones, then you'll be charged.

Otherwise, it should be okay. I think g1.small or micro is the free one.

 

[bardellm]

Thank you for this. Much appreciated.
It's still a bit vague (Google's wording isn't clear) but according to Google support you are correct. As long as the VM / Instance falls within the free tier limitations, installing 3CX from the Google Marketplace will not take it out of the free tier.
I'll give it a go and confirm back.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Understood! Let us know if anything does come up by starting a new thread!