Restore backup on lightsail

[drewt]

Hi,
My instance of V16 running on lightsail got hosed during their outage in Virginia data center on 8/31 and I need to do a restore using the backup that was created nightly in google drive. Can anyone point me to documentation for doing this? Would it be best to delete the instance and the do PBX express to restore the backup, but how long would it take for the DNS to become active under my standard annual license version?

 

[Evolute IT]

Hi,
My instance of V16 running on lightsail got hosed during their outage in Virginia data center on 8/31 and I need to do a restore using the backup that was created nightly in google drive. Can anyone point me to documentation for doing this? Would it be best to delete the instance and the do PBX express to restore the backup, but how long would it take for the DNS to become active under my standard annual license version?

Yes the best is to recreate your instance and upload your backup during install. You can use PBXExpress for that.

Then, DNS will take 6h to take effect. My recommendation: do that an evening, so DNS updates during the night.

 

[drewt]

My dead amazon instance cannot be deleted while the status says pending, so should I click the "Release" button in the customer portal to dis associate my fqdn with the ip of the dead lightsail instance? Or does taking the pbx express restore option release the ip from the fqdn?

 

[Evolute IT]

My dead amazon instance cannot be deleted while the status says pending, so should I click the "Release" button in the customer portal to dis associate my fqdn with the ip of the dead lightsail instance? Or does taking the pbx express restore option release the ip from the fqdn?

When you restore your backup, it will keep the FQDN and simply assign the new IP. No need to release.

The other instance needs to be off or deleted. Pending shouldn't stay long.

 

[drewt]

Frederick, thank you for help with this, I really appreciate it!
I tried to run the pbxexpress restore but produced an error message, saying it could not find the license key info in the backup, evidently I did not include. So now I am going to do a new install route with pbxexpress, and manually upload the backup once its up and running. Should I still not worry about manual release of the IP to my 3cx fqdn?

My lightsail instance is stuck in the pending status for about the last 20 hours, and I have the no support included plan, I will try and email to the billing dept saying delete the dead one and dont bill me for it.

 

[Evolute IT]

Frederick, thank you for help with this, I really appreciate it!
I tried to run the pbxexpress restore but produced an error message, saying it could not find the license key info in the backup, evidently I did not include. So now I am going to do a new install route with pbxexpress, and manually upload the backup once its up and running. Should I still not worry about manual release of the IP to my 3cx fqdn?

My lightsail instance is stuck in the pending status for about the last 20 hours, and I have the no support included plan, I will try and email to the billing dept saying delete the dead one and dont bill me for it.

Okay so if your backup didn't include the license key, here's what I would do, because you CANNOT restore a backup after the instance is setup.

1. Start a new Debian instance manually on Lightsail, open all 3CX required ports and install 3CX using the manual installation (search the docs, easy to find).
2. Choose the web browser setup
3. On the setup web page, upload your backup. It will detect that there's no key and ask for one. You can enter your key there. You should be able to keep the FQDN and the IP will be reassigned correctly.
4. If the key didn't work, release the FQDN and try again, but it should work.

I've done this many times. PBXExpress is not always the best solution

 

[ajnewtexas]

Same issue here with the Amazon failure...still hoping I can get a hold of a backup.

 

[drewt]

Thank you 3cx!!! What an incredible product. (dial by first name directory aside) once I started a new instance with the same 3cx license, !NOT IN VIRGINIA! but in Ohio (far from hurricanes and better/cheaper labor pool) I logged in with the new password, and was able to restore from backups that were in the google drive folder (file path none, right to the root) once I reauthorized the gdrive to use the unique email associated with this account. DO NOT fool with the fqdn "release" button in the license management panel, from what I can find that will release your fqdn, and has nothing to do with the IP. The PBX express INSTANTLY updated the new ip in the license/user control panel. I was worried that my old instance at lightsail would become unstuck and duplicate the license in the new install but I was able to delete it 3 days later after I opened a ticket with billing and complainded that I was paying for a stuck (frozen in pending state) and all is well. Things I noted upon restore:

1) Needed to redo sip trunk as my IP endpoint changed with new IP and my voip provider requires ip authentication and my new Lightsail instance had a new ip, and when I deleted the original trunk to update the ip authentication, it deleted all inbound and outbound routes.

2) DNS update with new ip was thankfully prompt, I have standard free license, and with 5 mins I was able to log into new instance with 3cx fqdn, and with in 1.5 - 2 hours both my sbc's popped back online, and extensions all came up.

3) Lightsail with no support you are on your own, I dont see alot of support on this or any other forums I searched for, and the cheapest support plan is $420 a year, almost the same cost of hosting 10 vms for a year. They do have a "incident health report" that within 20 mins told me that my underlying VMS was dying, and that they were on it. 2 hours later they update with info about power failure, see below.

PS
Whats up with that Lightsail VA zone-A datacenter? Ok, power goes out, and the standby power lays down? That is INEXCUSABLE!!! you fork over top dollar and you get this?? Suggest load testing the standby gensets, I used to sell emergency genset load banking, it's required for hospitals around here, should be datacenter 101, but Im going to take my chances in OH untill I can find a more reliable host.

 

[drewt]

Does any one have any insight on Lightsail alternatives? If Lightsail cant provide support for the small user who they made Lightsail for, whats your favorite?

Thank you [B]Frederick Marcoux[/B]! on a labor day saturday at 10am he took time to reply to my post, and gave me valuable direction!

Thank you