Solved Restore to new instance

[cpcali]

Hi All - here is a back story, skip to the questions below if you'd like (in bold)
I onboarded 6 months ago. I own an MSP and planned to move all of my clients over from the old (unreliable) VOIP carrier. Between finding out none of the voip phones from my old provider will work with 3cX, and having to move our offices which involves also moving several clients since we're all in the same office building, I decided to make the strategic decision to postpone the massive migration (that I still really want to do) until 1st quarter 2022.
What I forgot was I had built my own company's phone system on 3cX in an NFR key that would be downgraded after 6 mos. Without a friendly reminder email, or any communication at all - they downgraded us this week causing all of our queues to stop working including sms and calls. This is a huge problem since its our main support line.
I'm absolutely happy to pay for our instance but 3cX offers no way to simply flip the switch and let me start paying - I have to create a new instance. And I can't do that during business hours. So this morning on a Saturday I came in to do the migration, but all the instructions I read say that after I create a backup of the old instance I am to shut down the old instance and restore it to the new instance.
That leads me to 2 questions
Everywhere I look on the old instance - there is no shutdown, only Restart (if I look from the portal in instances and press the big POWER button it only offers Restart). How do I shut it down?
Then on the restoration of backup - it seems to only want to restore backups made by that new instance. How do I upload a backup made by a different instance? I see the options for FTP, SFTP, etc. Do I really need to create an FTP server or Google Storage JSON to do this? That seems extreme rather than just uploading a file.

I really wish 3cX would see the relationship between their company and MSP's as a partnership. My sales person was not only unhelpful in this, but even suggesting since I was told 6 months ago what would happen, I should have known. Which is true of course - but not giving us the option to just start paying, or at least warning us it was coming? Then they kept the $75 for the support ticket in which supports only help was to tell me this was a sales problem and I need to contact my sales person. These are not good partner qualities!

Thanks for any help!
C

 

[Evolute IT]

L

Hi All - here is a back story, skip to the questions below if you'd like (in bold)
I onboarded 6 months ago. I own an MSP and planned to move all of my clients over from the old (unreliable) VOIP carrier. Between finding out none of the voip phones from my old provider will work with 3cX, and having to move our offices which involves also moving several clients since we're all in the same office building, I decided to make the strategic decision to postpone the massive migration (that I still really want to do) until 1st quarter 2022.
What I forgot was I had built my own company's phone system on 3cX in an NFR key that would be downgraded after 6 mos. Without a friendly reminder email, or any communication at all - they downgraded us this week causing all of our queues to stop working including sms and calls. This is a huge problem since its our main support line.
I'm absolutely happy to pay for our instance but 3cX offers no way to simply flip the switch and let me start paying - I have to create a new instance. And I can't do that during business hours. So this morning on a Saturday I came in to do the migration, but all the instructions I read say that after I create a backup of the old instance I am to shut down the old instance and restore it to the new instance.
That leads me to 2 questions
Everywhere I look on the old instance - there is no shutdown, only Restart (if I look from the portal in instances and press the big POWER button it only offers Restart). How do I shut it down?
Then on the restoration of backup - it seems to only want to restore backups made by that new instance. How do I upload a backup made by a different instance? I see the options for FTP, SFTP, etc. Do I really need to create an FTP server or Google Storage JSON to do this? That seems extreme rather than just uploading a file.

I really wish 3cX would see the relationship between their company and MSP's as a partnership. My sales person was not only unhelpful in this, but even suggesting since I was told 6 months ago what would happen, I should have known. Which is true of course - but not giving us the option to just start paying, or at least warning us it was coming? Then they kept the $75 for the support ticket in which supports only help was to tell me this was a sales problem and I need to contact my sales person. These are not good partner qualities!

Thanks for any help!

Okay so, you shouldn't need to create a new instance to go from NFR to Commercial. You cannot do the inverse tho, just so you know. You should be able to just replace the license key in Settings > License, if you have access. If you don't, then it means you're Hosted by 3CX and they will need to do the switch, if they can.

As for the key being downgraded, it was actually stated in the Partner Agreement that a Trainee Partner is downgraded to Affiliate if you don't reach a certain minimum, and that comes with Std NFR instead of Enterprise.

Now, to backup and restore, you would need to create a backup on the current system without license key, then shutdown that machine (wherever it is hosted) to then be able to create a new one, enter your new key and restore the backup during setup/provisioning. That is only if replacing the license doesn't work.

 

[cpcali]

L

Okay so, you shouldn't need to create a new instance to go from NFR to Commercial. You cannot do the inverse tho, just so you know. You should be able to just replace the license key in Settings > License, if you have access. If you don't, then it means you're Hosted by 3CX and they will need to do the switch, if they can.

As for the key being downgraded, it was actually stated in the Partner Agreement that a Trainee Partner is downgraded to Affiliate if you don't reach a certain minimum, and that comes with Std NFR instead of Enterprise.

Now, to backup and restore, you would need to create a backup on the current system without license key, then shutdown that machine (wherever it is hosted) to then be able to create a new one, enter your new key and restore the backup during setup/provisioning. That is only if replacing the license doesn't work.

Frederick - thank you for trying to help!

It is hosted by 3CX.
They are the ones who told me I can not switch from NFR to Commercial.
I understand the agreement, I'm willing to fulfill it, I wish they had sent an email before switching my license 6 months after I made the agreement and giving me the option to do something about it instead of losing my company's phone system.

I can't find where to shut down the old instance.
I'm having trouble restoring the backup to the new instance, but I'm trying Google Storage now just can't find how to create private key. Still need the old instance shut down first.

 

[Evolute IT]

Well, in this case, why not buy enough licenses for your customers you plan to move, for a value of 2500$? This way, you get promoted to Bronze partner and get your Ent NFR back automatically. Then, all you have to do is refresh the license from the Dashboard. You wouldn't have to rebuild the system.

 

[cpcali]

Well, in this case, why not buy enough licenses for your customers you plan to move, for a value of 2500$? This way, you get promoted to Bronze partner and get your Ent NFR back automatically. Then, all you have to do is refresh the license from the Dashboard. You wouldn't have to rebuild the system.

Frederick - I appreciate the help, but I don't think I want to loan $2500 to 3cx for 6 mos instead of finding the way to shut down an instance.
Do you happen to know how to shut down a hosted instance?

 

[cpcali]

I now have Google Storage connected following this guide. I then uploaded my backup from my old instance and went to my backup/restore console in the new instance, but it doesn't show up there.

1. I thought perhaps if I did a backup from the new instance it would kind of "wake up" the connection between the 2 and show both the old instance backup and the new backup - but only the new backup shows.
2. And instead of going to the subfolder I created in my Google Storage (3cx_backups per the instructions), it went into the root (even though subfolder is also selected in Google Storage Location option in backup/restore)
3. Tried moving my old instance backup from the subfolder to the root, AND THAT WORKED!
4. not logical, but hey - we're there!
5. So now - I just need to shut down the old instance and I can restore to my new instance!

 

[Evolute IT]

I now have Google Storage connected following this guide. I then uploaded my backup from my old instance and went to my backup/restore console in the new instance, but it doesn't show up there.

1. I thought perhaps if I did a backup from the new instance it would kind of "wake up" the connection between the 2 and show both the old instance backup and the new backup - but only the new backup shows.
2. And instead of going to the subfolder I created in my Google Storage (3cx_backups per the instructions), it went into the root (even though subfolder is also selected in Google Storage Location option in backup/restore)
3. Tried moving my old instance backup from the subfolder to the root, AND THAT WORKED!
4. not logical, but hey - we're there!
5. So now - I just need to shut down the old instance and I can restore to my new instance!

@NikosT_3CX will be able to shutdown the machine from their side.

 

[cpcali]

I FOUND IT!!
https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/delete-instance-hosted-by-3cx.75573/ - this showed me how to shut down my own hosted nfr instance.
I restored the backup to my new instance. I then had the following issues:

• My SBC didn't come back up (as expected) but I couldn't figure out how to reconfigure it with new instance - this link was the key (as opposed to link on the Raspberry Pi SBC config page 3cx has)
• wget https://downloads-global.3cx.com/downloads/sbc/3cxsbc.zip -O- | sudo bash
• Then outbound calling wouldn't work because 3CXEventNotificationManager and 3CXMediaServer services won't start.
  • I tried restarting the services, I also tried restarting the whole instance.
  • Any ideas on that one?

 

[Evolute IT]

I FOUND IT!!
https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/delete-instance-hosted-by-3cx.75573/ - this showed me how to shut down my own hosted nfr instance.
I restored the backup to my new instance. I then had the following issues:

• My SBC didn't come back up (as expected) but I couldn't figure out how to reconfigure it with new instance - this link was the key (as opposed to link on the Raspberry Pi SBC config page 3cx has)
• wget https://downloads-global.3cx.com/downloads/sbc/3cxsbc.zip -O- | sudo bash
• Then outbound calling wouldn't work because 3CXEventNotificationManager and 3CXMediaServer services won't start.
  • I tried restarting the services, I also tried restarting the whole instance.
  • Any ideas on that one?

Maybe the backup wasn't restored fully? Did you receive the confirmation email?

The SBC might need a reinstall if your FQDN changed.

As for the services, that's kinda bad.

 

[cpcali]

SBC Is fixed, as I said that link was the key.
I just need call service back now. I opened a ticket with 3cX, but would love to have this working before business hours on Monday.

 

[Evolute IT]

SBC Is fixed, as I said that link was the key.
I just need call service back now. I opened a ticket with 3cX, but would love to have this working before business hours on Monday.

Have you tried simply rebooting? Also, is this new instance hosted as well?

 

[cpcali]

I found a clue in the 3cxMediaServer.log:
14:34:52.952|7fdebc4a7c00| Info|Service.cpp(877): 9:Tenant: Instance1 already connected

I verified the old nfr instance is shut down. I'll try rebooting it again.

 

[Evolute IT]

I found a clue in the 3cxMediaServer.log:
14:34:52.952|7fdebc4a7c00| Info|Service.cpp(877): 9:Tenant: Instance1 already connected

I verified the old nfr instance is shut down. I'll try rebooting it again.

That sounds like there's 2 instances of 3CX installed.

Did you use the Hosted by 3CX this time around?

 

[cpcali]

Thanks for trying to help Frederick.
All 3cx hosted, no other hosting involved for old or new.
My web client can make outbound calls, just not sip phone.
Outbound text messages work, not inbound.

 

[Evolute IT]

Thanks for trying to help Frederick.
All 3cx hosted, no other hosting involved for old or new.
My web client can make outbound calls, just not sip phone.
Outbound text messages work, not inbound.

Inbound might require a change of webhook.

As for the SIP phones, are they using the SBC? If so, they should come back.

Did all the services start?