Switch SBC on the fly

[EWS]

Hi all,
I currently have a bunch of phones I want to register to a customers 3CX before I go on site and actually hand out the phones to the customer during the switch from their old PBX to 3CX. I have a second SBC to their hosted by 3CX PBX set up in our offices and provision the phones through that.
Once I am on site I'd like to simply switch out the SBC to the proper one. Is that possible at all? How do the phones get the update that they are now assigned to a new SBC? Is there another way to achieve what I want?
I'd really like to have all the phones properly set up before I go on site to minimize downtime.

 

[SteveITS]

I would not do it that way. When turned on the phones find the 3CX server and pull the config. If you add the phone into 3CX using its MAC address, you can pick the SBC (or set it afterwards). Unbox or plug in the phone on site and it will pull its config. For a recent client they were a bit budget sensitive so they set up the phones themselves and we didn't even go on site. I set up two as router phones, didn't even unbox the others, and they picked them all up.

 

[SweetAction]

I have, in the past, setup a SBC and done some local DNS modification, to make the hostname of the client's SBC resolve to the local SBC. Then program the phones and ship them out. When the client plugs in the phone, it is already programmed for the correct hostname of the SBC and just works.

 

[SteveITS]

To maybe clarify what I wrote above, I meant, add the phone to 3CX before unboxing the phone. It will self configure if the phone is plugged in within 2 weeks. All setting changes can be made in 3CX before the phone is unboxed.

@SweetAction Interesting, I thought 3CX only used the IP for SBCs?

 

[SweetAction]

@SweetAction Interesting, I thought 3CX only used the IP for SBCs?

Pre v18u5 IIRC, you could free form an address. We always made it a DNS address so that a SBC could change IPs and we wouldn't need to update any phones, just DNS.

I haven't dug in, but something is pointing the phones at the correct IP nowadays, because you can change a SBC IP and reboot the phone and it will pull the new proxy address in. Otherwise, just match IP addresses.

 

[SteveITS]

Ok thanks. I have repointed phones before also, e.g. SBC to router phone. May have just been able to reprovision? Though the SBC was still live at the time on the one of which I am thinking.