System completely down and support proving challenging

[NEIL DEVONPORT]

Hoping someone can help as I am getting nowhere with the 3CX team which is frustrating. I am a 3CX reseller and have not completed all the modules (its not particularly relevant however was thrown at me when trying to resolve some issues). There has been lots of messages including an email about 3CX Version 18 and, based on this, I upgraded our own company system to this having made a backup. NOTE: DO NOT UPGRADE TO VERSION 18.

We are only a small business with a couple of staff and a few sip lines so fairly easy stuff. Two days ago our system went offline after no communication from 3CX, it appears 3CX is no longer providing their own hosting to Australia and ours should never have happened.

Using the backup copy we attempted a new install on Amazon and Lightsail however, for version 18, you cant install from backup, which you could do in previous versions. So, having no phone system working, as a 3CX partner we contacted customer support. We were told we would have to downgrade to version 16 which we happily agreed to do and they were to do this for us as ONLY THEY CAN. 24 hours later and its become clear the people we are messaging are not interested in this issue, its clear its a known issue.

As they disconnected our hosting and we cant access it, we cant get the version 16 backup. After more messages, we are being told to setup again and upgrade to version 18 and then restore... it kind of raises questions why we have been off line for 24 hours considering we are starting again.

Has anyone else experiences these issues with the 3CX team and is this common?

Many thanks for your feedback, Cheers Neil

 

[NickD_3CX]

Hi Neil,

I have read your post a couple of times and to be honest I haven't yet quite understood the exact problem you are having.
Is it not having a backup? That your Hosted 3CX was deleted (there was warning for this btw)? Not being able to setup Google Storage again on your new install?
Also I don't understand why you are urging people to not upgrade to V18 (we have many thousands of system already with very few issues)?

What I did understand though is the Amazon/Lightsail, if you deploy from the Customer Portal, it creates a brand new installation for you and you have to restore your backup from within the Management Console.

If you prefer to restore during the installation, use one of the Marketplace deployment guides and this way, you will get asked if you want to upload a backup file (e.g. Amazon Marketplace guide).

Other than this, could you maybe, tell us the preceise problem you are running into?

PS: I converted the title to lower-case, caps makes me think you are shouting, best stay calm to get to the resolution quickly.

 

[NEIL DEVONPORT]

Hi Neil,

I have read your post a couple of times and to be honest I haven't yet quite understood the exact problem you are having.
Is it not having a backup? That your Hosted 3CX was deleted (there was warning for this btw)? Not being able to setup Google Storage again on your new install?
Also I don't understand why you are urging people to not upgrade to V18 (we have many thousands of system already with very few issues)?

What I did understand though is the Amazon/Lightsail, if you deploy from the Customer Portal, it creates a brand new installation for you and you have to restore your backup from within the Management Console.

If you prefer to restore during the installation, use one of the Marketplace deployment guides and this way, you will get asked if you want to upload a backup file (e.g. Amazon Marketplace guide).

Other than this, could you maybe, tell us the preceise problem you are running into?

PS: I converted the title to lower-case, caps makes me think you are shouting, best stay calm to get to the resolution quickly.

Hi Nick, Happy to provide answers to your questions:
1. The exact problem is, our system is completely down and for 24 hours I have had a series of emails with your team which to be fair, they clearly dont read each others content, the messages have been hopeless and contradictory resulting in a 24 hour delay... A suggestion would be to use a proper ticketing system so one department would actually know what the other was doing. To be clear, I have now given up and said I no-longer require responses as its pretty clear I am wasting my time with the team on duty which is disappointing but support is generally via the forum which your company is quite honest about so I really shouldn't expect anything else.
2. I have an old backup but had been waiting for your team to downgrade from version 18 to 16 so I could get a new backup... something that was never happening apparently and, with no access to the 3cx version, not sure why I was waiting for this to be done
3. ''That your Hosted 3CX was deleted (there was warning for this btw), if you're suggesting one email to spam is reasonable before shutting down someones phone system, despite you guys having all of our contact details, I'm not sure that would be seen as reasonable by most customers never mind 'partners'.
4. ''Also I don't understand why you are urging people to not upgrade to V18 (we have many thousands of system already with very few issues)?'' Because your documentation hasnt been updated to reflect this i.e. there is a lack of process information on this for when things go wrong, if something goes wrong, it seems to be an excuse and, you cant reinstall v18 using pbxexpress... a significant change that hasnt been mentioned well.
5. As for the Google server issue, this has now been resolved thanks to Google chat team
6. ''PS: I converted the title to lower-case, caps makes me think you are shouting, best stay calm to get to the resolution quickly'' Titles are often in capitals but, no worries, appreciate your concern, I am quite calm... after all, I have a client install in 6 hours and, my own system doesnt work so yeah, it is all roses here

 

[NickD_3CX]

Ok, so let me see if I have this straight to try and see how we can sort this out:

• You currently have a V18 backup from the the Hosted machine that was shut down.
• You want to restore the backup on a new machine in a Hosting Provide of your choice (Amazon/Lightsail)

If this is the case, could you please tell me if the backup was taken with the option "License Key Information, FQDN & Conference" checked?

Also, could you please send me the first 8 digits of the license key of the Hosted machine that was shut down in a PM?

 

[NEIL DEVONPORT]

Ok, so let me see if I have this straight to try and see how we can sort this out:

• You currently have a V18 backup from the the Hosted machine that was shut down.

>>>>Yes

• You want to restore the backup on a new machine in a Hosting Provide of your choice (Amazon/Lightsail)

>>>>Yes

If this is the case, could you please tell me if the backup was taken with the option "License Key Information, FQDN & Conference" checked?

>>>>I wouldnt know, unfortunately I dont have access to anything to verify. I am now building a new version as simply, I have wasted 24 hours in this process already, glad it wasnt a client as they would be expecting compensation

Also, could you please send me the first 8 digits of the license key of the Hosted machine that was shut down in a PM?

>>>This has been confirmed to your team already

 

[NickD_3CX]

>>>This has been confirmed to your team already

I was asking for a slightly different reason, to see if there is some way you could get a new backup from this system without this option checked, so I could then give you instructions how to get up and running again.

Would that help if it's possible, or will you continue setting up your new 3CX anew?

 

[NEIL DEVONPORT]

I was asking for a slightly different reason, to see if there is some way you could get a new backup from this system without this option checked, so I could then give you instructions how to get up and running again.

Would that help if it's possible, or will you continue setting up your new 3CX anew?

Hi Nick, I certainly appreciate the interest, sadly, 24 hours too late but i'm still interested in others experiences i.e. other users. Its now 3am, almost 2 days after this saga started and I am going to bed. If nothing else, its been interesting to see what I can expect or not expect from 3CX. I understand from your team I couldnt get a new backup, certainly it wasnt offered. I again reiterate, if you cant support the new version including restoring backups, dont have it available, it really is that simple.

 

[NickD_3CX]

I again reiterate, if you cant support the new version including restoring backups, dont have it available, it really is that simple.

Of course you can, but there have always been a few limitations like:
- You can't restore a backup from a newer version (e.g. V18) onto an older system (e.g. V16).
- You can't restore a backup that contains License Key A onto a system that's been installed with License Key B.

I'm sorry to hear that the experience you had was not good. If you want, send me the details of who you spoke with and the tickets you opened so I can see where amd how things went wrong, in a PM ofcourse.

 

[Anaphylaxis]

- You can't restore a backup that contains License Key A onto a system that's been installed with License Key B.

This is the exact reason we leave backing up the license information off. Why is this even a 'feature'?

 

[NickD_3CX]

This is the exact reason we leave backing up the license information off. Why is this even a 'feature'?

Because to restore a backup when creating a "Hosted by 3CX" instance via the Customer Portal, the wizard asks you for a backup that includes this information.

Other than that, it is one more option that you have.
I have spoken to a lot of 3CX users that have left their system running for so long with auto-backup and auto-updates, that they don't even remember their key.
In the unlikely event that something did happen to the machine, they would just grab one of their backups and throw it onto a new installation without having to remember the key.

 

[Alphabetic]

Interesting read.

So are we saying backing up the license key isnt a good idea?

How much of an inconvenience is this to restore during a restore without this in it?

Is that just a case of manually adding in the key again and it pulls the FQDN back?

 

[NickD_3CX]

Interesting read.

So are we saying backing up the license key isnt a good idea?

How much of an inconvenience is this to restore during a restore without this in it?

Is that just a case of manually adding in the key again and it pulls the FQDN back?

Yes, in a regular case, when restoring a backup without a Lic Key and FQDN,, you would have to input the key and the FQDN gets pulled automatically (if it hasn't been released).

Oh, and that Backup option also stores the Scheduled Video Conferences, so if you make backups without it and restore on a new system, the conferences are gone:

 

[Anaphylaxis]

with auto-backup and auto-updates, that they don't even remember their key.

It seems like this is treating the symptoms rather than the issue. Why isn't the FQDN registered to the key visible in our license key portal? This would eliminate forgetting which PBX belongs to what license

stores the Scheduled Video Conferences

Can this be separate, so we can back up scheduled conferences without backing up the key?

 

[NickD_3CX]

Why isn't the FQDN registered to the key visible in our license key portal?

It is.

Can this be separate, so we can back up scheduled conferences without backing up the key?

No, those are also in a way tied to your FQDN, which also means the Key.

 

[Anaphylaxis]

It is.

When you click it maybe, is there a way to add it to the table view at https://customer.3cx.com/prm/mykeys.aspx?

 

[NickD_3CX]

In the new Customer/Partner Portal I believe it will be a bit more obvious from a few glimpses I've seen.