Two seperate issues from v16 to v18 upgrade (Bridge & License)

[teenet_au]

Hi,

Just tried a v16 to v18 upgrade on one of our sites and ran across two major issues. Luckly I took a VM snapshot first and could quickly revert back to v16

1. The bridge from our site still on v16 could not connect to the updated v18 site. Error message on v16 (slave) site as below however v18 (master) shows no messages:


2. The activity log was filling up with "feature is disabled..." messages at a rate of 6 messages per second. We have Enterprise Annual licence which is active until March 2022 at both sites.



As I said I have reverted back to v16 for now but anyone have any ideas about these errors before I attempt another upgrade like:

do both sites need to be on same version (i.e. v18) for bridge to work?
is the above licence message related to bridge issue or is it BLF related although BLF keys on handsets still seemed to work as far as I could tell?

 

[Evolute IT]

Bridges do require both systems to run the same version. This is specified in the blog post.

 

[teenet_au]

Bridges do require both systems to run the same version. This is specified in the blog post.

Thanks, I missed that bit. Not brave enough to upgrade both sites at same time yet so I think I will leave it a few months for v18 to settle down.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

@teenet_au

The errors you saw suggest that the License was not activating indicating that there may have been a communication issue between the PBX and our activation servers (activation.3cx.com).

Also, downgrading is not possible so the process you described might cause issues. As a precautionary measure could you send me the first 8 characters of this License Key via a PM so that I can have a quick look on our end?

 

[teenet_au]

@ChrisC_3CX I have PM'd you with first 8 characters of key. Would appear as though it did not activate under v18 as looking in partner portal is still showing v16.0 Update 8 against the key.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

As per our PM conversation, it indeed seems that the License Key is still on version 16, probably meaning that the 3CX PBX did not contact our activation after the upgrade.

That said, before you proceed with upgrading to v18, make sure all involved 3CX Instances can contact activation.3cx.com on TCP port 443 and that there are no network/firewall restrictions/services that may be hindering this connection.

Once the upgrade to 3CX v18 is complete, navigate to "Settings >> License", click on "Edit >> OK" and then "Refresh License Key information" to check whether you receive an error or not.

Note: Do bear in mind that if a key does get upgraded to v18, it can no longer be activated on a v16 installation.

 

[teenet_au]

@ChrisC_3CX Thanks! I was unaware that once licence is upgraded you cannot go back. I am actually glad it did not activate then. I did the "Refresh Licence Key" but did not get a response so obviosusly the UTM must be blocking it so I will need to look in to that.

So I guess that answers both my questions

1. Yes both need same version for bridge; and
2. Licence errors were due to not being able to refresh license activating v18

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

In continuation to our PM conversation, it seems the PBX can now contact our activation servers so, as long as this is still the case upon upgrading to v18, everything should be fine.