Upgrading from v15.5 to v16

[noetek818]

Hello everyone, any input would be greatly appreciated.
So right now I have a physical computer running 3CX 15.5. I want to upgrade to V16 BUT I want to host it on the cloud now.
I downloaded a demo of V16 and started a trial on Google Cloud Platform just to test it out.
I went through the whole process of installing V16 but nowhere did it give me an option to upload my backup from 15.5. I have lots of custom inbound rules and configurations that I wouldn't want to manually have to re-do.

Once my V16 was up and running in google, I was able to log into the management console. I went to "backup and restore" uploaded my backup but I got an error saying that I need to upload my backup during the installation.

So in a nutshell. Any way to upload my backup config zip file from 15.5 to a new google hosted V16 install?

 

[Allen_Miller]

Not sure if I follow your steps exactly. It sounds like you are using two words as one - restore and upload.
You should, if you haven't already, upload your v15.5 backup to your v16 cloud pbx so that it will appear in your list of backup in the management console. Next, highlight that backup and select the Restore menu option. Does that help?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi @noetek818

I think you just got a free trial with a 3CX hosted instance.

What you need is to have your own Google account to host your session and using PBX Express to restore your backup. This will build an instance for you in your own hosting solution (i.e Google), install 3CX, and restore your backup all in one go. It can be done by going through here and choosing restore https://pbxexpress.3cx.com/

 

[noetek818]

You are the man!!...i do see it option to "restore 3cx in the cloud" thank you so much!

 

[noetek818]

@JohnS_3CX
Do you know if i can start doing this while i have my current physical box running to eliminate as much downtime as possible?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

You can but I would not recommend it, best to plan a little bit of downtime especially since the IP will change and your FQDN will take a little while to update to the new IP from the existing one held by your physical box. Also since this is in the cloud, plan ahead as to how the phones will communicate with the PBX (i.e will it be over SBC, STUN, VPN)

 

[big.LITTLE]

Hello everyone, any input would be greatly appreciated.
So right now I have a physical computer running 3CX 15.5. I want to upgrade to V16 BUT I want to host it on the cloud now.
I downloaded a demo of V16 and started a trial on Google Cloud Platform just to test it out.
I went through the whole process of installing V16 but nowhere did it give me an option to upload my backup from 15.5. I have lots of custom inbound rules and configurations that I wouldn't want to manually have to re-do.

Once my V16 was up and running in google, I was able to log into the management console. I went to "backup and restore" uploaded my backup but I got an error saying that I need to upload my backup during the installation.

So in a nutshell. Any way to upload my backup config zip file from 15.5 to a new google hosted V16 install?

Here's my successful experience on how to migrate 3CX v15.5 (Windows) to 3CX v16 (Debian Linux)

Project: Scenario:

• We have an old v15.5 3CX installation on a Windows Server 2016 on Microsoft Azure
• We used 3CX v15.5 - Update 2 (v15.5.6354.2) FULL installer that was released on 1st November 2017
• Before the migration process, the instance was updated to v15.5 - Update 6 (v15.5.15502.6 / released on 30th August 2018) from the 3CX Management Portal
• The perpetual v15 license was expired and will need to apply for a new v16 license on the new instance
• Existing 3CX Public FQDN to be preserved (no need to re-provision phones)

Goal:

• Create an instance on the on-premise Hyper-V server
• Migrate 3CX instance from Azure to on-premise Hyper-V virtualisation

Steps were taken:

1. Create a full backup on the old v15.5 instance except leaving the (1) License Key Information & FQDN, and (2) Custom Templates, Logos and Firmwares backup option unticked.
2. Download the backup.zip and save local computer
3. Setup new instance on Hyper-V, depending on your requirements, but I used the following specifications:
   • Hyper-V generation 1
   • 2 virtual processors
   • 1 GB of memory
   • 32GB of disk space
4. Started the VM and booted debian-amd64-netinst-3cx.iso
5. Run through the installation process, on the disk partitioning, I used all space in the disk, removed the swap, and re-created a single partition for the '/' mount point (yes, without any swap partition)
6. After 3CX installed, select option number 1 (i.e. to configure the 3CX using the web interface)
7. Select restore from backup and select the backup.zip we took on step 2, then it will prompt for a new license key (as we didn't include license in the backup)
8. You will also be prompted to specify your local FQDN, you can use either local IP or FQDN, I'd suggest using FQDN if you have access to the local DNS server, so you can make something like 'pbx.intra.company.tld'
9. Enter the new v16 license key here and it will then begin the restore process and re-activate your pre-existing 3CX FQDN

Notes:

• In the new 3CX v16 you will see your trunk number is +1 (and that's invisible) that's because the added WebMeeting bridge shows up as a trunk and this is what you are seeing on your dashboard, so in v16, trunks are now consist of:
  • SIP Trunks
  • SIP Gateway (Trunks)
  • Bridges (Remote Office Connectivity)
  • WebMeeting Dial-In
    Please note that V16 has an added Webmeeting bridge which allows users to dial into Webmeetings. This counts as a trunk in the Trunk counter and it is normal as all bridges count as trunks. So even if you do not have a trunk configured the counter will display 1/1.
• If you use 'restore from backup' option, reinstalling 3CX will not change the public FQDN.

I hope this experience-based tutorial useful for you, let me know if you have any question by commenting down below, and I'm happy to answer (y)