Version Confusion

[camputer]

We're a new 3CX Partner just getting things started, and I have a couple of questions I'm not sure about:

1. Our NFR key (Standard) shows as 16.0 Update 8 (Build 16) but when I look around it appears that I see v18 available as well. Our 3CX instance (self hosted with locally terminated SIPs) shows as being fully up-to-date. I'm not sure if this is a matter of the PBX being v16 and the SBC being v18 (which we aren't using), or if my 3CX instance is only showing v16 because that's all it's licensed for. If someone could clear that up I would appreciate it.

2. Recently we got the partner email about the partner gift, in the form of a Pro license for us. I was hoping to use that (if this gift can be used internally) so that we can try out some of the Pro features before we start to sell to clients (with one opportunity pending). But I don't see anywhere that this Pro key is available in my Partner Portal. Can anyone make a recommendation on this?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Alphabetic]

1. When you use this key on a v18 install your key will change to v18 too.

 

[Evolute IT]

1. Simply install it and it will update, as @kieferschild said.

2. If you are an Academy partner (new), I am not sure you get one. If you have it, then yes you can use it but keep in mind that it's activated so time is flying.

 

[camputer]

Ok, so just download a v18 installer and install overtop...I wondered if that was the case, but given that we're live on the v16 system I was hesitant to just try that. Thank you for the clarification.

We are a new partner as of last fall, but my understanding is that we get the first year to get our sales up to the $2500 level, which is do-able for us. My assumption was that we're considered Bronze until we fail to meet that $2500 level, but I may have misunderstood. The email does indicate that we've been issued a Pro key, but when I got to subscriptions, I don't see it there... is that where the "gift" keys have shown up for others like yourselves?

 

[Alphabetic]

I would be careful upgrading your license to v18 as it will no longer work on v16 and you'd have to ask 3CX to downgrade your license. You should have 2 NFRs. One for in house the other for testing.

 

[NickD_3CX]

2. Recently we got the partner email about the partner gift, in the form of a Pro license for us. I was hoping to use that (if this gift can be used internally) so that we can try out some of the Pro features before we start to sell to clients (with one opportunity pending). But I don't see anywhere that this Pro key is available in my Partner Portal. Can anyone make a recommendation on this?

If it is the email I am thinking of, a gift Pro key was given to Partners of levels Bronze through Titanium, if you are not in those levels not sure why you got the email, but if you did get one, it should appear in your Partner Portal. To clarify this you could speak with your 3CX Account Manager.

1. Our NFR key (Standard) shows as 16.0 Update 8 (Build 16) but when I look around it appears that I see v18 available as well. Our 3CX instance (self hosted with locally terminated SIPs) shows as being fully up-to-date. I'm not sure if this is a matter of the PBX being v16 and the SBC being v18 (which we aren't using), or if my 3CX instance is only showing v16 because that's all it's licensed for. If someone could clear that up I would appreciate it.

If you currently have V16 installed on a Windows Server, then the upgrade instructions to take it to V18 are these:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/upgrading-pbx/#h.c34e4qzgvobd
Installing "on top" shouldn't work and the installer should give you an error as far as I am aware.
What @kieferschild said is absolutely true, once a key has been activated on a V18, it can no longer be used on a lower version.
As you are using the key on an active system of your own, I'd suggest doing the upgrade as you would for a customer: set a downtime and do it then (if the system is fairly small, shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes tops).

 

[camputer]

I would be careful upgrading your license to v18 as it will no longer work on v16 and you'd have to ask 3CX to downgrade your license. You should have 2 NFRs. One for in house the other for testing.

I do see one Standard NFR which we're using live now (Self Hosted) with locally terminated SIPs. There's a second one that is 3CX hosted, though currently we don't have any cloud based SIPs to use with that, so it's sitting idle.

My thinking was that I wanted to upgrade our live instance to v18, as it sounds like there are some important reasons for doing so (based on some recent email notifications about FQDN issues)...but it does sound like there's some risk to it!

 

[NickD_3CX]

but it does sound like there's some risk to it!

No risks to it at all, most "issues" you have probably read on the forum are for Debian 9 installations trying to upgrade to Debian 10 and V18, and in the majority of the cases, the OS was somehow slightly 'tampered' with, causing them to fail.
Windows installations on the other hand, as they required you to backup, re-install and restore you backup have a much more "predictable" outcome...

Again though, we have had maybe a few hunded issues with Debian upgrades out of the 60.000+ systems that have undergone this process, so still I'd say it's a pretty good statistic...

 

[camputer]

If it is the email I am thinking of, a gift Pro key was given to Partners of levels Bronze through Titanium, if you are not in those levels not sure why you got the email, but if you did get one, it should appear in your Partner Portal. To clarify this you could speak with your 3CX Account Manager.


If you currently have V16 installed on a Windows Server, then the upgrade instructions to take it to V18 are these:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/upgrading-pbx/#h.c34e4qzgvobd
Installing "on top" shouldn't work and the installer should give you an error as far as I am aware.
What @kieferschild said is absolutely true, once a key has been activated on a V18, it can no longer be used on a lower version.
As you are using the key on an active system of your own, I'd suggest doing the upgrade as you would for a customer: set a downtime and do it then (if the system is fairly small, shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes tops).

Thank you for those that reached out about the upgrade, that helped and I will plan for that soon.

I don't see a Pro key listed in the Portal...so I will assume that 3CX has mistakenly sent me that email and that in fact I don't have a Pro key available to use.

As we price an opportunity for one of our customers, our plan all along was to try out the Pro and Enterprise versions internally so that we could confidently sell our customers on some of those features (O365 integration being a big one), but apparently we did our training 4 days too late to get the free NFR upgrade to Enterprise.
If that Pro key isn't available I suppose we'll just purchase one for internal use for now, and hope to make the Bronze sales levels before the end of the current year.

 

[Alphabetic]

Are you not able to give your customers a Try Key for 40 days?

 

[camputer]

Are you not able to give your customers a Try Key for 40 days?

Yes, I'm sure I can. I suppose this is just my IT nature wanting to dot all of the i's and cross all of the t's before I make the pitch to the customer. It's a curse of being a detail-oriented person!