Windows to Debian

[ITSP]

Looking for advise on 3 things:

1. With the pending increase in fees for the Windows version of 3CX (we're currently on V18 Update 9A), we're looking at moving to Debian. My question is, what's the best way to do the transition? Can we just create a new VM (we use VMware), create a backup of the config from the old Windows VM and then restore it on the new VM?

2. Our license does not renew until November, so I am hoping that by that time, V20 Update 1 has been released (because we use hotdesking). Should we wait until then to do the transition (1 time downtime) or is it better to transition first from Windows to Debian now prior to updating from V18 to V20U1 or update first to V20U1 before transitioning from Windows to Debian?

3. We're also looking at moving to cloud (i.e. no more on-prem physical servers) because by mid next year, the last of our on-prem services AD and Exchange will move to Azure AD / Exchange Online. The problem is, we're not using any of the 3CX VoIP providers because we are locked to using the SIP service of one of the encumbent telcos. We also have over 129 physical phones, most of which are old Polycoms (we created our own custom templates). Is it possible to move 3CX to cloud (we can do self-hosted in Azure)? It'd be a shame to have to keep a server on-site just for this.

Any advise / recommendations are appreciated.

 

[SweetAction]

1. With the pending increase in fees for the Windows version of 3CX (we're currently on V18 Update 9A), we're looking at moving to Debian. My question is, what's the best way to do the transition? Can we just create a new VM (we use VMware), create a backup of the config from the old Windows VM and then restore it on the new VM?

Correct. Make sure to shut down the Windows VM first before restoring the backup to the Debian VM

2. Our license does not renew until November, so I am hoping that by that time, V20 Update 1 has been released (because we use hotdesking). Should we wait until then to do the transition (1 time downtime) or is it better to transition first from Windows to Debian now prior to updating from V18 to V20U1 or update first to V20U1 before transitioning from Windows to Debian?

I would do it now - no reason to wait.

3. We're also looking at moving to cloud (i.e. no more on-prem physical servers) because by mid next year, the last of our on-prem services AD and Exchange will move to Azure AD / Exchange Online. The problem is, we're not using any of the 3CX VoIP providers because we are locked to using the SIP service of one of the encumbent telcos. We also have over 129 physical phones, most of which are old Polycoms (we created our own custom templates). Is it possible to move 3CX to cloud (we can do self-hosted in Azure)? It'd be a shame to have to keep a server on-site just for this.

If you self host in Azure, you can build a site2site tunnel, and your PRI/telephone service AND your polycom phones can run over that tunnel, as if they were in LAN. If you self host you can run your own templates.