Managing Your Phone System

Dashboard

The dashboard page shows key information and health status about your system in one easy-to-understand view, grouped by:

  • Warning Banner
  • Present if there is an issue or pending Licence renewal that should be addressed.
  • System Information
  • License Information & Expiry
  • Partner
  • License Owner
  • 3CX Version
  • FQDN
  • Install Type
  • Network Ports
  • IP Addresses
  • Active Calls
  • Multi Company mode status
  • User/Ext. - Shows the number of extensions in use and the licensed maximum.
  • System Extensions
  • Active Connections shortcut
  • Audit Log status
  • System Maintenance
  • System Updates status
  • Automatic Updates status
  • IP Phone Firmware status
  • Remote Storage status
  • Automatic Backup with Trigger times
  • Maintenance (shortcut to local disk space management)
  • Recording local storage status
  • Voicemail local storage status
  • Call Log size and Purge
  • Chat Log status, size and options
  • Troubleshooting
  • Services shortcut
  • Restart OS shortcut
  • Capture for network packet capturing
  • Support Info, generate and download
  • Activity logs shortcut
  • Firewall status & Firewall Checker shortcut
  • Remote Access
  • Request Support ticket creator
  • Export Health
  • Optimize Database shortcut
  • Diagnostics exporter (System Info, IP Config, Overview, Processes, Connections)

The Dashboard also includes an Event Log panel showing recent system events, with Download and Alerts controls.

Event Log

The ‘Event log’ is a key administrator tool, as it shows important system events that will help you to keep your system healthy. Events are split into 3 categories - Error, Warning and Information. Each event has a unique ID. Example events:

  • An emergency number is dialed (ID 4099).
  • SIP trunk status change(s) (ID 4100).
  • A trunk failover occurs, i.e. the backup rule is triggered (ID 12289).
  • The license limit has been reached (ID 8193), i.e. consider upgrading your license if the 3CX license limit on concurrent call events occurs frequently.
  • The full list of PBX event logs can be found here.

You can set notification email alerts for critical events in Admin > System > Alerts.

Audit Log

Audit logs record actions by administrators and group managers so you can review configuration changes. Access your audit logs from the System Information section in Admin > Dashboard, or go to Admin > Reports > Audit Log. Recording downloads are also recorded in the Audit Log.

Keeping Your System Updated

The "Updates" function enables you to keep your system up to date. You can access it in Admin > System > Updates. Under Automatic Updates, enable 3CX Updates to install updates according to your configured schedule. The separate Security Hotfixes checkbox enables automatic installation of security patches during a fixed maintenance window. Security hotfixes may reboot the PBX. Debian OS updates are also applied automatically when automatic updates are enabled.

3CX updates are downloaded and grouped into a number of product tracks, which are shown on the Updates panel in separate sections. The list below is not exhaustive:

  • Updates - 3CX PBX
  • AI - 3CX PBX AI Subsystem
  • SBC Remote Locations - 3CX standalone SBC
  • Phone Templates - New and updated IP Phone templates
  • SIP Trunks - SIP Trunk Provider templates
  • OS Security Updates - Debian security updates

New certified firmware for supported phones on your network is downloaded automatically. To apply firmware updates automatically, go to Admin > Phones > Options and enable "Keep existing phones up to date on a schedule". Otherwise, apply firmware updates manually from Admin > Phones. See IP Phone Firmware Management.

3CX releases beta versions to enable testing prior to installation on production systems. Beta releases are included in ‘Updates’, so that you can optionally install them for testing. When upgrading to a Beta or Release Candidate (RC), you may need to install intermediate updates in sequence. Once the final release is available, you can upgrade directly from the previous final release in a single step.

IMPORTANT - You can not roll back a system to a previous version!

Disk Space Management

One of the main causes for system downtime is when the system runs out of disk space. To minimize the impact of a busy PBX system on system resources, especially disk space for call logs, recordings and voicemail, these system administration best practices are recommended:

  • Configure a Remote Storage Location.
  • In Admin > System > Storage, enable "Remote Data Storage & Archive" to off-load data to remote storage.
  • In Admin > Recordings > Settings, configure "Delete temporary recordings older than".
  • In Admin > System > Voicemail, set "Voicemail Quota, GB" and enable "Automatically delete all voicemails older than"; then set the number of days to keep voicemail files before deletion.
  • Periodically purge old Call Logs - In Admin > System > Maintenance, select  All, Older than 1 month, Older than 1 year or Filter by Date.
  • Regularly purge Chat Logs - Go to Admin > System > Maintenance to purge chat logs by date range.
  • Auto - Close - Enabling this option adds a daily schedule task to close and archive active queue and ring group chats that exceed the specified period.
  • Auto - Clean - Enabling this option adds a daily scheduled task  to purge chats older than the specified period. If chat archiving is running, the clean-up task waits until it finishes.
  • In Admin > System > Voicemail, select "Purge" beside "Delete all users voicemails from system" to  delete all users' voicemail messages, regardless of age.

Backup

Read this guide on configuring Backup with 3CX.

See Also

Last Updated

This document was last updated on 11 November 2026

https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/system-management/