Technical Support
The purpose of the Support team is to troubleshoot and resolve your technical problems to allow you, as our Partner, to live in the least restrictive environment.
Bicom Systems Support team offers:
- Friendly approach and way of communication
- Valuable problem-solving
- Clear and understandable replies
All queries are resolved to achieve one of the following:
- Issue resolved to partner's satisfaction
- A detailed explanation is given if the issue is unsolvable
- The matter is defined as being a feature request and transferred to developers
- The matter is raised as a bug in the bug tracker and an indication of resolution is provided
- Patch delivered for critical bugs
What we ask for in return:
- Legible and clear explanation of the problem with all possible details
- Answering inquiries promptly until a solution and mutual satisfaction are reached
Support Working Hours
- Monday - Thursday
24-Hour Support
- Friday
6 am - 12 am Central European Time
12 am - 6 pm Eastern Standard Time
2 pm - 8 am Australian Eastern Standard Time
- Sunday – Monday
11 pm - 6 am Central European Time
5 pm - 12 am Eastern Standard Time
7 am - 2 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time
- Weekends
During the weekend “On-call” engineers are available for “Emergency” tickets.
Note: To see how to open an emergency ticket please check "Emergency Ticket".
Opening Support Ticket
All Partners with an active Support Contract can submit a Support ticket. All support matters should be entered as a Ticket.
To do so, please go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. Select New Support Ticket and add all relevant information. Please make sure all requirements are met.
Note: Requirements can be found in the "Requirements" section.
Video Tutorial
This video will help you navigate through Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. Please make sure to check it:
Step-by-step Tutorial
Here we will provide a step-by-step process for opening a New Support Ticket for all our Partners who prefer written instead of video instructions:
1. Go to the Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal
2. Select New Support Ticket at the very beginning of the page, below the Search bar
3. Submit a Ticket form will be opened
4. In the Requester field please insert your email address
5. The Subject field is a regular description of the Ticket issue and it also acts as a search field. Once you type in the issue it will automatically search for related topics and display them on the side
6. From the Select Issue type field you need to choose Technical Issue
7. In the Select product field select the product on which the issue has been detected
8. After selecting the product additional fields will pop out (e.g. when selecting PBXware PBXware licence number, PBXware version, and PBXware edition will be required)
9. In the Description field describe the issue in as much detail as possible.
Note: Please make sure to check the Requirements section.
10. To attach files to the ticket please click on the Attach a file button.
11. Once all of the previous steps have been completed, click on the Submit button
Emergency Ticket
When to use an Emergency Ticket
Emergency tickets can be used in the following scenarios:
- System down
- 50% of calls (or more) are unable to pass on to the system
- SIPprot stopped working during the weekend (for other days please use regular tickets)
Opening Emergency Ticket
There are two ways of creating an Emergency ticket:
- By sending an email to “emergency@bicomsystems.com” and typing “URGENT” or “EMERGENCY” in the subject field
- By going to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal and submitting a ticket with “URGENT” or “EMERGENCY” in the ticket subject field
NOTE: If through investigation and troubleshooting, it is determined that the emergency was caused by a man-made error, or that it the issue was raised for a non-emergency issue, you may be subject to additional charges.
Feature requests
Submitting a feature request is very easy and similar to bug reporting. To submit a feature request please go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. Select New Support Ticket and from the Select Issue type field choose Feature Request.
When writing a description, we advise giving as many details as possible to save time on further defining the requirements, such as:
- Feature type
- Feature Requirements
- The importance of the feature to your business
Here is a simple example of a feature description:
After submitting a Feature request to a Support team, they transfer it to the Product Owner for a review. It will take 3-4 weeks till the Product Owner review request and decide whether it meets all criteria to be listed on Productboard.
In case:
- Feature request is not clear enough
- Some information is missing
- Request is impracticable
The product owner will inform a Support team member, who will continue a discussion with you on the initial ticket. Otherwise, a feature request will be posted on Productboard and available for voting and commenting, and you will be informed about it on the initial ticket.
Escalating a feature request
You can escalate the feature request the same way as described in Escalating ticket section in this page. The only difference from the usual bug ticket escalation is that the development of feature requests will be charged at already-formed prices.
The feature request that has escalated, if marked valid and approved by the Product Owner, will be located in the Release section of the Productboard portal and not put for voting in the Under Consideration section.
Online Chat
Online chat is available through your web login at My Account by clicking on the Support chat. Online Chat is preferable to tickets for the following reasons:
- Emergency Live Issues
- Matters that require more explanation and a relay of conversation for which tickets may take longer
Self Help DIY
Before directly seeking help from our Support team be sure to read the HOWTOs documents available for you. These documents contain step-by-step, nicely explained, instructions for faster resolution of minor issues. You can see a list of all HOWTOs on the following page HOWTOs_Generaland also on a Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal knowledge base.
Escalating Ticket
In order to have a fast and efficient way of resolving issues, we provide our Partners with a Support Escalation system. Escalations are taken very seriously with an additional level of severity that results in a satisfied Partner.
We recommend the immediate initiation of a Support escalation process when there is a tangible impact on your production environment, or there is a high risk to the business operations.
How to escalate a ticket
To escalate a ticket go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. Select New Support Ticket, under issue type select Escalation, and add the ticket number of a ticket you wish to escalate in the Ticket number # field. In the Description field write the reason for escalating.
Escalation will then be handled by the Customer Experience team who will offer a solution depending on your problem type.
When to escalate a ticket
- When you have frequently recurring or multiple related high-priority incidents related to business impact and urgency
- In case of data loss or risk of potential data loss
- When there is a risk of potential or actual damage to your and our reputation
- The problem that was resolved earlier started recurring and you don't know what caused it
- When you are not satisfied with the understanding of the problem by the Support engineers (e.g. language barrier, poor experience, etc.)
When you should not escalate a ticket
- When you have not contacted the Support team before and created a ticket related to the issue in question
- When the issue reported is not risky and urgent for your business
- When the Support team is already working on your problem and they did not exceed a reasonable timeframe for resolving
Submitting a Feedback
Feedback from Partners is of high importance to us. Therefore, we encourage you to inform us about all the positive and negative experiences you have encountered.
To post feedback please go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. Select New Support Ticket and select Feedback as an issue type. In the Description field please write us as many details as possible and we will do our best to encourage actions that lead to positive feedback or to change what you marked as negative.
Note: Partners who cannot access Bicom Systems Support Portal because they don’t have an active Support Contract, can use customerexperience@bicomsystems.com for sending feedback messages.
Support Requirements
Requirements our customers must meet in order for Bicom Systems staff members to be able to troubleshoot issues, perform maintenance or apply custom patches to their system:
- Direct access from public IP is a must as it is not possible to perform troubleshooting, maintenance procedures, or custom patches applications through screen sharing applications.
- Systems access details, public address, GUI username and password as well as systems root password for SSH and Setup Wizard login.
- For systems operating from LAN or behind a firewall, these ports must be opened/forwarded:
- Web GUI:
- TCP: 80, 81, 443
- SSH access:
- TCP: 2020 for PBXware
- TCP for Serverware: 2020, 2222
NOTE: Please be aware that ports mentioned here are only for full system access only. For a full list of ports that have to be opened in order for your system to be fully operational, please consult our HowTo on the link below:
HOWTO Port Forwarding When System Behind A Router/Firewall
Maintenance and custom project package
In case Partners need additional work from Support apart from HowTo documents and a clear explanation on a Support ticket, we offer Maintenance. During maintenance, Partners can ask for additional support service that will later be charged depending on the time required for performance.
Deployment & Training
| ITEM | DESCRIPTION | PRICING |
|---|---|---|
| VPS Migrations | Migrating VPSs between different systems. Including, but not limited to: ● Moving PBXware from one SERVERware to another ● Moving PBXware from and to Bicom hosting facilities ● Moving PBXware from a SERVERware to a standalone setup | Pricing is defined per VPS, based on the average time needed for a VPS migration. Two different migration paths are available with different pricing for each. For more information check here.
|
| System Rebuilds | Re-installation of a system due to various reasons. Including, but not limited to, storage hosts, processing hosts, backup hosts, standalone instances, etc. Depending if the project requires moving the services temporarily elsewhere, additional fees may be required. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Storage pool reconfiguration | Including but limited to: ● Adding additional drives to a ZFS pool ● Replacing pool disks with larger ones | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Disk replacement and raid rebuilds | Including but limited to: ● Replacing a failed drive within ZFS ● Replacing a failed drive under a HW raid setup ● OS disk replacements | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Firmware upgrades/downgrades and/or server maintenance | ● Upgrading or downgrading firmware for server components. ● Reconfiguration after replacing network cards | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. The work involves, research, testing, implementation, and monitoring. |
| Network changes | ● Re-configuring the network from private to public and vice-versa ● Changing the gateway, netmask, etc ● Adding additional networks | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Custom shell scripting | Various custom bash scripts. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. The work involves research, testing, implementation, and monitoring. |
| Work outside of regular office hours (weekends) | Any work being done on demand outside of regular engineer working hours. | Pricing is defined according to fixed hourly weekend rates with a half-day minimum charge. |
| Various capacity upgrades | Scheduled assistance for disk, RAM, PCI-e card, and any other hardware upgrade. | Depending on the project scope and amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by inappropriate tampering | Any time spent investigating and repairing issues caused by improper tampering with the back end of the software. Including, but not limited to: ● Modifications to the Linux/OS either through tampering or installation of 3rd party software. ● Manual modifications to the database, either through mysql console, 3rd party applications, scripts, etc ● Manual modifications to asterisk, AMI, API, etc, either through the console, 3rd party applications, scripts, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by ignoring recommendations and instructions provided directly by Bicom Systems | Any time spent investigating and repairing issues caused by ignoring recommendations and instructions provided by Bicom. This includes, but not limited to: ● Using unsupported hardware ● Connecting the network differently than instructed by Bicom Systems | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
Technical Support
| ITEM | DESCRIPTION | PRICING |
|---|
| Custom XML for devices | ● Polycom custom configuration/option ● Yealink phone's custom options which need to be changed from default values ● Grandstream phone's custom configuration ● Any other that may arise | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Custom bash scripting for any purposes | ● Scripts to automate manual processes ● Scripts to automate backups ● Scripts to automate MYSQL queries | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| IPtables modifications | Various custom rules, port translations, redirections, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Mounts (iscsi, samba, etc) for any purpose | Setting up external drives for recordings offloading purposes, iscsi targets, samba, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Asterisk Dialplan | ● Custom dial plan that is only required by the specific user/partner ● Stripping numbers on outbound calls, and inbound calls, randomizing callerIDs, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Work outside of regular office hours (weekends) | ● Anything that does not cover EMERGENCY or URGENT tickets which are by default covered during the weekend such as ● Upgrade/updates, migrations, etc. | Pricing is defined according to fixed hourly weekend rates with a half-day minimum charge. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by inappropriate tampering | Issues caused by partners and their techs by improperly changing either frontend or backend settings, removing files, using scripts that remove files, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by ignoring recommendations and instructions provided directly by Bicom | ● Not following SERVERware disk replacement procedure ● Enabling MYSQL access from outside ● Enabling outbound call transfer - having fraudulent calls occur ● Using TFTP for provisioning | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
Migrations
Are the VPS Migrations included in the Support contract?
VPS Migrations are not a part of the main projects and are not included in the Support contract provided by Bicom Systems.
If you have a request to move your PBXware installations from one instance to another, you can do so in two ways:
1. Self-migration - using instructions provided by Bicom Systems
2. Managed migration - using our expert team to assist in managing migration
SELF MIGRATIONS
Self-migrations are possible only when migrating from SERVERware 1.9 to SERVERware 3.x for which the script is available. If you decide to migrate yourself, we will be happy to provide you with detailed instructions that you need to follow carefully for a successful outcome.
IMPORTANT: Bicom engineers will not provide you with additional assistance during this migration process. But of course, if a problem arises that you cannot solve on your own, our expert team will be there to investigate and try to solve the issue. We consider it our obligation to inform you that this would be charged extra, as it would be invoiced as maintenance fees. Depending on how many people will be involved in the troubleshooting and repair process, these costs start at $850 and grow depending on the situation. Also, we want to note that, regardless of the price, we cannot guarantee that the repair will be successful.
MANAGED MIGRATIONS
If you express a desire for managed migration, our engineers will be at your disposal. They will completely migrate VPSs from start to finish, and if required, in several stages depending on the needs and setup. All the work will be done by them, and you will effortlessly enjoy the result.
In the case of managed migration, we have two options on offer, and these are:
1. Standard migration
2. Gradual migration
Standard migration
The standard migration includes the migration being done in two stages to minimize downtime:
- Base Sync is the first stage of the standard migration, which requires our team to move the bulk of data across to the new platform. This stage requires no downtime and will not cause any disruptions to your VPSes but will significantly shorten the downtime of your VPSes once the migration reaches the final stage. After this stage, the data on the new platform will be partially corrupted and the VPS on the new platform will not be fully functional until the Final migration step is completed.
- Final migration is the second stage of this process, during which, the data will be moved from your old SERVERware to the new platform, and in this case, VPSes on both locations need to be stopped. This phase of the Standard migration requires some downtime of your VPSes, estimated roughly up to half an hour, and our team will ensure you will be notified as soon as we start with the migration process. Once the final migration is completed, our team would perform various inspections and tests to ensure the migration was successful and also provide sufficient availability to make sure that no issues arise after the migration is done. As we complete this stage, you will be completely moved to the new platform.
After the migration, you will be able to log in to your instances and inspect the functionality of your VPSes. Once you ensure the full functionality of the instance, the migration will be considered completed. If needed, our team will be available to troubleshoot and assist with resolving any potential issues.
Gradual migration
In this type of migration, your VPSs will be running on both the old and the new SERVERware at the same time, but on different IP addresses. During this period you will be able to conduct various tests, to ensure the final migration process will be completed without service-affecting issues.
This type of migration is conducted in four stages:
- Base Sync is the first step of the Gradual migration, where our team will move the bulk of data across to the new platform. The Base Sync, as described in the Standard Migration, does not require any downtime of your VPSes and will not cause any disruptions to your system, but rather enhance the process of final migration. Once our team completes the Base Sync, the data will be corrupted, and the VPSes where the data is migrated cannot be started until the second stage (Full Sync) is completed.
- Full Sync is the second step that requires our team to sync the remaining data over which will ensure we will be able to start the VPS on the new platform. Given that the VPS will need to be stopped, this stage of the Gradual migration requires some downtime of your VPS, estimated roughly up to half an hour. Once we complete this stage, your system will be running on both locations.
- Test + Support: Considering that at this point, your system is running on both old and new SERVERware, you will be able to test everything on the new platform to ensure there are no connectivity issues. If you encounter any issues or uncertainties, we will be able to provide assistance and work together in troubleshooting and hopefully resolving the problem. After you have tested out the new platform and confirmed that there are no problems, we can then proceed to the final stage of the Gradual migration.
- Final migration: During the testing period, the production VPS has been generating additional data, which will be synced over to the new platform in the Final migration phase. By completing the final migration, you are completely moved to the new platform and the VPS which is running on the new platform will then become the production VPS, leaving the VPS on the old platform stopped.
In addition, managed migrations are explained more clearly in the chart below:
| MIGRATION TYPE | STANDARD MIGRATION | GRADUAL MIGRATION |
|---|---|---|
| Base Sync |  | |
| Full Sync |  | |
| Test + Support | | |
| Final migration | | |
| Post Migration Support | | |
Unsupported Modifications
Please be aware that unsupported modifications might lead to system failure as well as extensive data loss and server malfunctioning of the system.
Direct modifications of the hardware, base operating system or the database are not supported unless the instructions have been provided through our documentation or ticket.
Any subsequent identification of problems and their elimination will be charged extra for maintenance. The price will be calculated according to the time Bicom Systems developers spent troubleshooting the problem at the standard rates. Given the complicated nature of such items, identification of the issue may take long and the only course of reparation may be reinstallation and use of the most recent backup.