This article will provide all the relevant information regarding the PBXware update and upgrade.
PBXware upgrade
PBXware upgrade is the process of upgrading your current PBXware version to the latest main PBXware version. This process includes upgrading from any v3, v4, v5 and v6 to the latest PBXware v7, so basically it changes the main PBXware version.
All upgrades are ordered through Upgrade Wizard. To access the PBXware upgrade wizard, please log in to your account at https://www.bicomsystems.com and navigate to ‘Licenses in the right menu'. Find and click on the license number of the PBXware you wish to have upgraded and click the ‘Request Upgrade’ button. This will take you to an upgrade wizard which will collect the necessary information needed to start the upgrade ticket with our support department.
PBXware upgrade is a charged procedure and it must be performed by Technical Support. The Technical Support Team is not aware of the pricing chart and this needs to be discussed with the Account Manager.
Depending on the system size and the current PBXware version, the downtime may vary from half an hour up to one hour if no issues were encountered. However, we always recommend keeping the maintenance window for at least 4 hours in case of any issues.
In case you are running a VPS within the SERVERware environment, you will be asked for SERVERware details when requesting the upgrade, so we can create a clone that will serve as a backup. In case of any issues during the upgrade, we could easily revert the system from that clone.
If you are running a PBXware within VMware or any other virtual environment, you will be requested to create a snapshot or a backup before this upgrade takes place. We highly recommend creating a VM snapshot, as that is the easiest way to revert in case of any issues.
Video tutorial - all steps needed to request an Upgrade for PBXware:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDeahxpNKBk&ab_channel=BicomSystems
PBXware update
PBXware update is a process of updating the current PBXware version to the latest available version within that main version. For example, if you update your system from 6.4.1 to 6.7, it is not considered an upgrade as the main version (v6) is not changed, but only the sub-version.
Before the update request, please make sure to check the latest release notes on our official page, so you are aware of all the changes between the versions. The release notes and the changelog can be found on this URL.
How to request an update?
Hosted by Bicom
If you are hosted by Bicom Systems on one of our platforms, you would request the update by opening a regular support ticket. This ticket needs to contain the following information:
- PBXware IP/Hostname
- Preferred date&time
Once you provide the necessary information within the ticket, an engineer assigned to the ticket will reach out to you to confirm the details. The estimated downtime during a minor update is 15 minutes.
Self-hosted
If you are self-hosted (a VPS on your SERVERware, VMware, AWS, or another platform), you would need to perform a minor update yourself. In order for you to see the latest available update, a Bicom engineer needs to enable this update for you. To request this action, you would need to open a ticket that contains the following information: For
- PBXware IP/Hostname
- Root password or open BSSUP access
After the update is enabled in the configuration file, you can proceed with the update procedure in your off-hours. It is a fairly simple procedure and you should be able to do it with a few clicks. However, please make sure to create a proper backup before the update.
In case you are running a VPS within the SERVERware environment, please make sure to create a clone.
- Login into the SERVERware and click on the VPS in question.
- After clicking on the VPS and the marked arrow, you will see a drop-down menu:
- Choose 'Clone VPS' from the dropdown
- Edit the name of the newly created clone and add '-Clone' to the Name. You can name it anything you want, however, it is best to name it the same as your VPS with the -Clone tag for easier maintenance. Other fields should be left blank.
- After you click on 'Clone', the new VPS Clone will be created.
If you are running a VMware or other VM platform, we recommend creating a snapshot as that represents the easiest way to revert in case of any issues. Alternatively, you can use the Bacup&Restore procedure available on this URL.
With a proper backup, if there are any issues during the update, reverting from the backup would get your system up and running, just like it was before.
IMPORTANT
Before updating, you would need to check the amount of disk space available on your PBXware. With new PBXware versions, we get more options that require modifications within MySQL, so the table will be altered with new releases. When MySQL alter is happening, the CDR table needs to be altered as well, which means every CDR entry will be checked and the new field added. Taking all that into the consideration, you need to check the disk space you have available and the CDR table size before the update. To perform a CDR alter, it is necessary to have sufficient available space equal to the size of your CDR table. For instance, if the size of your CDR table is 10GB, you must have at least 10GB of free space before undergoing the update to ensure that it completes successfully without any loss of data.
Check CDR table size:
- SSH to PBXware
- Run
du -sh /opt/pbxware/pw/var/lib/mysql/pbxware
Example of output:
Check PBXware free disk space:
- SSH to PBXware
- Run
df -h
Example of output:
To proceed with the update, just do the following:
- Log in to the system administration
- Navigate to 'Site Settings->Updates'
- Provide root and root password for Setup Wizard logins
- Select all available checkboxes next to 'Setup Wizard' and 'PBXware' ( 'U' - Update, 'R' - Restart)
- Click on 'Start'
After the update is done, SSH to the PBXware and run the following commands:
/opt/pbxware/sh/pbxware http_api resave
/opt/pbxware/sh/asterisk -rx 'restart now'
Once you log into the PBXware GUI, if the CDR alter is still in progress you will see a message 'Update in progress' which will lead you to the Setup Wizard if you click on it. There, you can track the progress of the CDR alter and make sure that the system is not restarted during that process.
If you notice that the progress is stuck at 0% or any other %, please make sure to contact Technical Support as soon as possible. Please note that old CDRs will not be available during this process as those are processed and modified in the backend. Once the process is done, all CDRs should be available again.
NOTE: After the update is done, please make sure to make a few calls and confirm that new CDRs are generated as well. If you notice that new CDRs are not showing on the system after the update, you would need to restart the PBXware:
/opt/pbxware/sh/pbxware restart
If CDRs are still not generating after the PBXware restart, please make sure to contact Technical Support.
NOTE: We recommend making all the tests right after the update and before your production hours. In this case, if there are any issues or a need for the backup revert, you will be able to revert it before losing any data. If you want to revert the system for example a day after the update, you will have 1 day of data loss as the backup you are reverting from is one day older than your current production system.
IMPORTANT
Updating non-hosted instances is not part of the regular support contract. In case you wish us to proceed with the system update, the procedure would be charged.