This is a followup from a previous post on this topic that I posted here about three years ago. At the time I was not able to find a workable solution and so I left things as they were since it is working reasonably well. Now I would like to revisit this topic in the hope that some changes have happened in the past three years to make upgrades easier between ancient systems and the latest stable release.
I am administering an ancient AsteriskNOW 2.0.2 PBX with Asterisk 1.8.15 and FreePBX 2.10.1.9, as a pro bono project for a state division of a national non-profit public-service organization. It works acceptably but I really and truly want to migrate the system to the latest stable FreePBX.
We have more than a hundred (up from “several dozen” last time I posted this) IP (SIP) phones scattered around the state, two PSTN interface boxes servicing 7 phone lines, a few dozen queues, and some other stuff, that would take weeks to re-create by hand in the new installation… a level of effort that as a practical matter just isn’t going to happen.
Looking for advice on the best way to do the upgrade, and any tools available to automate at least most of the process. I did try backing up from ANow.202 and restoring to the latest stable FreePBX, which of course didn’t work, not that I expected it to, and left me with a blank screen where the FreePBX screens used to be. At the time user cynjut confirmed for me that “backup and restore is (my) enemy in this endeavor”.
Cynjut suggested I use bulk export and import of extensions and DIDs, which I have done and it works, however there are many other configuration items that aren’t covered by bulk export and import (like all those queues, plus some parking lots, conferences, and other things). It would take far too long to do all those by hand, this being a pro bono project and all, and if I tried it I’m utterly unconvinced I would get them all correct and not forget something.
So… anything changed in the past three years to make this migration any easier and accurate?
Thanks, Lorne. That’s fine. I don’t mind having to hand-copy a few things over. I would just prefer not to have to re-create the whole system from scratch.
The size of system you describe does not take weeks to
create from scratch for something that does it all of the time.
Good evening, Jared.
Keywords here are “does it all the time”. I created this system from an empty installation of AsteriskNOW 2.0.2 about 8 years ago. Since then, other than adding or changing things occasionally (four or five times a year, on average) per requests from the organization, it Just Works and I haven’t had to “fix” it, I did take good notes but still, for me it would take weeks to re-create everything from the start, including all the stuff I added “from time to time” per occasional requests. If I did this “all the time” as you say, it would probably go fairly quickly.
Why don’t you try and find someone that does this
more than you, and also needs a tax write off, to help?
I could do that, although the concept of a tax write-off is something of a fallacy if all you’re donating is your time.
I’ll try that conversion tool first. It looks like it should be quite helpful.
