I’ve been tasked with migrating a FreePBX 2.11.0.43 (Asterisk 11.14.2) to the latest FreePBX version (17 as of writing).
I am hoping to get some tips or guidance on how to proceed with this, the server has 100+ extensions, inbound routes, etc and doing it all manually will be very tedious and time consuming.
I’ve seen some suggestions such as provisioning a FreePBX 16 VM and then restoring the entire config/backup on there since the Backup & Restore module will have backwards compatibility but I’ve yet to see any confirmation on this.
Overall, I’m looking for a solution that’s smoothest but also fast.
Do a backup restore and check everything. I’ve done it before and it mostly worked. Custom sounds directory changed so you’ll have to move that. Just give yourself some time to test it.
Things are working for the most part, but I am stuck on importing the CDR logs. I see that there are extra columns for the CEL table in FreePBX 17 compared to 2.11 and this is where I am mainly running into issues with the import.
I’ve tried adding the columns manually on the FBX17 server and although it imported without error, when comparing I noticed that the CDR logs on the FBX17 server had slightly different times. Also, I am not sure if adding the columns manually will be affected if I ever upgrade the PBX version.
You could either keep the old server around a bit just for reporting, or import the old database into a separate database on the new server. But, it sounds like you figured it out by adding the columns that 17 needs after importing the old database. as long as all the columns and indexes are what 17 expects, I think you’re good.
Maybe someone from Sangoma can chime in about how fpbx upgrades affect columns in CDR/CEL tables, but i believe it does an update to the table, not a drop/create, so your data wouldn’t be lost
There is an option on the restore page of the backup/restore module for “Restore Legacy CDR” that shows up after you import the FreePBX backup file into the application. At the bottom right.