Upgrade to FreePBX v15 or v16 from v14

[bridgecc]

I am considering an upgrade from FreePBX v14, Sangoma v7.6, Asterisk v13.38.3 (12.7.6-1904-1.sng7). I downloaded the installers from the FreePbx download site and looked at the release details.
I am curious about what is included. For example FreePBX 16:
Current Release

• SNG7-PBX16-64bit-2112-4
  • Release Date: 2021-12-08
  • FreePBX Version :16.0.10.43
  • OS Version: 12.7.8-2112-4.sng7
  • CentOS Base: 7.8.2003
  • Asterisk Versions
    • 13.38.3 (Includes Opus, Silk, and G729)
    • 16.20.0 (Includes Opus, Silk, and G729)
    • 17.9.4 (Includes Opus, Silk, and G729)
    • 18.6.0 (Includes Opus, Silk, and G729)
  • Changelog
    • Updated FreePBX 16 modules.

If I upgraded from v14 to v16 I would in effect
upgrade the CentOS to v7.8
upgrade FreePBX GUI from v14 to v16
and finally the installer would install all 4 versions of Asterisk and I could choose which one to run?

Should I just upgrade to v15 first?
Once that is ironed out then upgrade to v16 later this year?

Can some one please explain to me how this would work? I understand that I would make complete backup within FreePBX 14 and after the upgrade restore from that back up… more interested in what gets installed when I do the installation and how I would choose / post install upgrade Asterisk to whatever version(s) listed above. When I installed v14, there was no option obviously to select Asterisk version…
What would you experienced people advise? (v7.8, FreePBX 16, Asterisk v18) just go for it? or a more cautious approach I outlined above?

Thank you for any advise on this before I make any decisions.
Chris

[sorvani (Jared Busch)]

If you are on FreePBX 14 already, then do a normal upgrade to 15 from within FreePBX itself. 14 to 15 is an extremely minor update. It is only module updates, not an OS update. Have a snapshot ready to revert to, but this should be painless.

Prior to upgrading to 15, I recommend that you switch your asterisk version to something current.
From the command line, as root:

asterisk-version-switch

Choose 16, and make sure everything is good. Reboot, make sure it is all still good. Then do the version upgrade to 15.

The command line instructions are the same as what I recently posted for FreePBX 15 to 16, so just follow this thread:

Things to be aware of for a successful FreePBX 15 to 16 upgrade

The versionupgrade module does a couple of stupid things. Here is my ticket on the subject for anyone that wants gory details Note: I do everything with an upgrade via the command line. This has always worked out better than using the GUI. First, it messes up a file permission in /var/www/html, so you need to run fwconsole chown after you install it. Second, if you run it with sudo from a user other than root, it fails to properly do everything, even though it says the upgrade succeeds. Thi…

After you are all up and running on 15, make backups, delete the old snapshot, make a new snapshot, and then upgrade to 16 if you want.

[bridgecc]

Awesome advice I really appreciate it. Looks pretty painless except for what the upgrade may break… then you run around fixing little things. The only issue I see is that the ISO installation of v14 provides CentOS v7.6, by doing a this you stay on CentOS 7.6 whereas if you do the ISO install of v15 and wipe everything clean you get CentOS 7.8. I guess not really needed? I like the idea of doing things in stages and wondered about upgrading Asterisk version in place. I’ll read your other posts before doing anything of course.
Thank you,
Chris