SOLVED Migrate Incredible PBX from one server to another

[smccloud]

Right now my brother-in-law's business is running Incredible PBX on an old Core 2 Duo machine. While it works, I have to decommission a hex-core Xeon where I work and dispose of it. Since my brother-in-law runs a recycling business that happens to recycle our e-waste, I figure I'd just use it as his new PBX. I'm trying to determine if it would be better to do a fresh install on the new machine, do a clonezilla backup & restore or just move the drives over.

They are currently running Asterisk 16.12.0 on CentOS 7. I'd like to go with CentOS 8, but I know it's not ready for prime time yet. Suggestions?

 

[DoubleDriveLine]

My personal opinion is to build the system on the server as new then restore a backup or do a rekey. It saves picking up any garbage that might have built up in the other system.

 

[smccloud]

My personal opinion is to build the system on the server as new then restore a backup or do a rekey. It saves picking up any garbage that might have built up in the other system.

Even when the PBX has been running for around 2 weeks?

 

[ext-104]

What other computing needs are there? File server? Email server? etc. or just PBX?

What are the specs on each machine.? Memory, storage size and type, server grade? dual power supplies? Back up Memory, bios, cpu redundancy?

Size. Noise, heat, power differences?

Is business growing? Future needs?

What's the load on the Duo like now?

 

[smccloud]

What other computing needs are there? File server? Email server? etc. or just PBX?

What are the specs on each machine.? Memory, storage size and type, server grade? dual power supplies? Back up Memory, bios, cpu redundancy?

Size. Noise, heat, power differences?

Is business growing? Future needs?

What's the load on the Duo like now?

Just a PBX, they have a Windows box as a file server/domain controller. Email is hosted in G Suite.

The Core 2 Duo has 2 250GB HDDs and 4GM of RAM. The Xeon system is a Dell with a single PSU, 192GB of RAM and 3 good 2TB HDDs. Probably overkill, but for free it will work.

The poor Core 2 Duo maxes one of its cores processing a call. Hasn't caused any issues yet, but that is probably because it currently has a GrandStream HT-813 for its link to the outside world so it can only handle a single call to the outside world at one time. I am considering Proxmox so I can run another "utilities" VM to host a UniFi controller & Unimus backup app for their switch & pfSense router.

They will be adding another location, but it will get its own PBX due to Internet concerns and the fact that it needs to be able to place calls if the link goes down.

 

[jerrm]

With a system so over spec, load it inside a VM and have the flexibility to multi task the box.

I never(almost) install any type of server on bare metal, even if the intent is to be a dedicated machine.

 

[smccloud]

With a system so over spec, load it inside a VM and have the flexibility to multi task the box.

I never(almost) install any type of server on bare metal, even if the intent is to be a dedicated machine.

Well, on the Core 2 Duo box I didn't get a choice. I'd run ESXi, but running a RAID card in the machine is a PITA so not worth it. Plus I <3 ZFS.

 

[ext-104]

With a system so over spec, load it inside a VM and have the flexibility to multi task the box.

That's kinda of what I was thinking.

Load up ESXi on the Xeon.

Do a P2V on both the pbx and the windows machine and you'll still have capacity to
add a few more VM's if needed while maintaining 1 machine.

 

[smccloud]

I will try Clonezilla on both sides, since I don't want to use ESXi due to the lack of a RAID controller in the box.

 

[kenn10]

I would recommend installing the base Centos 7 and Incredible PBX separately on the new server. This will let Asterisk compile from scratch on the new architecture. On the old server, from the Unix prompt, do an fwconsole ma upgradeall then do an fwconsole reload.

Then run a FreePBX backup on your old system.

Next you would repeat the module upgrade procedure on the new system once it finishes installation.

Finally, I would go on the new system and log into FreePBX as Admin and import the backup you made on the old system.

Then update your ipaddress on the Asterisk Sip Settings page.

 

[jerrm]

Plus I <3 ZFS.

Plenty of solid Linux hosted virtualization options out there.

 

[smccloud]

Used the incrediblebackup2020 & incrediblerestore2020 scripts to move everything this morning. PBX is now running on a Proxmox VE host with 4 Xeon E5-2440 cores & 16GB of RAM. Probably overkill, but oh well.

 

[smccloud]

In other news, I'm also glad I installed Proxmox in a 3 disk ZFS mirror since one of the drives in it already failed (replacement will be here today).