Going from Asterisk 1.4 to Asterisk 1.8

[isaacl]

I'm going to hopefully be moving a phone system over from Asterisk 1.4 to Asterisk 1.8, using the IncrediblePBX, sometime over the next week or two.
I am going to be setting up the new installation on a separate box, so I'll be able to move things over.
I know that there are different versions of FreePBX included, and I'll have to learn the new version, and most of my settings will have to be re-done from scratch, but is there any way to move old voicemails, and any settings, over to the new system?
Thanks a lot, and thanks again to Ward, Tom, and the rest of the PBXIAF crew for the incredible work they're putting in to give us the best PBX systems out there!!

 

[lakecoder]

I'd like to second that request

 

[isaacl]

Can anything at all be moved over?

 

[wardmundy]

My recommendation would be to walk through the FreePBX menu tree and write down your settings. Then enter them again in FreePBX 2.8. There's just too much room for error trying to automate it. And...

NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE

:beta1b::dotsb::beta1b:

Be advised that the PIAF Dev Team classifies PIAF-Purple and Asterisk 1.8 as E-X-P-E-R-I-M-E-N-T-A-L. Remember the Pioneers! If you have a low threshold for pain, if you depend upon your PBX to actually make and receive phone calls, or if you understand the WAF and prefer sleeping with both eyes closed, abort this install now and choose PIAF-Gold, PIAF-Silver, or PIAF-Bronze. Otherwise, enjoy the ride!

 

[isaacl]

I kinda figured I'd need to do everything manually by now...
Any way to transfer the old voicemails though, if I set up the voicemail boxes with the same extension numbers?
That's the one thing that's hard to re-create...

 

[randy7376]

You've got the right idea. Keep the extensions identical and you shouldn't have any problem with this unless the directory structure/format has changed between version 1.6. and 1.8.

I saved our Asterisk 1.4 PBX voicemails by rsync'ing /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail from the old server to the new one running Asterisk 1.6.

I did this after re-creating each extension manually. You may want to check for any broken symlinks in /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/devices, though.

I didn't have a need for anything else in /var/spool/asterisk, but you might want to back all of it up, just in case.

The Monday after the upgrade, no one was aware that anything had changed.

I would suggest setting up a VM (I use VirtualBox) and test it out before you do the real deal.

 

[dghundt]

Any reason you can't upgrade freepbx to 2.8 on your asterisk 1.4 box (after a full backup in case of disaster), then backup freepbx. Then restore freepbx to your asterisk 1.8 box? I did this with pbxiaf bronze (asterisk 1.6) to purple (asterisk 1.8) and everything seemed to work ok.

 

[mickecarlsson]

Backup the old box, then upgrade to FreePBX 2.8. Do a new backup, copy that backup to the new server and do a restore.

See also this article: freepbx.org/news/2010-05-30/high-availability-backup-and-restore

 

[isaacl]

I'll have both boxes available when I'm moving things over, so I'll try that - thanks everyone for the help!
Just haven't used FreePBX 2.8 yet, hope it isn't much different, and won't mess anything up from the old settings for the transfer...