R.I.P. Kazoo

[IDF SBA]

If you are a service provider, its a lot easier to have multiple cloud instances or rent space in a data center and create VPS's of your own. IncrediblePBX is a known quantity with good support via the forums. It is easily mass-produced to multiple instances of VPS. At $3-$5/month for reliable cloud instances, I wouldn't waste my time on multi-tenant unless you're like a Ring Central or Avaya or Cisco.

good points

 

[billsimon]

I was told by other MSPs that support requires payment and the software is handled by one individual who is overloaded and does not delegate or share. (which is a problem should anything occur with him - I tend to avoid one-man bands for various reasons)

Kazoo is a multi-man band but support also will cost you money and the product you get for free is very limited.

As always, you can pay with your dollars or your time. If you prefer to pay with time then you can DIY with FusionPBX and support it yourself but you will get a full multitenant PBX. Not saying I recommend it, just that it is possible (I did this with a partner for a while and he ran many customers on a couple Fusion instances),

 

[wardmundy]

As already mentioned in another thread, with a Vultr snapshot, you can build Incredible PBX 2021 images in a matter of minutes. Change the hostname, and you've got multiple tenants.

 

[fmateo05]

I am a kazoo admin and had installed it to some clients as they requested. Anyway I am going to explore about Incredible-PBX and compare.

If you want to quickly deploy or install kazoo I recommend you these pre-built images:

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/kazoo-embedded-2020-12-07.iso

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/mtcp-kernel/kazoo-embedded-mtcp-2020-12-13.iso

After install, few steps are required.

 

[KNERD]

I was told that is due to the owner of fusionpbx who doesn't want support to be offered separate from the official paid support

That is nonsense. There is a IRC channel and he is on there nearly all the time helping people. If folks need more in depth help, or fast help, they can then pay for support.

 

[krzykat]

I am a kazoo admin and had installed it to some clients as they requested. Anyway I am going to explore about Incredible-PBX and compare.

If you want to quickly deploy or install kazoo I recommend you these pre-built images:

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/kazoo-embedded-2020-12-07.iso

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/mtcp-kernel/kazoo-embedded-mtcp-2020-12-13.iso

After install, few steps are required.

I can personally vouch for @fmateo05 ... this guy knows the install and setup pretty good from what I've seen so far.

 

[tbrummell]

I am a kazoo admin and had installed it to some clients as they requested. Anyway I am going to explore about Incredible-PBX and compare.

If you want to quickly deploy or install kazoo I recommend you these pre-built images:

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/kazoo-embedded-2020-12-07.iso

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/mtcp-kernel/kazoo-embedded-mtcp-2020-12-13.iso

After install, few steps are required.

Tried my damndest to get this installed following the instructions, but after expanding the partition and rebooting I don't get a configuration screen. Too bad, I wanted to play with something new.

 

[wardmundy]

That is nonsense. There is a IRC channel and he is on there nearly all the time helping people. If folks need more in depth help, or fast help, they can then pay for support.

IRC is not the same as documented, searchable support on a forum or wiki. There are numerous threads about this guy's approach to money-making so I won't repeat the history here other than to note that he has consistently tried to quash any sort of documentation that would detract from his expensive training sessions. For that reason, we removed most of our articles on FusionPBX from Nerd Vittles.

 

[billsimon]

If you are using imaged cloud instances, I can't think of a lot of good reasons to use a multi-tenant system over individual VMs. In "the old days" when you would buy a big chunk of iron and a bunch of physical interfaces to connect to the PSTN, sure, there are your reasons.

One reason I can come up with is if each tenant is just a single user/line but you want to essentially give them their own full PBX experience.

 

[billsimon]

IRC

He's also been seen complaining on the IRC channel about how he's just one man, puts endless hours into helping people there and answering their questions, usually the same questions over and over. Hmm.

Two points should not be overlooked: FusionPBX is quite good software that does a nice job managing Freeswitch, and the full source is open (and licensed MPL!) even if it's not all documented. If the right people showed an interest in it and figured it out, it would no longer have to be mostly controlled by one individual.

 

[tbrummell]

Tried my damndest to get this installed following the instructions, but after expanding the partition and rebooting I don't get a configuration screen. Too bad, I wanted to play with something new.

I found a YouTube video with how to (almost) do it, not the same as what is documented. Nice. Not. Now the sup command to init the apps fails. So, that's enough for me, back to var${dayjob}

 

[KNERD]

Tried my damndest to get this installed following the instructions, but after expanding the partition and rebooting I don't get a configuration screen. Too bad, I wanted to play with something new.

The documentation on Kazoo is a bit incorrect, and lacking. After asking some questions on clarification on the incorrect, or lacking info , I was able to get version 4 installed on CentOS 7. I do think version 5 has been released. I do think I documented my install.

IRC is not the same as documented, searchable support on a forum or wiki. There are numerous threads about this guy's approach to money-making so I won't repeat the history here other than to note that he has consistently tried to quash any sort of documentation that would detract from his expensive training sessions. For that reason, we removed most of our articles on FusionPBX from Nerd Vittles.

I think documentation on every open source project tends to be lacking.

Here it is for this one.

Home — FusionPBX Docs documentation

docs.fusionpbx.com

I have seen much worse. In fact I saw aterisk2billing folks go and change from quite good documentation, to their "improved" site in which their document got very terse.

At least he does , along with others on IRC help others on IRC. I have seen a couple of open source VoIP projects in where the developers would outright refuse to assist anyone unless you were waving money in their face. "Open Source does not mean free!" they would say.

 

[IDF SBA]

If you are using imaged cloud instances, I can't think of a lot of good reasons to use a multi-tenant system over individual VMs. In "the old days" when you would buy a big chunk of iron and a bunch of physical interfaces to connect to the PSTN, sure, there are your reasons.

One reason I can come up with is if each tenant is just a single user/line but you want to essentially give them their own full PBX experience.

more logins, more headaches.

majority 1-3 extensions

 

[wardmundy]

@IDF SBA: I assume these are remote office locations with PCs that stay on all day and probably all night. Why not install VirtualBox on one PC in each location and run Incredible PBX from there. It takes about 2 minutes to set up. Link it back to the mothership, and you're done. Whatever you use to back up the PC will also pick up the VirtualBox PBX image.

 

[IDF SBA]

@IDF SBA: I assume these are remote office locations with PCs that stay on all day and probably all night. Why not install VirtualBox on one PC in each location and run Incredible PBX from there. It takes about 2 minutes to set up. Link it back to the mothership, and you're done. Whatever you use to back up the PC will also pick up the VirtualBox PBX image.

actually no, in fact few with hardware, mostly softsips on smartphones, possible 1 phone at a location. Also, nationwide.

 

[krzykat]

The documentation on Kazoo is a bit incorrect, and lacking. After asking some questions on clarification on the incorrect, or lacking info , I was able to get version 4 installed on CentOS 7. I do think version 5 has been released. I do think I documented my install.

Kazoo 5 isn't officially released and I question if it ever will be released publicly. It was there, then it was ripped back. When I spoke to folks at 2600hz, their answer is about getting the apps store working well with it and then that supposedly will be a good source of revenue from them. However, I think they only really want to release things that are hosted by them (and some of their pricing isn't shy). I'm actively working on getting my own geo-redundant setup working, but for sure there is no "5 minute" install and up and running like PBXinaFlash.

 

[fmateo05]

I found a YouTube video with how to (almost) do it, not the same as what is documented. Nice. Not. Now the sup command to init the apps fails. So, that's enough for me, back to var${dayjob}

Do you have any screnshot (or log) about it?

 

[fmateo05]

Tried my damndest to get this installed following the instructions, but after expanding the partition and rebooting I don't get a configuration screen. Too bad, I wanted to play with something new.

Which of the ISO presents that issue?

 

[Prits]

I am a kazoo admin and had installed it to some clients as they requested. Anyway I am going to explore about Incredible-PBX and compare.

If you want to quickly deploy or install kazoo I recommend you these pre-built images:

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/kazoo-embedded-2020-12-07.iso

http://downloads.ekpbx.com/mtcp-kernel/kazoo-embedded-mtcp-2020-12-13.iso

After install, few steps are required.

Hello @fmateo05 , if I spool up a VPS oppose to bare metal, can these pre-built iso's be installed on it? if so, would I just upload the iso to the VPS and ask the VPS container to boot from it?

Thank you kindly

 

[fmateo05]

Hello @fmateo05 , if I spool up a VPS oppose to bare metal, can these pre-built iso's be installed on it? if so, would I just upload the iso to the VPS and ask the VPS container to boot from it?

Thank you kindly

Yes, you can run them on VPS. My current cluster run this kind of install. You should upload the ISO to the VPS, open the console and run the Text-installer on it. during the first boot, all PBX services will start up. The step required here is to change the SIP-Proxy listen ip other than 127.0.0.1 and als oun some startup 'sup' commands (I am working to create a startup script to ease the post-configuration).

The goal of these ISO's is to ease the Kazoo installation and configuration.