FYI PiaF rebuild project - older deprecated version needed

[Chris Smith]

Hoping to get some assistance with the best route to take with this new project. I have inherited a very old PiaF server in my current role. We have a project to complete some major functionality upgrades and our vendor is completing most of the work/ My portion of this project is to setup a functional copy of this existing server with everything work exactly as it does now and then our vendor will upgrade from there.

The existing server is running PiaF 1.7.5.6 (FreePBX 2.9.0.7 and Asterisk 1.8.4.1). The vendor suggested that we rebuild the server with the exact same setup/versions, copy configuration over, fully test to ensure it's a functional copy, and then upgrade to Asterisk 2.11 from there without touching the PiaF / FreePBX versions themselves.

It appears PiaF 1.7.5.6 isn't really available anymore. I downloaded the ISO and it installed CentOS 5.6. I went through the first few menus and got to the point where I select PiaF-Purple 1.8 and then it bombed out. Investigating logs I found that it is receiving 404 errors when trying to download from pbxinaflash.com. I also found posts that say those versions are deprecated.

How would you all suggest going about this upgrade path? I have to ensure the existing server is not affected at all since it handles all internal calls and most importantly calls of the CEO and Customer Service teams. I would also really prefer not to have to build out all of the existing configuration by scratch.

 

[Chris Smith]

Forgot to include the wget-log errors found in the root folder after the scripted PiaF installation starts on boot of CentOS.

http://pbxinaflash.com/1755/load/purple_load.tar.gz
Resolving pbxinaflash.com... 74.86.213.25
Connecting to pbxinaflash.com|74.86.213.25|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
2011-06-20 21:56:57 ERROR 404: Not Found.

 

[hecatae]

Hi Chris Smith,

Asterisk 2.11 does not exist, Freepbx 2.11 does, so your vendor seems to be getting things very confused.

Piaf versions 1 and 2 are discontinued, the repositories do not exist and there is no safe way to install it.

Your saving grace is that FreePBX 2.9 is still available for Piaf3 and Asterisk 11.

I would make a full backup of the current box, and find a spare pc to test this on before potentially destroying a working server, anything will do, we just need to prove that the 1.7 backup from freepbx backup and restore works on piaf3, I have used backup and restore from piaf2 to piaf3, but never had the opportunity to try from pre piaf2.

the piaf3 install script is here http://pbxinaflash.com/community/index.php?resources/piaf3-install.38/

replace the 1st part with:

setenforce 0
yum -y upgrade
yum -y install net-tools nano wget
# decipher your server's IP address
ifconfig
# patch grub and ignore any errors if your server doesn't use it
sed -i 's|quiet|quiet net.ifnames=0 biosdevdame=0|' /etc/default/grub
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
# for CentOS/Scientific Linux 6.5/6.6 platforms, perform these additional steps:
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/update-kernel-devel
chmod +x update-kernel-devel
./update-kernel-devel
reboot

and then run:

cd /root
wget http://pbxinaflash.com/piaf3-install.tar.gz
tar zxvf piaf3-install.tar.gz
./piaf3-install

please try this on a spare pc first, if you are running a 32bit version on the current server, please choose a 32bit piaf 3 install

 

[Chris Smith]

Thanks for the awesome detailed response. I do have another identical make / model HP server with the same Sangoma A101 card installed to test this out on.

How do I tell if PiaF 32-bit or 64-bit is installed/running? It's definitely running CentOS 64-bit but not sure about PiaF yet.

 

[hecatae]

centos 64 bit is fine, piaf is platform independent, I would just hate to see a 64 bit backup restored on a new 32 bit install or vice versa.

so if you go and grab a centos 6 or scientific linux 6 minimal iso, and follow the instructions to install piaf3 on the spare pc, we can work from there, install options in the piaf script are freepbx 2.9 and asterisk 11 green install.

 

[Chris Smith]

Do you know of any quick method of determining if the compiled PiaF / Asterisk / FreePBX are 64-bit or 32-bit on this old existing server? I have been hunting online for a way to check which code base was installed/running without luck.

 

[geopeterwc]

Though I haven't tried this myself, it seems that, if both systems are configured with the same hardware, that you could create a functioning cloned system by using a full-disk copy of the existing system disk to another drive - making an exact backup of the current system - and installing the cloned drive in another box.

Loading the copy to a different computer will fail unless you allow the new machine to set the MAC address and HWADDR in the ifcfg file when the drive is installed in the alternate computer. A tip from the Nerdvittles article: nerdvittles.com/?p=10079: modify the ifcfg file on your cloned drive that corresponds to your network hardware to remove the old hardware address (HWADDR) and network UUID from the cloned drive. The file is located in, for example /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/networking/devices/. Do this before installing the drive in the backup box. Look for "ifcfg-eth0" or a similar file. With DHCP, the clone in another computer should start up and function just like the original system.

Beware that DID trunks will have to be disabled on one or the other of the systems, depending on which of them is to be on line.

Once the newly cloned system is known to be functional, you can transfer your users to the new system and allow your contractor to have their way with the old box.

/Pete./

 

[Chris Smith]

Pete I did actually consider that and I may still attempt it. I was going to look at using CloneZilla. I'm not sure I have spare drive large enough to clone it to. I also don't know how that plays with RAID.

 

[synack]

If you are going through and copying settings anyway, why not just build to a new current PiaF instead of to an old one and upgrading? Seems like extra work that's likely doomed to fail anyway. PiaF/FreePBX isn't known for easy upgrades.

 

[Chris Smith]

Not sure I would consider backup / import all that much extra work.

Vendor now says he wants me to install PiaF 3 / Asterisk 11 / FreePBX 2.9 and try to do the backup / import of the config.

 

[synack]

The upgrade was the "extra work" I spoke of. bringing the settings over to a newer install as was suggested by the vendor is a much better route.

 

[Chris Smith]

Ah cool we will see how it goes. I will post once I get CentOS 6.6 installed with a newer PiaF 3 and have tried to import settings.

 

[goblin]

Do you guys have a link to download the latest iso install ?

 

[wardmundy]

There is no ISO install any more. Take a look at the latest tutorials on Nerd Vittles.

 

[Chris Smith]

Resurrecting this thread because I was finally able to attempt to do a backup and restore from our old server to the new server (same FreePBX 2.9.0.15 version). After the restore everything looked great with extensions, queues, ring groups, and so on until I found missing menu options and finally noticed many modules were disabled or broken.

FreePBX Framework was disabled pending upgrade which I completed. As soon as I did I got the orange Apply Configuration Changes at the top but when hitting it I ran into the error:

Reload failed because retrieve_conf encountered an error: 255
 
exit: 255
PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined function core_devices_list() in /var/www/html/admin/modules/donotdisturb/functions.inc.php on line 46
1 error(s) occurred, you should view the notification log on the dashboard or main screen to check for more details.

***UPDATE*** I got this fixed by updating all basic modules including core. I was then able to successfully apply configuration changes and then update all other disabled pending update modules.