About

FreePBX Distro ver. 1.818.210.58-1 is the last update available in the FreePBX-Distro-1.8xx.210.58 series. As the FreePBX-Distro-1.8xx.210.58 wiki page states, "This release is at end-of-life and does not have any upgrade path to a newer release track due to a limitation of Centos 5 to Centos 6 providing no upgrade path. Please use the FreePBX backup and restore module to backup your PBX and restore it on a newer track such as 2.210.62."

This page documents the steps needed to accomplish this migration and upgrade.

Install FreePBX-Distro-2.210.62 on a separate system

Upgrade the current system to FreePBX-Distro-1.818.210.58-1 with the latest modules

Verification of desired version

cat /etc/asterisk/freepbxdistro-version
1.818.210.58-1

Quiesce the current system to be upgraded

Back up the current (old) system to be upgraded

Use the FreePBX Backup & Restore module to create a full backup of the current FreePBX configuration and files, including system audio and user voicemail. See Backup and Restore for details on the backup module's operation.

For example:

Copy the newly created backup file /var/spool/asterisk/backup/freepbxmigrationbackup/(file).tgz on the old FreePBX system to an accessible network storage location, a USB stick, etc.

Old server hardware migration

Restore the FreePBX backup on the new system

On the new FreePBX system, restore the backup file.

Log into the FreePBX web console on the new system.

Various restoration fixups and updates

Manual edits to reflect new database passwords

/etc/freepbx.conf manual restoration cleanup

...
Restoring files...
/bin/tar: ./etc/freepbx.conf: Cannot open: File exists
/bin/tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
...

/etc/asterisk/cdr_mysql.conf password update

Remove obsolete files on the new server

rm /etc/asterisk/freepbxdistro-version

Voicemail file timestamp restoration (optional)

rsync --archive --itemize-changes --verbose root@oldserverIP:/var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/ /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/

New system IP address change

Migration validation, part 1 (basic functionality and data transfer)

Perform all these steps on the new server.

Restart FreePBX

amportal restart
Please wait...
 
 
STOPPING ASTERISK
Waiting for Asterisk to Stop Gracefully...
Asterisk ended with exit status 0
Asterisk shutdown normally.
 
Asterisk Stopped
 
SETTING FILE PERMISSIONS
Permissions OK
 
STARTING ASTERISK
Asterisk Started

Reboot the server

Check CDRs

Check extensions

Check voicemail

Check phone registrations

Migrate /tftpboot files

Phone firmware and settings files in /tftpboot will be missing at this point and need to be restored. These may not be present on the old server but often are present. These files are managed by End Point Configuration Manger module,

Rsync transfer of /tftpboot files

rsync --archive --itemize-changes --verbose root@oldserverIP:/tftpboot/ /tftpboot/

Check for updated phone firmware files

Regenerate phone configuration files using Endpoint Manager and test phone registration by rebooting all phones

Migration validation, part 2 (phone TFTP configurations and registration)

Migration validation, part 3 (internal calls and voicemail)

Place a test internal call

Test voice mail

 

Enable external trunks

Migration validation, part 4 (external trunk validation)

Validate trunk registration and peers

Validate incoming and external calling through external trunks

Backup configuration of the new system and first backups

Migration backup job cleanup

First backups of new server

No backup .tgz files were been transferred from the old server so the new server is without any backup history at this point. Do an initial manual backup of each backup job on the new server.

The migration is complete at this point. The new server is now in production mode.

Next steps

Update the new FreePBX server with current patches

Old server decommissioning