We all hear about the major new features 3CX releases as they update their software, but what you may not be so aware is just how many minor fixes and updates happen below the radar – things that have not affected you or your clients until something is changed at the customer end that runs into one of the little snags that was actually fixed in later updates.

For example, did you know that older versions of 3CX had issues contacting the licensing servers which resulted in instances reverting to the free version but moving to a later update fixed the problem. Other examples have included memory leaks and abnormal behavior with the firewall tester. Of course, not everything is a 3CX issue.

As the Tier 2 support escalation point at Soft Solutions, I am regularly presented with a variety of weird, wonderful, and occasionally simple fixes when customers are deploying and maintaining phone systems. Often these are known issues with simple fixes around call flow and calls behaving unexpectedly. This is usually due to a misconfiguration of forwarding rules and networking issues when a firewall hasn’t been set up correctly (with port forwards or SIP ALG left turned on being a big no no).

Here at Soft Solutions we offer free first level support around the products in our VoIP portfolio and take great pride in being able to assist our customers for both level 1 and 2 support.  We have an in-house ticketing system for managing support queries with a solid 2-hour service level agreement (SLA) for responses.  Our average time for a complete resolution time in our support statistics sits at 14 hours.

It is very common to have a quick resolution as we’ve come across an issue before, or have seen it in the wild.

But to return to my theme, 3CX has a documented upgrade path in the 3CX academy when it comes to both minor and major versions. Upgrading between service packs in 3CX is easy and can be initiated from within the management console with very little downtime. 3CX service packs feature new functionality and a large amount of bug fixes.  These are released on a regular basis with v16 update 3 on the horizon.

Upgrading between major versions of 3CX is also a simple and mostly automated process. A backup is taken from within the management console, and then you take the backup to a safe location outside of the 3CX install directory. Best practice would have this backup scheduled when the system is first built and backed up to a separate directory. After the backup is secure the older version is uninstalled (the Linux edition can be upgraded in place) and the new version is installed.  You then restore from the backup option. After it has completed, the system will be on the brand-new version with all the new functionality to enjoy and utilise.  When version 16 first launched, our Soft Solutions system took less than 30 minutes to upgrade.

Customers with active maintenance or an active subscription are entitled to both major and minor version updates / upgrades. It is a no brainer to move to the latest version and take advantage of the enhanced security features and new technology. Are all of your customers on the latest version of 3CX? For any queries around this or assistance in updating customer systems, please reach out to us.

updates