FOOD FOR THOUGHT Upgrading to Asterisk 12

[Tyler]

So gut instinct tells me that it might not yet be possible to do this. However with all the new features in FreePBX 12 I've become more and more curious about moving to Asterisk 12. I'm currently running FPBX 12 under PIAF Yellow (Asterisk 11.6), with Incredible 11.

Is it even possible or safe to upgrade to Asterisk 12 without breaking PAIF?

I did some Google and PIAF forum searches but could really find a definitive answer or recent inquiry so I figured I would pose the question.

 

[TwigsUSAN]

Normally with PIAF they don't support upgrades between major versions. You have to install fresh.

 

[Tyler]

Is there any way to transfer over extensions, trunks, OSS, and other setting or does this require a complete rebuild?

 

[snarpatroid]

You will find bugs. Depends how tolerant you and your system are of these. For instance I am a big fan of hotel wake up calls but upgraded from 2.2 to 2.12 and I have lost ability to amend and cancel calls on a handset. I gather 12 won't work at all. I guess it's a case of weighing up how much you need v12 features against how many bugs you will come across.

I am confident bugs will get fixed but probably not until v12 is fairly mainstream.

 

[Tyler]

You will find bugs. Depends how tolerant you and your system are of these. For instance I am a big fan of hotel wake up calls but upgraded from 2.2 to 2.12 and I have lost ability to amend and cancel calls on a handset. I gather 12 won't work at all. I guess it's a case of weighing up how much you need v12 features against how many bugs you will come across.

I am confident bugs will get fixed but probably not until v12 is fairly mainstream.

Snarpatroid,
Are you referring to Asterisk 12 or FreePBX 2.12? I'm already running FPBX 2.12 and I am not having any major issues.

 

[snarpatroid]

With the example I am using, wake up calls, it is Asterisk not FPBX that is causing the problems. Wake up calls do affect FBPX though as installing this module on Asterisk 12 you'll find you get error 500 returned if you use a browser to access FBPX. See https://github.com/POSSA/Hotel-Style-Wakeup-Calls/issues/62 for details.

I would ask what Asterisk 12 offers you over 11.6 and if the benefits outweigh the issues you may find, like all systems that aren't widespread you'll be discovering bugs that may be low in the pecking order for being fixed that may niggle you (or worse) than if you stuck with an earlier version. I am on 11.12 and it works relatively well, the one bug I have noticed is the wake-up call issue but as lgaetz will testify I'm sure this is PHP pain in the bum issue.

Otherwise if I were you I'd consider staying put on 11.6 (or 11.12 if you have the urge to upgrade) and giving it maybe 3-6 months for the more major bugs to be ironed out of Asterisk 12.

 

[Tyler]

With the example I am using, wake up calls, it is Asterisk not FPBX that is causing the problems. Wake up calls do affect FBPX though as installing this module on Asterisk 12 you'll find you get error 500 returned if you use a browser to access FBPX. See https://github.com/POSSA/Hotel-Style-Wakeup-Calls/issues/62 for details.

I would ask what Asterisk 12 offers you over 11.6 and if the benefits outweigh the issues you may find, like all systems that aren't widespread you'll be discovering bugs that may be low in the pecking order for being fixed that may niggle you (or worse) than if you stuck with an earlier version. I am on 11.12 and it works relatively well, the one bug I have noticed is the wake-up call issue but as lgaetz will testify I'm sure this is PHP pain in the bum issue.

Otherwise if I were you I'd consider staying put on 11.6 (or 11.12 if you have the urge to upgrade) and giving it maybe 3-6 months for the more major bugs to be ironed out of Asterisk 12.

Snarpatroid,
Thank you for the further clarification. I think for the moment I am going to just sit tight and keep working with 11.6 until Asterisk 12 have had a chance to smooth out some. My interested in Asterisk 12 has really grown out of the new features that the boys over at Schmooze have been including in the new FPBX 12 updates. Things like the WebRTC phone are of real interest for us to use with some of our contractors who work remotely where we don't want to have to deal with physical endpoints or "complex" software installation and configurations. I also have an interest in the new Asterisk REST Interface Users module as we have come to rely on the new REST apps in place of the old Aastra Scripts.

If I get some free time I might build out one of my spare machines running Asterisk 12 solely as a test platform to see what we are really missing out on.

 

[snarpatroid]

That's a good idea, build a testing machine before you implement in the real world. It's one thing us messing about in a safe 'lab' environment but if you go out into the wild on a live system and it goes wrong it could become a pain/headache/nightmare depending on the issues you encounter.