TIPS Ancient system, need help to rescue :)

[n9yty]

So... This system was set up for a non-profit back in, oh, I'd say around Oct 2009. That is the date on the ISO image of PBX-IN-A-FLASH, version 1.4 I think.

We did a bit of add-on work, integrating some AAstra scripts and things, and then it went into long hibernation mode. It is running in an old Xen VM. I am no longer there full-time, but I'd like to help them move this to a standalone machine, even upgrading it if it could be done without breaking everything horribly. It is not strictly a PIAF 1.4 install any longer, as they did update modules/FreePBX all the way to 2.6.0.7 or thereabouts.

I remember when it was set up we installed Mondo Backup, and it has been faithfully making backup imjanges. I know that when it was set up, we tested doing a restore of those and it worked. I have spent quite a bit of time tonight TRYING to restore this to a machine and I can't get past the disk setup... The VM has /dev/hda I think and the machine I'm using is /dev/sda, and it won't format the disks, or I just can't find the right magic for the mountlist editing stage.

So, any help woudl be appreciated on how to move such an ancient install, and maybe even upgrading things, but without breaking it horribly. The VM host is having some strange networking issues which is why we want to get this off of there, calls have been breaking up over the last week or so, so timing is not as open-ended as like, it is more like ASAP.

Thanks for any pointers!

 

[wardmundy]

With a 10 year old system, your best (and only) bet is cut-and-paste. There are some simple bash scripts that will help you extract the important pieces.

 

[n9yty]

I kind of thought that... And we had tweaked a few things that are probably lost in the mists of time and maybe don't even need to be done now. Might be worth just planning a full re-implementation that can use the existing Aastra phones.

So, and I realize you may be biased (LoL), if you were starting over, what would be the go-to solution to build on? Very basic needs, just phone service, voicemail, conference rooms for multi-party meetings, the typical stuff I guess. I remember one strange thing is that we needed in-house paging over all the phones, and I am pretty sure that we ended up having to use some Aastra-specific feature to do that reliably, otherwise it took too long for all the phones to come online. Time to roll up the sleeves and figure out what was done.

THanks for at least confirming the options. I appreciate it!

 

[rchalk]

The original Aastra scripts are still out there, and will work with recent versions of IncrediblePBX. I have the information on how to achieve this, and the necessary files to get it done. If you decide to upgrade to a recent version, I can send you the info...

I would also recommend using a cloud-based solution instead of a local computer, as those facilities have multiple redundancies, and require no maintenance on your part. There are various solutions, some of which are very inexpensive but possibly short-lived, or others like RentPBX ($15.00/month) which have been around for years, and work very well. I have seven servers on their system, and have been using them for about 7 years. Have a look at some of Ward Mundy's posts on Nerdvittles.com and see what you think