Allworx 6x blew up with software update

[unity]

We have an Allworx 6x box that was running on some revision of v7 (probably 7.5.19.1). I made a backup of it with Officesafe (saved in a .dat file) and upgraded revision by revision, trying to get to 8.3.5.4. I made it to 8.2.13.6 and then tried to run the update, which started and then froze up in the middle.

While it was frozen, the Allworx box continued to work, but it was showing in the logs that the disk was full and it would not accept new voicemails.

It turns out we were using a 256 MB CF card, which filled up when it downloaded the upgrade files for 8.3.5.4.

The server was rebooted and it came back up; it is still connecting to our phones and our calling is working, but voicemail is not working at all and when we go to the admin panel and login, it displays "r the correct PIN code length." instead of the admin panel, which looks like a corruption of the software.

I was able to reboot it in safe mode and copy the CF card to a 6 GB USB flash drive (which presumably also resized the partition) but it still is stuck in this state and I can't seem to get it to let me into the admin panel even though the disk is no longer full.

I did try getting a new CF card (4 GB) and did the following:

* Try to restore the backup of 7.5.19.1: doesn't work since Officesafe doesn't recognize the .dat file it created

* Restore the first automatic backup made of 8.2.13.6 (in the middle of the failed update) in Safe Mode: restores to CF card, but still can't get to admin panel and phones won't register; it seems from watching the restore with telnet that it resized the partition down to 256 MB so the disk is still full

* Tried to install upgrade.auf file in Safe Mode: won't let me do that on mounted CF card with the backup restored on it. I can Load but it won't Update.

* Boot from 8.2.13.6 from Safe Mode into Normal Mode with Factory Defaults (which should not erase all my user settings): does reset the IP to 192.168.2.254 but won't let me into the admin panel either

At the moment, the System Events in Safe Mode indicate that I'm on 8.2.13.6 but the backups (still being sent nightly to the Officesafe server) indicate that we are on 8.3.5.4, so we are somewhere in between.

Is there any way I can pull the configuration out of this thing so I can do a clean install of 8.3.5.4 and get up and running again? Or some way to get the .dat backup of the v7 software to restore? Even a paid Allworx tech in the area has not been able to figure out a way to clean up this mess, and starting all of our settings over from scratch is going to be a MAJOR pain in the neck.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[sp90378]

The only way to increase the size would be to put in the USB drive and boot to safemode and select the option to convert to USB. That is the only way to resize. The backup itself contains the partition size. The only other way would be to run migrate or to rebuild the system on a larger CF card. I would recommend using a CF card as well as USB does not have nearly as good of performance on an Allworx.

If you can load a backup that does work, you can go to import/export, and then like you get to music on hold, export greetings, etc. Then load safemode and load your blank software and boot. Then import your files.

Did you try another browser as well? Sometimes after many updates, cache can get really messed up in the browser.

Also, Safemode updates after an upgrade is done on the system. So if safemode shows 8.2.16, but the backup shows 8.3.5.4, then you are on 8.3.5.4 but Safe Mode for some reason never updated to 8.3.5.4 when you did that last upgrade.

[unity]

Got it. We managed to track down a backup of 7.6.16.5 and restore that to CF, after which we switched over to USB again and it resized accordingly. There's plenty of room on it now!

I saved the CF card with the live, working 7.6.16.5 just to be safe

When everyone is off the phones, I will update back up to 8.x on the USB and see where it takes us.

Thanks!

[sp90378]

Once done, I would recommend to get Allworx Migrate, and then go back to a CF card. I would not recommend running long term on USB. So basically you will just reboot into Migrate mode, and save it to your machine. Then put in your new bigger card and load fresh 8.3 software. Then boot it into migrate mode as well and migrate back to it. That should then utilize the additional size.

For the CF card, I would recommend the Allworx ones and not just buy a normal one as they are rated very differently. They now use (as the Sandisk ones are not made anymore) Transcend CF220I 4GB models which are industrial rated ones, around $50-$70 retail).

[unity]

What do we lose by leaving the system on the USB key?

[sp90378]

Function wise, not really anything. performance is typically less though. Generally management access is slower. Also, USB drives typically are not meant to always be reading and writing like this. Even the old hard drives they used to sell for this use were designed for 24/7 use (using enterprise grade drives made for that use). If the USB drive is a USB 3.0 (while it does not use them, they still perform faster in USB 2.0 ports then most USB 2.0 drives, because they have more speed to get closer to maxing USB 2.0). Will it work, yes. Can it work for months/years, yes. Can it fail in just days, weeks, etc. yes.

Of course much of this depends on the quality of the USB drive along with how busy of a system it is. A 15 user system would typically read/write much less then a maxed out 60 user 6X system.

[gritech]

I found this thread through googling about resizing an Allworx backup on CF.

You can resize CF card partitions! You need an existing working CF card with your data, a new CF card, and a USB CF reader.

Just put the existing CF card in it's normal place and the new CF card in a USB CF reader. Convert to USB through safe mode. After it finishes, move the new card from the USB CF reader to it's normal slot.

Resizing up for a larger CF card works, as does downgrading to a smaller CF card, as long as there's enough space for what's actually used.

In the case where the system is already running on USB, backup to officesafe, restore to any large-enough CF card (as large as or larger than the backup), then follow the above to get a CF with a correctly sized partition.

[wshrader]

A much easier method is to use Migrate. Create a migrate file from the existing installation (say it is a 256MB CF card). Put in the new CF card (say 4GB), format it, load the Allworx system then use Migrate to load the settings.