life expectancy and upgrading??

[MASTERBrian]

I'm curious what life expectancy we should expect out of our system? I believe the phone server itself is the Allworx 6x and we're running software version 7.5.19.1 from 2014. I still have contact with one of the people that installed our system, but he's changed jobs as the other company sort of folded several years back. By sort of I mean it was two partners and a few employees. The partner with the largest share shut things down and went solo....I might be able to work with him IF he still has a contract, but I really worked with them due to the other partner.

In any case, we determined today our system is working on 8yrs of age. We've had to do very little other than maybe replace or add a handset here or there or minor changes to the program for things like that or ATA's, etc. We are a small family run business with 4 phones, 2 ATA's and 2 (maybe 3 reach apps). We have an employee that got a Bluetooth hearing aid recently so they are having issue with their headset and that's what started this, though we've been thinking our system is ageing for a while. Our phones are 9212L's.

I looked and noticed there are newer bluetooth phones from Allworx, but they require the at least software version 8.something. My old tech, who helped install the system, wasn't sure if installing 8 would work and he doesn't have access to help if needed. This begged the question of what about just buying a new server and 4 new phones, updating to most recent OS and starting somewhat fresh. Wasn't sure if could just backup our settings and reinstall them on the new server and go or not. Again, I don't really know if I have a tech and what issues we'd run into.

FWI....I'm able to do lots of stuff and figure it out, but without a ton of direction I obviously wouldn't be able to set a system up on my own. I can set up a phone/ata/reach app and make basic changes on our server if needed, but generally have something to look at on those deals.

Maybe, our system will be fine for 8 more years and I just need to look at a different headset or a module to connect to and go on. I just don't know what to expect out of this at this point.

Thanks for anything here!

[allwrxprtnr]

#1 - If you don't have any spare power supplies for the 6x (they are different than the phones), buy a couple!
#2 - Buy a CF card, preferably 1 or 2GB
#3 - Ensure that Office Safe is working and backing up the server often. Make backups of these backups

The 6x is OLD, even though you got it in 2014. By that time, they were already releasing their current line, the Connect Series.

You CAN install up to 8.4 for free due to security and Reach concerns. However, you'll want to move from 7.5 to 7.6, then to 7.7 and so on until you reach the 8.4 version that's free. Just because you can update the server, though, doesn't mean it's the best idea. Like I said, the 6x is very old and, although there aren't any moving parts, the CF cards fail often, and we've had to replace all of our existing 6x power supplies within the past couple of years.

The Connect series is great, and is backwards compatible with your current phones. Most Allworx partners will offer a discounted upgrade to this platform, so you may not need to spend as much as you think. It will also give you years and years and years of uptime. There is an upgrade utility that will take your existing configurations and move it over to your new server, as if nothing ever happened. Just make sure you purchase a server that has ports for incoming lines, assuming you have them. These are called FXO ports in Allworx lingo (The Connect 324 has a couple FXS ports).

The 9312 phones have bluetooth enabled on them, so you can connect bluetooth speakers and bluetooth phones to this handset.

[wshrader]

#1 - If you don't have any spare power supplies for the 6x (they are different than the phones), buy a couple!
#2 - Buy a CF card, preferably 1 or 2GB
#3 - Ensure that Office Safe is working and backing up the server often. Make backups of these backups

The 6x is OLD, even though you got it in 2014. By that time, they were already releasing their current line, the Connect Series.

You CAN install up to 8.4 for free due to security and Reach concerns. However, you'll want to move from 7.5 to 7.6, then to 7.7 and so on until you reach the 8.4 version that's free. Just because you can update the server, though, doesn't mean it's the best idea. Like I said, the 6x is very old and, although there aren't any moving parts, the CF cards fail often, and we've had to replace all of our existing 6x power supplies within the past couple of years.

The Connect series is great, and is backwards compatible with your current phones. Most Allworx partners will offer a discounted upgrade to this platform, so you may not need to spend as much as you think. It will also give you years and years and years of uptime. There is an upgrade utility that will take your existing configurations and move it over to your new server, as if nothing ever happened. Just make sure you purchase a server that has ports for incoming lines, assuming you have them. These are called FXO ports in Allworx lingo (The Connect 324 has a couple FXS ports).

The 9312 phones have bluetooth enabled on them, so you can connect bluetooth speakers and bluetooth phones to this handset.

There are several caveats to the comments above. 1) If you do not already have OfficeSafe installed locally collecting backups, you can only get the software from the partner portal. 2) True, updating to v8.4 does not require a Feature Key but it must be done manually and the update files can only be acquired through the partner portal. 3) Migrating to one of the Connect servers is a simple process using the Migrate Tool. This requires the source server to be on at least v8.0.
You need to have an Allworx partner to make these things smooth and easy.

As for durability, the 6x server is definitely durable. The most common failures, as allwrxprtnr says is the power supply (12v/1A, one of the most common in the world) or the CompactFlash card. In 2019, I encountered a 6x running v6.9 that was at least 10 years old. It might still be running today if I hadn't convinced them to upgrade.