¶ Bicom Systems Customer Services
.
¶ Technical Support
Our Support team can troubleshoot and resolve technical problems that will allow you, our Partner, to work in the least restrictive environment.
The Bicom Systems Support team offers:
- Friendly approach and communication
- Valuable problem-solving solutions
- Clear and understandable replies
All queries are resolved to achieve one of the following:
- Having the issue resolved to Partners satisfaction
- Providing detailed explanation if the issue is unsolvable
- Marking the issue as a feature request and transferring it to our developers
- Marking the issue as a bug in the bug tracker and providing an indication of resolution
- Delivering patches for critical bugs
What we ask for in return:
- Legible and clear explanation of the problem with all possible details
- Answering inquiries promptly until a solution and mutual satisfaction is reached
At Bicom Systems, support for our valued partners is built around the concept of support and not maintenance. While our dedicated support team diligently addresses various issues beyond the scope of standard support contracts to assist our customers, challenges arise when certain inquiries are requested to be resolved via our support channels which is why our partners must ensure the presence of technical staff members who possess a proficient understanding of both our product offerings and the Linux operating system. This ensures smoother communication and more effective troubleshooting processes, thereby enhancing overall support efficiency and customer satisfaction.
To clarify the disparity between support and maintenance concept, please review the following breakdown:
Support:
- Inquiry: Pose your question or issue.
- Guidance: Receive tailored instructions and guidance on how to address it.
- Execution: Independently perform the recommended steps.
Maintenance:
- Inquiry: Present your question or concern.
- Action: We promptly undertake the necessary steps to resolve it on your behalf.
¶ Support Working Hours
The working hours of Support are displayed in Eastern Standard Time:
| Mon-Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|
| 24h Regular Support | On-call Engineer | On-call Engineer |
On-call Engineers are available for Emergency tickets 24/7. To see more on how to open an Emergency ticket, click here.
¶ Opening Support Tickets
All Partners with an active Support Contract can submit a Support ticket. All support matters should be entered as a Ticket.
To do so, please go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. Select New Support Ticket and add all the necessary information. Please make sure all requirements are met.
Requirements can be found in the Support Requirements section.
¶ Video Tutorial
This video will help you navigate through the Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal. You can refer to the video below:
¶ Step-By-Step Process
Here you can refer to a step-by-step process of opening a New Support Ticket for all our Partners who prefer written instructions over videos:
1. Go to the Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal
2. Select New Support Ticket located at the very beginning of the page below the Search bar, after which the Submit a Ticket form will be opened
3. Enter your email address into the Requester field
The Subject field is a regular description of the Ticket issue and it also acts as a search field. Once you type in the issue, it will automatically search for related topics and display them on the side.
4. Select Technical Issue in the Select Issue type field
5. Select the product where the issue has been detected in the Select product field
After selecting the product, additional fields will pop out. (E.g. Ehen selecting PBXware, 'PBXware licence number', 'PBXware version' and 'PBXware edition' will be required.)
6. Describe the issue in as much detail as possible in the 'Description' field
Please make sure to check the Support Requirements section.
7. Click Attach a file to attach files to the ticket
8. Click Submit once everything is completed
¶ Emergency Tickets
¶ When to Use an Emergency Ticket
Emergency tickets can be used in the following scenarios:
- In case the system is down
- In case 50% of calls (or more) are unable to pass on the system
- In case SIPprot stopped working during the weekend (for other days, please use regular tickets)
¶ Opening an Emergency Ticket
There are a couple of ways to create an Emergency ticket:
- By sending an email to “[email protected]” and typing “URGENT” or “EMERGENCY” in the Subject field
- By going to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal and submitting a ticket with “URGENT” or “EMERGENCY” in the ticket's Subject field
- If instead of emergency a regular ticket is opened by mistake, the same ticket can be converted to EMERGENCY by changing the ticket priority from "ANY" to "URGENT" or changing ticket type from "ANY" to "EMERGENCY" through Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal
If it is determined through investigation and troubleshooting that the emergency was caused by a man-made error or the issue was raised for a non-emergency issue, you may be subjected to additional charges.
¶ Feature Request
¶ How To Submit a Feature Request
Submitting a feature request is very easy and similar to bug reporting. To submit a feature request, please go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal.
- Select New Support Ticket
- Select Feature request from the Select Issue type field
When writing a description, we advise giving as many details as possible to save time with requirements defining.
It is important to select Issue Type as Feature Request because required field will be displayed automatically when submitting it.
¶ Here is a simple example of a feature description:
After submitting a Feature request to the Support team, they will transfer it to the Product Owner for a review. It will take 3-4 weeks untill the Product Owner reviews the request and decides whether it meets all criteria to be listed on the Product board.
If the feature request was not clear enough or there was some information missing, the Product Owner will inform a Support team member, who will continue a discussion with you on the initial ticket. Otherwise, a feature request will be posted on the Product board and available for voting and commenting, and you will be informed about it on the initial ticket.
¶ How To Escalate a Feature Request
You can escalate the feature request as described in the Escalating ticket section on this page. The only difference from the usual bug ticket escalation is that the development of the feature request will be charged at already formed prices.
The feature request that has been escalated, if marked valid and approved by the Product Owner, will be located in the Release section of the Product board and not put for voting in the 'Under consideration' section.
¶ Using Online Chat
Online chat is available through your web login at My Account by clicking on the Chat Support. Online Chat is preferable to tickets for the following reasons:
- Emergency Live Issues
- Matters that require more explanation and a relay of conversation for which tickets may take longer
¶ HOWTO Documents
Before directly seeking help from our Support team be sure to read the HOWTOs documents available for you. These documents contain step-by-step instructions for faster resolution of minor issues. You can see a list of all HOWTOs on the following page HOWTOs_General and also on the Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal knowledge base.
¶ Escalating a Ticket
In order to have a fast and efficient way of resolving issues, we provide our Partners with a Support Escalation system. Escalations are taken very seriously with an additional level of severity.
We recommend the immediate initiation of a Support escalation process when there is a tangible impact on your production environment, or there is a high risk to the business operations.
¶ How To Escalate a Ticket
To escalate a ticket, go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal.
- Select New Support Ticket
- Select Escalation
- Add the ticket number of a ticket you wish to escalate in the Ticket number # field
- Write the reason for escalating in the Description field
Ticket can also be escalated through Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal:
- Open the ticket you wish to escalate on portal
- Change Ticket Type from "ANY" to "ESCALATION"
- This will generate a new ticket and notify Partner Success team about escalation
Escalation will be handled by the Partner Success team who will offer a solution depending on your problem type.
¶ When To Escalate a Ticket
You can escalate a ticket in the following cases:
- If you have recurring or multiple related high-priority incidents related to business impact and urgency
- If there is data loss or a risk of potential data loss
- If there is a risk of potential or actual damage to your and our reputation
- If the problem that was resolved earlier started recurring and you are unsure of what caused it
- If you are not satisfied with the understanding of the problem by the Support engineers (e.g. a language barrier, poor experience, etc.)
¶ When Not To Escalate a Ticket
You do not have to escalate a ticket in the following cases:
- If you have not contacted the Support team before and created a ticket related to the issue in question
- If the issue reported is not risky and urgent for your business
- If the Support team is already working on your problem and they did not exceed a reasonable timeframe for resolving it
¶ Submitting Feedback
To post feedback, please go to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal.
- Select New Support Ticket
- Select Feedback as an issue type
- Write as many details as possible in the Description field
We will do our best to encourage actions that lead to positive feedback or to change what you marked as negative.
Partners who cannot access Bicom Systems Support Portal, because they do not have an active Support Contract, can use [email protected] for sending feedback.
¶ Support Requirements
- Providing a direct access from the public IP is a must as it is not possible to perform troubleshooting, maintenance procedures, or custom patches applications through screen sharing applications.
- Providing the systems access details, public address, GUI username and password is a must as well as the system's root password for SSH and Setup Wizard login.
- For systems operating from LAN or behind a firewall, these ports must be opened/forwarded:
Web GUI:
TCP: 80, 81, 443
SSH access:
TCP for PBXware: 2020
TCP for SERVERware: 2020, 2222
Please be aware that ports mentioned here are only for the full system access. For the list of ports, please refer to the link below:
HOWTO Port Forwarding When System Behind A Router/Firewall
¶ Maintenance and Custom Project Package
In case Partners need additional work from Support apart from HowTo documents and clear explanation on a Support ticket, we offer Maintenance. During maintenance, Partners can ask for additional support service that will later be charged depending on the time required for performance.
Deployment & Training:
¶
| Item | Description | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| VPS Migrations | Migrating VPSs between different systems. Including, but not limited to: ● Moving PBXware from one serverware to another ● Moving PBXware from and to Bicom hosting fascilities ● Moving PBXware from a SERVERware to a standalone setup |
Pricing is defined per VPS, based on the average time needed for a VPS migration. Two different migration paths are available with different pricing for each. For more information check here. The number of VPSs will define the amount of discount offered to our partners. |
| System Rebuilds | Re-installation of a system due to various reasons. Including, but not limited to, storage hosts, processing hosts, backup hosts, standalone instances, etc. Depending if the project requires moving the services temporarily elsewhere, additional fees may be required. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Storage pool reconfiguration | Including but limited to: ● Adding additional drives to a ZFS pool ● Replacing pool disks with larger ones |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Disk replacement and raid rebuilds | Including but limited to: ● Replacing a failed drive within ZFS ● Replacing a failed drive under a HW raid setup ● OS disk replacements |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Firmware upgrades/downgrades and/or server maintenance | ● Upgrading or downgrading firmware for server components. ● Reconfiguration after replacing network cards |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. The work involves, research, testing, implementation and monitoring. |
| Network changes | ● Re-configuring the network from private to public and vice-versa ● Changing the gateway, netmask, etc ● Adding additional networks |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Custom shell scripting | Various custom bash scripts. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. The work involves research, testing, implementation and monitoring. |
| Work outside of regular office hours (weekends) | Any work being done on demand outside of regular engineer working hours. | Pricing defined according to fixed hourly weekend rates with a half day minimum charge. |
| Various capacity upgrades | Scheduled assistance for disk, RAM, PCI-e card, and any other hardware upgrade. | Depending on the project scope and amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by inappropriate tampering | Any time spent investigating and repairing issues caused by improper tampering with the back end of the software. Including, but not limited to: ● Modifications to the Linux/OS either through tampering or installation of 3rd party software. ● Manual modifications to the database, either through mysql console, 3rd party applications, scripts, etc ● Manual modifications to asterisk, AMI, API, etc, either through the console, 3rd party applications, scripts, etc. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by ignoring recommendations and instructions provided directly by Bicom Systems | Any time spent investigating and repairing issues caused by ignoring recommendations and instructions provided by Bicom. This includes, but not limited to: ● Using unsupported hardware ● Connecting the network differently then instructed by Bicom Systems |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
Technical Support:
¶
| Item | Description | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Custom configuration for devices | ● Polycom custom configuration / option ● Yealink phones custom options which need to be changed from default values ● Grandstream phones custom configuration ● Snom phones custom configuration ● Any other custom configuration of devices not listed that may arise Custom configuration on any supported UADs, based on our client’s experiences, may result in issues with features and configurations served from PBXware to these devices. Therefore, Bicom Systems does not provide support for such custom configurations. Support engineers can provide guidelines to the client but are not in obliged to do so. If a client insists on having a custom configuration written by the Support Team, it is considered as a maintenance task. However, it's important to note that the Support Team will not be responsible for maintaining this configuration thereafter. Once provided, the client takes responsibility for its maintenance. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Custom bash scripting for any purposes | ● Scripts to automate manual processes ● Scripts to automate backups ● Scripts to automate MYSQL queries If a client insists on having custom bash script for any purpose written by the Support Team, it is considered as a maintenance task. However, it's important to note that the Support Team will not be responsible for maintaining this script thereafter. Once provided, the client takes responsibility for its maintenance. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| IPtables modifications | ● Various custom rules, port translations, redirections, etc. If a client insists on having IP tables modified by the Support Team, it is considered as a maintenance task. However, it's important to note that the Support Team will not be responsible for maintaining these rules thereafter. Once provided, the client takes responsibility for its maintenance. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Mounts (iscsi, samba, etc) for any purpose | ● Setting up external drives for purposes other than call recordings, iscsi targets, samba, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Asterisk Dialplan | ● Custom dial plan that is only required by the specific user / partner ● Stripping numbers on outbound calls, inbound calls, randomize callerIDs, etc. Bicom Systems does not provide support for custom Asterisk Dialplans required by specific users. Support engineers can provide guidelines to the client but are not in obliged to do so. In case the client’s Storage Pool disk fails and needs replacement, the Support team will organize and perform the Storage pool disk replacement procedure. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Storage pool - disk replacement | ● Replacing a faulty disk in Storage Pool If a client insists on having IP tables modified by the Support Team, it is considered as a maintenance task. However, it's important to note that the Support Team will not be responsible for maintaining these rules thereafter. Once provided, the client takes responsibility for its maintenance. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Clickhouse data migration | ● Migrating data from clickhouse ● Setting up clickhouse for clients If a client requires migrating data from one to another clickhouse (local to remote, remote to remote) the Support team will organize and perform migrating requested data. Clickhouse setup guide has been published on the official WIKI, if a client insists on this procedure being performed by the Support Team, it will be charged accordingly. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| CDR Trim | ● Performing CDR trim on client’s demand outside the upgrade procedure If a client requires trimming their CDR table outside the upgrade procedure, this procedure is considered as mantainance and is charged. If Support team determines that the client did not have options (on older versions) to archive their CDR records, procedure will not be charged. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Maintenance and installations on unsupported OS | ● Firmware upgrades on unsupported OS ● Installing missing libraries on unsupported OS ● Other issues that may arise from the failed software functions ● Post upgrade issues determined to be caused by unsupported OS Bicom Systems officially supports only installations on Gentoo OS and Arch as well as systems deployed on SERVERware |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Mantainance of EOL versions | ●Troubleshooting issues on EOL versions ● Resolving licensing issues on EOL versions The EOL products list has been posted on the official WIKI page. All clients have been informed about EOL policy on the following article. For products that have reached EOL, as well as End of Support, support team will provide assistance ONLY if the client accepts maintenance policy for EOL versions. In situations where the client’s services are affected, the Support team will provide support, but if it is determined that for the problem to be resolved additional time-consuming troubleshooting is required, those actions will be considered as mantainance as well. |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. |
| Work outside of regular office hours (weekends) | ● Anything that does not cover EMERGENCY or URGENT tickets which are by default covered during weekend such as ● Upgrade/updates, migrations, etc. |
Pricing defined according to fixed hourly weekend rates with a half day minimum charge. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by inappropriate tampering | Issues caused by partners and their techs by improperly changing either frontend or backend settings, removing files, using scripts that remove files, etc. | Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
| Software/service troubleshooting and repair caused by ignoring recommendations and instructions provided directly by Bicom | ● Not following serverware disk replacement procedure ● Enabling MYSQL access from outside ● Enabling outbound call transfer - having fraudulent calls occur ● Using TFTP for provisioning ● Enabling any service-effective options after provided recommendations by Bicom ● Other service/software issues that may arise by ignoring Bicom’s instructions |
Depending on the amount of work involved, the invoice will be generated based on standard engineer hourly rates. Weekend rates may apply. |
¶ Support Documents
- Difference between Tickets and Live chats
- Supported Devices
- Unsupported Devices
- System requirements and PBXware resource utilization
- Supported/Unsupported deployments and modifications
- Support Ticket/Chat - General Information
- Support assistance limitations
- Partners’ Responsibility for VPS and Service Maintenance
¶ Migration
Are VPS Migrations included in the Support contract?
VPS Migrations are not a part of the main projects and are not included in the Support contract provided by Bicom Systems.
If you have a request to move your PBXware installations from one instance to another, you can do so in two ways:
- Self Migration - using instructions provided by Bicom Systems
- Managed Migration - using our expert team to assist manage migration
¶ Self Migration
Self migrations are possible only when migrating from SERVERware 1.9 to SERVERware 3.x for which script is available. If you decide to migrate yourself, we will be happy to provide you with detailed instructions that you need to follow carefully for a successful outcome.
Bicom engineers will not provide you with additional assistance during this migration process. But of course, if a problem arises that you cannot solve on your own, our expert team will be there to investigate and try to solve the issue. We consider it our obligation to inform you that this would be charged extra, as it would be invoiced as maintenance fees. Depending on how many people will be involved in the troubleshooting and repair process, these costs start at $850 and grow depending on the situation. Also, we want to note that, regardless of the price, we cannot guarantee that the repair will be successful.
¶ Managed Migration
If you express a desire for managed migration, our engineers will be at your disposal. They will completely migrate VPSs from start to finish, and if required, in several stages depending on the needs and setup. All the work will be done by them, and you will effortlessly enjoy the result.
In the case of managed migration, we have two options on offer, and these are:
- Standard migration
- Gradual migration
¶ Standard Migration
The standard migration includes the migration being done in two stages to minimize downtime:
- Base Sync is the first stage of the standard migration, which requires our team to move the bulk of data across to the new platform. This stage requires no downtime and will not cause any disruptions to your VPSes but will significantly shorten the downtime of your VPSes once the migration reaches the final stage. After this stage, the data on the new platform will be partially corrupted and the VPS on the new platform will not be fully functional until the Final migration step is completed.
- Final migration is the second stage of this process, during which, the data will be moved from your old SERVERware to the new platform and in this case, VPSes on both locations need to be stopped. This phase of the Standard migration requires some downtime of your VPSes, estimated roughly up to half an hour, and our team will ensure you will be notified as soon as we start with the migration process. Once the final migration is completed, our team would perform various inspections and tests to ensure the migration was successful and also provide sufficient availability to make sure that no issues arise after the migration is done. As we complete this stage, you will be completely moved to the new platform.
After the migration, you will be able to log in to your instances and inspect the functionality of your VPSes. Once you ensure the full functionality of the instance, the migration will be considered completed. If needed, our team will be available to troubleshoot and assist with resolving any potential issues.
¶ Gradual Migration
In this type of migration, your VPSs will be running on both old and the new SERVERware at the same time, but on different IP addresses. During this period you will be able to conduct various tests, to ensure the final migration process will be completed without service affecting issues.
This type of migration is conducted in four stages:
- Base Sync is the first step of the Gradual migration, where our team will move the bulk of data across to the new platform. The Base Sync, as described in the Standard Migration, does not require any downtime of your VPSes and will not cause any disruptions to your system, but rather enhance the process of final migration. Once our team completes the Base Sync, the data will be corrupted, and the VPSes where the data is migrated cannot be started until the second stage (Full Sync) is completed.
- Full Sync is the second step that requires our team to sync the remaining data over which will ensure we will be able to start the VPS on the new platform. Given that the VPS will need to be stopped, this stage of the Gradual migration requires some downtime of your VPS, estimated roughly up to half an hour. Once we complete this stage, your system will be running on both locations.
- Test + Support: Considering that at this point, your system is running on both old and new SERVERware, you will be able to test everything on the new platform to ensure there are no connectivity issues. If you encounter any issues or uncertainties, we will be able to provide assistance and work together in troubleshooting and hopefully resolving the problem. After you have tested out the new platform and confirmed that there are no problems, we can then proceed to the final stage of the Gradual migration.
- Final migration: During the testing period, the production VPS has been generating additional data, which will be synced over to the new platform in the Final migration phase. By completing the final migration, you are completely moved to the new platform and the VPS which is running on the new platform will then become the production VPS, leaving the VPS on the old platform stopped.
In addition, managed migrations are explained more clearly in the chart below:
| Migration type | Standard migration | Gradual migration |
|---|---|---|
| Base Sync |  |
|
| Full Sync |  |
|
| Test + Support | |
|
| Final migration | |
|
| Post Migration Support | |
|
¶ Unsupported Modification
Please be aware that unsupported modifications might lead to system failure as well as extensive data loss and server malfunctioning of the system.
Direct modifications of the hardware, base operating system or the database are not supported unless the instructions have been provided through our documentation or ticket.
Any subsequent identification of problems and their elimination will be charged extra for maintenance. The price will be calculated according to the time Bicom Systems developers spent troubleshooting the problem at the standard rates. Given the complicated nature of such items, identification of the issue may take long and the only course of reparation may be reinstallation and use of the most recent backup.