Installing 3CX on a hosting for 2.99 Euro / month. in 10 minutes

  • Tutorial
Perhaps you know that 3CX currently provides free PBX hosting for all new users on Google's cloud infrastructure for 1 year. However, for existing 3CX users or those who immediately want to use commercial hosting, in order not to “move” in the future, it makes sense to install PBX on an inexpensive Linux virtual machine in a reliable data center. The advantage of installing 3CX on your own virtual machine compared to the so-called. "Virtual PBX" is that you yourself fully control both PBX services and confidential data - the history and recording of conversations.

3CX made a lot of effort to simplify the installation of the system by the user without special training. You only need to carefully follow the steps to create a cloud account, which will then automatically generate an instance of a virtual server with an installed PBX 3CX.

3CX certified to install PBXs several cloud providers, including Google Cloud , Azure and Amazon . A little apart is the large European data center OVH, which offers very low prices for basic cloud servers, from 2.99 Euros per month. On this server, it is possible to place PBXs on 16 simultaneous calls, i.e. approximately 64 users. It is important to note that the PBX for 16 simultaneous calls 3CX offers the first year for free.

OVH uses the OpenStack infrastructure, so professionals familiar with it will be easy to understand. But if you have never created cloud services, use our step-by-step guide - and save on technical support!

OVH cloud activation


To get started, create an account on OVH . You will receive an e-mail with your credentials, including Customer ID (type bn112346-ovh).

Go to OVH Manager and activate the cloud project (Cloud) at the top (1).



Specify the project name (2), which will then be visible in the OVH control panel. You must also specify a payment card or Paypal account to activate the cloud (the sum is 10 Euro).



Ultimately, after payment and some waiting, you should receive an email notification that your cloud is activated.



Create an OpenStack user


When the cloud is ready, go to the Cloud Manager , then to the OpenStack section (2) and create a user (you can specify his first and last name) (3). The credentials of this user (4) are then used when creating the 3CX PBX in the PBX Express wizard.



Be sure to fix the account name and password, because they are shown only once. After that go to the OpenStack Management Console (5) with the credentials of the created user.

Generate SSH keys


Create SSH encryption keys for connecting to virtual machines. At the top, select the data center in which you want to create a virtual machine (1). It is recommended to leave the data center WAW1 (Warsaw), because it is geographically closest to Eastern Europe.



Then go to Compute (2)> Key Pairs (3) and enter the key name (4). It will subsequently be shown in the PBX Express wizard. If you plan to connect to virtual machines PBX 3CX over SSH , copy the key to a safe place (5).   

Security keys must be generated for each OVH data center where virtual machines are to be created. Therefore, if you want to create a 3CX instance in another data center, for example, “GRA1” (Western Europe), repeat this procedure.

This completes OHV hosting preparation.

PBX Express Wizard


In the PBX Express wizard, at step 5, select the OVH provider and enter the username and password of the user we created above.



Select the project in which the virtual machine will be created and the desired region. The name of the encryption key that we created earlier will automatically be displayed. Select the type of virtual machine that matches the capacity of your PBX . You can start with vps-ssd-1.



Please note that the following factors affect the PBX server load:

  • recording conversations (in the last update, you can only write external calls, not all in a row)
  • voice conferencing
  • number of SIP trunks
  • integration with CRM systems and databases
  • number of actively working users in 3CX web client

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