Planned upgrade weekend.
We are going to implement an upgrade the Voyced Hosted IPPBX platform to the next stable version, V10.0.0, over the weekend of the 10th - 11th - 12th of October 2025.
Description:
Over the last years we have invested heavily in extra hardware, testing and adding functionalities to our Hosted IPPBX solution again.
Some of these functionalities have already been 'released' into the wild (some in a smaller group, some for everyone already) without actually notifying you.
This will all change from now on as we have many more functions and services already lined up and we'll let you know and communicate more to let you know.
With this upgrade, we are going to make another leap forward and prepare the live system for many new and exciting features that we will release in the (near) future!
As always, any upgrade has been tested very extensively in our testing and extra created redundant environments before we decided that the actual implementation can go ahead.
This is so that the upgrade on the live systems should go through quickly and without a flaw.
The upgrade procedure has been separated into several parts spread over the three days of the weekend and we'll create separate announcements for these steps as pre-tests have passed correctly, we get nearer the time and planning is set.
The simplified steps involved will be:
- Friday evening: Remove portal access to force a data freeze (starts at 8pm BST until Sunday the 12th at 1pm BST, or earlier if all goes extra well)
Any changes made during this maintenance window may not take effect or may get lost once the upgrade has completed, so we would ask you to refrain from making any changes. - Installing new, updated live version on a partition next to the existing live system (this is a no impact on the live system step)
- We'll move all traffic to our Dutch redundant node so that the UK node is no longer in use and ready to be upgraded.
When we see traffic going to the NL node we can start the upgrade of the UK node in a standalone mode.
At this point it is essential that you have set up your device(s) with either DNS SRV and/or by manually adding both Geographic servers correctly (see knowledgebase point 4) to prevent downtime of your device(s). - Extensive testing of the UK node and it's upgrade will be done, once all ok and succesful, the node will be brought back to the live system.
Once this is done, and we see traffic flowing to the UK node again, the same process will be applied to the NL node. - Extensive testing of the entire system.
- As early as possible, the new systems will be released and the data freeze will stop.
The Existing Hosted IPPBX solution is untouched throughout the upgrade until hand-over to the new Hosted IPPBX platform version.
Note: If significant issues are found at any point in the process we will revert to the 'old' IPPBX platform version.
Apart from the mentioned 'data freeze', to prevent settings from changing during this process, there should have little or no impact on customers in the short term if you have the DNS SRV set and/or manually set the 2 SIP servers as explained in our knowledgebase article. The risks will likewise be very low because of our extensive testing and the ability to revert to the current version if so required.
The extra benefit from this major upgrade comes in the form of future upgrades, both in terms of the features that become available and the flexibility of their introduction.
During each step both Voyced and external supplier engineers will be on hand performing live checks, monitoring calls and other systems to ensure continuity of service.
We will be updating this announcement during the upgrade, ensuring transparency with the process, and we will have engineers on hand at all times.
Our support staff and engineers will only be reachable through tickets during this upgrade process.
The excellent news and just some of the new options this will give us all
This upgrade will give many new security and stability features and prepares the systems for functionalities planned for the (near) future.
If you have not set up/changed your local devices and/or systems to use Geographic redundancy, we strongly urge you to do so a.s.a.p.
All the information you need is in our Basic Setup knowledgebase article, as always.
So, we're sure you are curious and want to know what is going to be new and improved, right?!
Amongst the numerous improvements, additions and preparations for future features under the hod but there are also many new and improved features for you, the user.
The following is only a limited list of functions that are improved or added that you will see/experience on your user side:
- Call transfer recall so that your 'blind' transferred call comes back to you if the transfer does not get picked up
- Personalized response messages for incoming calls (plays before any call is answered, forwarded, or directed to voicemail)
- xDR download enhancement
- Call supervision with 3 modes: spy, whisper, barge-in
- Call parking with automatic retrieval
- Sound Quality Check function
- Improved Call Barring
- Preparation of integration for eSIM services
- Group paging
- Faster processing of Voicemail
- Further improved handling and troubleshooting of audio streams and single audio issues where the user's local equipment doesn't 'follow the rules'
- Improved Paging / Intercom function
- Many new enhancements that will help us troubleshoot any issues, such as registration issues, you may come across
- We're extending the API calls library so we can create even better and more integrated custom solutions for your situation
- More languages added for the IVR etc
- and much, much more
Some functions and improvements that are planned for the short to middle long term are (in no particular (timeline) order):
- two-factor authentication (2FA)
- SMS Inbound and Outbound
- Better Call Queue experience for the caller
- Automated call wrap-up scheduling
- Semi-attended transfer
- Display caller extension name instead of company name in calls within PBX
- Call parking and retrieval with a single key on an IP phone
- Centralized phone number list management for call screening
- Transferring calls directly to a call queue
- Seamless switching between devices during a call (Call pull)
- Even more languages in the IVR etc
- and many many more
All user-side functions will be made available as soon as we can and we will notify you of the important ones separately.
So, make sure that you are subscribed to the mailing list(s) and we will send everyone those notifications that we deem important enough!
(you can always check your mailing list subscription with our support team)
We thank you for your patience and understanding and apologise for the inconvenience that this essential maintenance work may cause.
If there are any questions or concerns, please contact our technical support team.
Kind Regards
the Voyced Technical team
Update 1:
The first stage of the prepartion has been completed.
Update 2:
We are preparing to switch traffic away from the secondary sites in the next 15 minutes and then perform test reboots of both sites, subsequently performing basic functionality testing.
Important: please do not make changes during this period as they will not be saved, and will be lost after we switch traffic back. We will let you know when it is safe to make changes again.
During this times voice calls should be unaffected, however, there will be intermittent Presence and BLF will not function, voicemail messages left during the maintenance window will not be available until the upgrade is complete.
Update 3:
We have now completed stage 2: Basic functionality testing and reboots, on all sites and restored standard traffic distribution.
We are now operating on the current version in standard capacity, changes can once again be made safely but we would advise to refrain from making changes until the end of the upgrade.
There will be no further work or updates until stage 3 begins on the 12/10/2025 at 10pm BST when we will begin stage 3. We will send out further communications closer to this time.
Update 4:
We have started to switch traffic away from the main site and then perform the switch the new major version of our Hosted IPPXB solution.
Please do not make changes during this period as they will not be saved, and will be lost after we complete the upgrade.
We will let you know when it is safe to make changes again.
During this times voice calls should be unaffected, however, there will be intermittent access to Presence and BLF will not function, voicemail messages left during the maintenance window will not be available until the upgrade is complete. As mentioned yesterday, we continue have engineers on standby via tickets.
Update 5:
We have now completed the upgrade the new major version of our Hosted IPPBX solution of our primary site.
In the next 15 minutes, we will be switching all traffic back onto the primary site.
Once traffic has been switched to the primary site, and verified as workign correvtly, we will complete the upgrades on our secondary sites and subsequently restore standard service.
Update 6:
Our main (UK) site has now been running the new major version of our Hosted IPPBX solution for several hours and we can confirm testing has not raised any obvious problems or concerns.
We have however encountered some delays in finalising updates on the secondary site, which has prevented us from returning to our normal fully redundant state. Please be assured that this is purely down to timings, as some processes have taken longer than expected to complete.
We are currently awaiting the completion of xDR syncronisation from the Secondary site back to the Master site. Once completed, this will allow the secondary servers to have their final configuration updates applied before we can bring them back into operation.
Note that xDRs may not currently available in the web interface until everything is completed and synchronised.
Current estimates are that it will be 2 - 3 hours for this to fully complete.
Update 7:
The secondary sites are now also fully upgraded and tested.
We have signed-off the upgrade process.
Downtime of any sever has been kept to a bare minimum, and to 0 for each cluster, and not a single call has been faulted during the entire upgrade process.
Well done to all involved.
Thank you, our clients, for your co-operation during this process as well.
Please feel free to make any tests you require and if you identify any issues, please start a ticket for the issue at hand mentioning the specific upgrade issue.
Tickets regarding issues that have come to light after the upgrade will get priority treatment for the rest of this week as they may involve mutliple clients.
With kind regards
Hein Kuenen
General manager
Viernes, Septiembre 26, 2025
