How to Install Freepbx on a Cloud VPS

FreePBX is a free, safe, and secure application that manages VOIP (voice over IP) services and acts as a telephone for a server. FreePBX undergoes quality assurance control by Sangoma and offers flexibility and scalability to help meet consumer needs regardless of their needs. Many VOIP services may require license agreements, but FreePBX does not.

Using FreePBX allows for customization via any number of extensions, users, IVRs, and queues that can suit the needs of the tasks at hand. In addition, a robust open-source community provides support in the form of webinars, forums, an entire setup and troubleshooting wiki, and pro-tip videos. Request features and submit bug reports that see immediate results.

FreePBX Requirements

You can install FreePBX on various operating systems. However, the following instructions have \installed on CentOS 8. A VPS or dedicated server with root access and a form of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MongoDB, PHP) installed is required.

FreePBX Preparation

Before installing FreePBX, you will need to first prepare the following on your server by logging into your server via SSH.

Verify that SELinux is disabled

Step 1: use the following command to make sure SELinux is disabled.

sestatus

If selinux is enabled, run the following commands to disable it

sed -i 's/\(^SELINUX=\).*/\SELINUX=disabled/' /etc/sysconfig/selinux
sed -i 's/\(^SELINUX=\).*/\SELINUX=disabled/' /etc/selinux/config

Then reboot, and verify the SELinux status by running 'sestatus.' It should say:

SELinux status: disabled

Step 2: Before beginning further installation, ensure your OS is up-to-date by running the following command

sudo dnf -y update

Install Dependencies

Step 1: Install Development tools.

dnf -y group install "Development Tools."

Step 2: Create a new user named "asterisk"

adduser asterisk -m -c "Asterisk User"

Step 3: Install Additional Required Dependencies

Enable powertools

dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools

Install dependencies

dnf -y install lynx tftp-server unixODBC mariadb-server mariadb httpd ncurses-devel sendmail sendmail-cf newt-devel libxml2-devel libtiff-devel gtk2-devel subversion git wget vim uuid-devel sqlite-devel net-tools gnutls-devel texinfo libuuid-devel libedit-devel

Disable powertools

dnf config-manager --set-disabled powertools

Step 4: Install mysql odbc connector 8.0.2

dnf install -y https://downloads.mysql.com/archives/get/p/10/file/mysql-connector-odbc-8.0.21-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

dnf install -y epel-release

dnf install -y libid3tag

dnf install -y https://forensics.cert.org/cert-forensics-tools-release-el8.rpm

dnf --enablerepo=forensics install -y sox

dnf install -y audiofile-devel

dnf install -y python3-devel

Step 5: Install php7.2

dnf remove php*
dnf install -y php php-pdo php-mysqlnd php-mbstring php-pear php-process php-xml php-opcache php-ldap php-intl php-soap php-json

Step 6: Install Nodejs version 12

dnf module enable nodejs:12 -y
dnf install -y nodejs

Install and configure MariaDB

Step 1: Enable and start mariadb

systemctl enable mariadb.service
systemctl start mariadb

Step 2: Secure the mariaDB installation.

The prompt will ask you for your current root password. Since you just installed MySQL, you won't have one set up, so leave it blank by pressing enter. Then the prompt will ask you if you want to set a root password. Do not set a root password. We secure the database automatically as part of the install script. You can choose yes for the rest to remove some sample users and databases, disable remote root logins, and load these new rules.

mysql_secure_installation

Enable and start Apache Web Server

Step 1: Run the following commands to enable and start the Apache webserver

systemctl enable httpd.service
systemctl start httpd.service

Step 2: Verify Apache service status

systemctl status httpd.service

Install Legacy Pear requirements

Run the following command to install legacy pear

pear install Console_Getopt

Download and install Asterisk

Step 1: Download Asterisk source files

cd /usr/src
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-16-current.tar.gz

Step 2: Extract your drupal download.

tar xvfz asterisk-16-current.tar.gz

Step 3: Remove the tar file

rm -f asterisk-*-current.tar.gz

Compile and install Asterisk

Step 1: Go to

cd asterisk-*
contrib/scripts/install_prereq install
./configure --libdir=/usr/lib64 --with-jansson-bundled
contrib/scripts/get_mp3_source.sh
make menuselect

Step 2: You will be prompted at the point to pick which modules to build. You will already enable most of them, but if you want MP3 support (e.g., for Music on Hold), you need to manually turn on 'format_mp3' on the first page. Select "Save & Exit".

Step 3: Make the Asterisk package

make
make install
make config
make samples
ldconfig
chkconfig asterisk off

Step 4: Set Asterisk ownership permissions

chown asterisk. /var/run/asterisk
chown -R asterisk. /etc/asterisk
chown -R asterisk. /var/{lib,log,spool}/asterisk
chown -R asterisk. /usr/lib64/asterisk
chown -R asterisk. /var/www

Update Apache settings

Step 1: update the following parameters.

sed -i 's/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/' /etc/php.ini
sed -i 's/\(^memory_limit = \).*/\1256M/' /etc/php.ini
sed -i 's/^\(User\|Group\).*/\1 asterisk/' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
sed -i 's/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
sed -i 's/\(^user = \).*/\1asterisk/' /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
sed -i 's/\(^group = \).*/\1asterisk/' /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
sed -i 's/\(^listen.acl_users = apache,nginx\).*/\1,asterisk/' /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

Step 2: Restart apache and PHP-fpm

systemctl restart httpd.service
systemctl restart php-fpm

Download and install FreePBX.

Step 1: Download and install the FreePBX source files.

cd /usr/src
wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/modules/packages/freepbx/freepbx-15.0-latest.tgz
tar xfz freepbx-15.0-latest.tgz
rm -f freepbx-15.0-latest.tgz
cd freepbx
./start_asterisk start
./install -n

Step 2: Create a FreePBX Boot Script

vi /etc/systemd/system/freepbx.service

Add the following to the file.

[Unit]
Description=FreePBX VoIP Server
After=mariadb.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/fwconsole start -q
ExecStop=/usr/sbin/fwconsole stop -q

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step 3: Run the script

systemctl enable freepbx.service

Step 4: Start the PBX Service

systemctl start freepbx

Step 5: Check the status of the PBX Service

systemctl status -l freepbx.service

Complete Setup Using FreePBX GUI (Graphical User Interface)

Step 1: In your browser, go to your servers IP address (http:\\192.x.x.1)

Step 2: Create an admin username and password.

Step 3: Enter an email address that you would like to send your notifications.

Step 4: Name your FreePBX Server.

Step 5: Make sure you leave Module updates, security updates, and security emails enabled and click setup system.