FreePBX
Maintainer
original contributor: Daniel B. from Firewall Services
last maintainer: JP Pialasse
Version
Description
FreePBX is a full-featured PBX web application. If you’ve looked into Asterisk, you know that it doesn’t come with any "built in" programming. You can’t plug a phone into it and make it work without editing configuration files, writing dialplans, and various messing about.
FreePBX simplifies this by giving you pre-programmed functionality accessible by a user-friendly web interfaces that allows you to have a fully functional PBX pretty much straight away with no programming required. Some of the features that FreePBX supports out of the box are:
- Unlimited number of Voicemail boxes
- "Follow Me" functionality
- Ring Groups with calls confirmation (so if, eg, a cellphone is out of range and diverts to voicemail, all the other phones keep ringing)
- Unlimited number of Conferences (limited by available CPU power - about 300 simultaneous users in conferences on a P4 3ghz - 600 with a dual core!)
- Paging and Intercom functionality for man SIP phones that support it.
- Music on Hold (via MP3s, or streamed off the internet)
- Call Queues
- And many other features
Optional
- You may want some hardware cards if you don't want your installation to be IP only. I've tested successfully the TDM400P, TDM410P and b410P (misdn) from Digium, but any card supported by DAHDI (should be anything working with zaptel) should work.
Installation
1. First, increase the php memory limit to at least 128M BEFORE the installation, or it will fail in the middle leaving it in an unstable state ( half mysql db installed, no modules activated).
db configuration setprop php MemoryLimit 128M expand-template /etc/php.ini service httpd-e-smith restart
2. Install the 4 yum repos necessary (asterisk-13,asterisk-current,digium-current,digium-13):
- Asterisk 13 LTS repo
/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set asterisk-13 repository \ Name 'Asterisk-13 - EL' \ BaseURL 'http://packages.asterisk.org/centos/$releasever/asterisk-13/$basearch/' \ EnableGroups yes \ Visible no \ status disabled
- Asterisk current repo for asterisk support files such as sounds, MOH, DAHDI, libpri and libss7
/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set asterisk-current repository \ Name 'Asterisk-current - EL' \ BaseURL 'http://packages.asterisk.org/centos/$releasever/current/$basearch/' \ Exclude php-* \ EnableGroups yes \ Visible no \ status disabled
- digium-13 repo
/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set digium-13 repository \ Name 'CentOS-$releasever - Digium 13' \ BaseURL 'http://packages.digium.com/centos/6/digium-13/$basearch/' \ EnableGroups no \ GPGCheck yes \ GPGKey 'http://packages.digium.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-Digium' \ Visible yes \ status disabled
- digium-current repo
/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set digium-current repository \ Name 'CentOS-$releasever - Digium current' \ BaseURL 'http://packages.digium.com/centos/6/current/$basearch/' \ EnableGroups no \ GPGCheck no \ GPGKey 'http://packages.digium.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-Digium' \ Visible yes \ status disabled
you should not enable GPG check for digium current some packages are not signed.
3. After adding it to the database updating the configuration file is required:
signal-event yum-modify
4. Then the actual installation :
yum install smeserver-freepbx --enablerepo=smecontribs,asterisk-13,asterisk-current,digium-current,digium-13
5. By default en language with ulaw are added. You may want to add some extra format and languages. (you might choose codec {alaw,ulaw,g722,gsm} you want and language {en,en_AU,fr,es}, see http://packages.asterisk.org/centos/6/current/i386/RPMS/). You can also manually download them latter through the Freepbx interface (first install Freepbx Sound Languages module,then go to Admin/Sound Languages)
yum install asterisk-sounds-core-fr-ulaw asterisk-sounds-extra-en-gsm --enablerepo=asterisk-current
6. This is the important step of the installation, the actual configuration and installation of files:
signal-event freepbx-update
7. Then you can start to configure and upgrade trough the interface in the server-manager it might also be necessary to reboot or relaunch asterisk to allow all modules to be launch:
signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot
You may need to first install the ATrpms repository.
yum --enablerepo=smecontribs --enablerepo=atrpms install smeserver-freepbx dahdi-linux-kmdl-$(uname -r) signal-event freepbx-update signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot
Components
FreePBX is composed of 4 main parts: the main FreePBX interface, Recordings, Asterisk-Stats and Flash Operator Panel
FreePBX
This is the main web interface for asterisk configuration. This interface is available at https://server.domain.tld/freepbx/admin, or in the server-manager, under FreePBX menu. You'll need to login as admin (password of your admin's SME account) to access this part. You can grant the access to any user of the system using the userpanel contrib (just grant the user or the group the permission to access freepbx panel)
Recordings
Recordings, is a web based portal for users. You may configure some features of your phone here (followme, call forward, call waiting etc...), check you call history, or download/listen to your voicemail. This interface is available at https://server.domain.tld/recordings. The login here is your phone (extension) number and your voicemail password. There's also a special admin account. The admin account can access all call logs and recordings. The login is admin, the password is randomly generated, you can find it in /opt/freepbx/recordings/includes/main.conf.php
Backup
Starting SME9 we started to integrate the FreePPX backup in the SME Server backup system. The first backup of FreePBX module is now reserved to SME usage. SME will trigger at least once a month a bakcup of your whole PBX and store it in /home/e-smith/files/freepbx/Default_backup/. Up to 2 version will be kept there. Also, every time you trigger the event pre-backup (i.e., before console backup, or workstation backup from server-manager) a backup will be done without you worrying about it (unless FreePBX is disabled). To restore your PBX after migrating to a new SME or after a disaster, just restore your SME as usual, install the smeserver-freepbx contrib and open you server-manager to access to the FreePBX interface. GO to the backup module, choose restore and navigate to /home/e-smith/files/freepbx/Default_backup/ and choose the backup to use. Et voilà !
Asterisk Stats
Asterisk-Stats is an interface to query CDR (Call Detail Reports) database. It's available on the main FreePBX interface at https://server/domain.tls/freepbx, on the "Reports" tab
Flash Operator Panel (SME8)
Flash Operator Panel is a switchboard type application for the Asterisk PBX. It runs on a web browser with the flash plugin. It is able to display information about your PBX activity in real time. The layout is configurable (button sizes and colours, icons, etc). The FOP is available at https://server.domain.tld/panel or in the main interface in the "Panel" tab.
You can grant the access to any user of the system using the userpanel contrib (just grant the user or the group the permission to access fop panel)
DB parameters
Here's the list of DB parameters:
This contrib add 3 entries in the configuration db: freepbx, dahdi and fop. Here's a description of available parameters for each entry
- freepbx
- CdrDbName: the name of the database for CDR. The default is asteriskcdrdb. You should let this unless you know what you're doing
- DbName: the name of the database for FreePBX. The default is freepbxdb. You should let this unless you know what you're doing
- DbPassword: the password to access FreePBX database. A random value is generated at install time.
- DbUser: the username to access both databases. Default is freepbxuser
- DeviceAndUser: (enabled|disabled) You can enable the 'deviceanduser' display view of FreePBX. DeviceAndUser is enabled, Devices and Users will be administered separately, and Users will be able to "login" to (adhoc) devices. If disabled Devices and Users will me administered in a single screen.
- ManagerPassword: This is the asterisk manager password used by FreePBX (the login is 'admin'). The default one is randomly generated at install time.
- UDPPorts: Lists of ports used by asterisk. This settings is only useful if you want to open asterisk on the public interface (you can also restrict it with AllowHost parameter)
- access: (private|public). if you want to open asterisk on the public interface, you can set this to public.
- status: (enabled|disabled). Should asterisk (with FreePBX provided helper script) should be started automatically.
- fop
- status: (enabled|disabled) Should we start the FOP server with FreePBX ?
- Password: This is the additional password for FOP. There's a first password needed to access FOP (by default, only admin is allowed). This first password is your SME account password. The second password (the one on this db parameter) allow users to use drag/drop on the different items (transfer call, initiate a call, hangup etc...). The default password is a random generated one at install time.
- TCPPort: This is the TCP port used for the communication between the flash applet and FOP daemon. The default is 4445
- access: The default is to allow only connections from the local network. You can allow external IP if you configure public here (and if you do so, you should limit this access to a list of IP using the AllowHost key)
- dahdi
- status: (enabled|disabled) You should let this to enabled, even if you don't have any hardware card because some functions (like meetme) requires the dahdi_dummy driver to be loaded.
Related pages
You may be interested in the following how-to:
Update Freepbx
To update your freepbx installation simply follow the procedure inside freepbx web interface. After every version update (from 2.5 to 2.6, etc.) you should run a
signal-event freepbx-update
in order to update file ownership according to SME specifications.
The way the contrib is designed, updating freepbx-src (i.e. from 2.5 to 2.7) won't update your working freepbx installation.
Uninstall
yum remove smeserver-freepbx freepbx-src
If you want to cleanup everything (MySQL databases, DB, etc...), you can use this script:
#!/bin/bash
clear
echo "----------------------------"
echo "!!!!! WARNING !!!!!"
echo "----------------------------"
echo ""
echo "This script will remove from your server:"
echo " - freepbx and asterisk cdr MySQL databases"
echo " - freepbx MySQL User"
echo " - freepbx DB entries (freepbx, httpd-fpbx and dahdi)"
echo " - /opt/freepbx"
echo ""
echo -n "Are you sure you want to remove FreePBX permanently ? (y/n) [n] "
read confirm
if [ "$confirm" = "y" -o "$confirm" = "Y" ]; then
echo "Droping MySQL databases..."
DBNAME=$(/sbin/e-smith/db configuration getprop freepbx DbName)
CDRDBNAME=$(/sbin/e-smith/db configuration getprop freepbx CdrDbName)
mysql -e "DROP DATABASE $DBNAME"
mysql -e "DROP DATABASE $CDRDBNAME"
echo "Deleting MySQL User..."
DBUSER=$(/sbin/e-smith/db configuration getprop freepbx DbUser)
mysql -u root -e "REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* FROM '$DBUSER'@'localhost';"
mysql -u root -e "DROP USER '$DBUSER'@'localhost';" > /dev/null 2>&1
echo "Removing SME DB entries..."
/sbin/e-smith/db configuration delete freepbx
/sbin/e-smith/db configuration delete httpd-fpbx
/sbin/e-smith/db configuration delete dahdi
echo "Removing /opt/freepbx ..."
rm -rf /opt/freepbx
echo "removing the crontab entry for asterisk"
crontab -u asterisk -r
echo "Done!"
fi
Reinstall
If you need to re-install everything, you should completely remove the previous installation (remove the rpms and run the cleanup script.)
Known issues
SME8: Sounds
you might have some trouble with sounds not playing, after updates of freepbx. The problem is that freepbx in new release configures asterisk to search for sounds in /usr/share/asterisk/sounds but all rpm for centos will install them in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds
create a symlink for each folder in it and everything will works.
SME8: Dahdi-linux-kmdl
be carrefull to keep the kernel module up to date every time you have a new kernel release ( wait if they are not available)
SME8: FOP could not reload
if after installation you get this message just do a
service freepbx restart
and everything will get fine !
SME9: CDR logging not enabled by default
CDR logging is not enabled by default. To enable one must manually load the cdr_mysql.so module:
Admin -> Asterisk Modules -> Manually loaded Modules -> Add module and enter the module name cdr_mysql.so
SME9: /tmp owned by asterisk:asterisk
update to a version of smeserver-freepbx >=13.3 and this will be fixed
SME9: freepbx modules
if you need to install the digium addons from freepbx, you will first need to install the following RPM:
yum install php-digium_register --enablerepo-digium-current
Firewall addons does not work on SME, it requires Sysadmin RPM.
You may need to manually install the manager module. It should be a default module but I could not find it installed, and nothing appeared in the Module Admin.
fwconsole moduleadmin listonline
fwconsole ma downloadinstall manager
SME9: warnings during yum install
you can safely ignore any of the following warnings during the installation :
Installing : asterisk-sounds-extra-en-ulaw-1.4.11-1_centos6.noarch 22/45 warning: user asterisk does not exist - using root
and
Installing : kmod-dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032-2.9.0-1_centos6.2.6.32_279.14.1.el6.x86_64.x86_64 15/45 WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032/dahdi_vpmadt032_loader.ko needs unknown symbol vpmadtreg_unregister WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032/dahdi_vpmadt032_loader.ko needs unknown symbol vpmadtreg_register WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.8.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032/dahdi_vpmadt032_loader.ko needs unknown symbol vpmadtreg_unregister WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.8.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032/dahdi_vpmadt032_loader.ko needs unknown symbol vpmadtreg_register WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032/dahdi_vpmadt032_loader.ko needs unknown symbol vpmadtreg_unregister WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/dahdi-linux-fwload-vpmadt032/dahdi_vpmadt032_loader.ko needs unknown symbol vpmadtreg_register
they are only the result of the order choosen by yum for doing the install, and they do not impact the final result.
in /var/log/asterisk/freepbx.log you might see the following
[2016-06-10 12:14:08] ERROR[11265] res_pjsip_config_wizard.c: Unable to load config file 'pjsip_wizard.conf'
you can safely ignore it, or refer to https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/AST/PJSIP+Configuration+Wizard in order to create your own.
SME9: difficulty to upgrade
if you installed this contrib before 8/4/2017, you should issue the following command to exclude the php packages from asterisk-current repo. They could conflict with upstream packages and block your updates (php-pear(DB) = 1.7.13 Updated By: php-pear-DB-1.7.14-1_centos6.noarch (asterisk-current) Not found).
db yum_repositories setprop asterisk-current Exclude php-* signal-event yum-modify
Migration from earlier versions
There is currently no upgrade path between versions. Backup/Restore will most likely not work. Apparently this is planned for v14+
In the meantime some notes on manually upgrading. This was based on moving from asterisk 1.8.x and an old version of FreepBX.
First, make sure you backup ABSOLUTELY everything. In different ways and in different places.
A straight copy of /etc/asterisk and /opt/freepbx plus a complete database dump at least.
It will be better if you have a completely clean install, preferably on a VM where you can snapshot the basic install and go back if you need to.
I took a copy of the freepbx DB and imported it completely into a different server. I could then do a side by side comparison of tables and data.
Here are some basic tables that you will need, though they may not all be required depending on your configuration
General
modules (for reference as to what you already have installed) sip (most entries required, but manual checking required) sipsettings (for reference - do not INSERT) freepbxsettings (for reference - do not INSERT)
Trunks and Routes
trunks trunk_dialpatterns incoming outbound_routes outbound_route_patterns outbound_routes_sequence outbound_route_trunk
Other
ringgroups queueprio queues_config queues_details
Device and User mode
devices users
Extension mode
extensions
freepbx_users - does not exist in v13
I exported each table and a table from the new install to compare, particularly items like field lengths, and KEYS. Some old tables did not have Primary keys set.
I then copied the 'INSERT INTO' section into phpmyadmin/sql section on the new server.
If you swap from Extension to Device and User mode I found that once I had inserted the data I had to go into FreePBX, open each record, and Submit, finally followed by Apply Config. This seemed to update the DB.
Security
Please see http://www.voipbl.org/ to adapt fail2ban to use blacklisted IP's worldwide.
Bugs
Please raise bugs under the SME-Contribs section in bugzilla and select the smeserver-freepbx component or use this link
| ID | Product | Version | Status | Summary (7 tasks) ⇒ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12496 | SME Contribs | 10.0 | CONFIRMED | Bind address 0.0.0.0 causes SIP authorization failures |
| 12463 | SME Contribs | 10.0 | CONFIRMED | ARI default username/password |
| 12363 | SME Contribs | 10.0 | CONFIRMED | Upgrade Asterisk to a supported version - minimum 16 |
| 12362 | SME Contribs | 10.0 | CONFIRMED | UCP WebRTC phone requires websocket |
| 12361 | SME Contribs | 10.0 | CONFIRMED | UCP does not use mysql socket |
| 10620 | SME Contribs | 9.2 | NEEDINFO | Asterisk not logging to CDR or CEL databases |
| 9945 | SME Contribs | 9.1 | CONFIRMED | server manager :not found if freepbx disabled |
Changelog
Only released version in smecontrib are listed here.
2024/04/22 Jean-Philippe Pialasse 14-14.sme
- some logs not rotated [SME: 12506]
- fix permission denied on /usr/local/sbin/fwconsole from cron
2022/12/14 Jean-Philippe Pialasse 14-11.sme
- fix bugs installing FPBX 15
- fix amportal alerts [SME: 12259]
- compatible FBX 16 [SME: 12276]
- fix duplicate logrotate [SME: 12237]
2022/12/13 Jean-Philippe Pialasse 14-10.sme
- fix backup for FreePBX 15 and higher [SME: 12256]
- improve backup [SME: 10703]