sipXecs on Fedora / CentOS

The following describes a minimal install of a Fedora / CentOS system (without X server and graphical user interface). SELinux is disabled and also the firewall needs to be turned off. The system needs a fixed IP address (either statically assigned or using DHCP with a host entry). The DNS server has to resolve the hostname. It is of course possible to install a graphical desktop as well if desired.

1. Insert Fedora / CentOS boot CD and restart your system to boot from CD

(Typically only CDs 1 and possibly 2 are required for a minimal install)

2. Partitioning disk

It is a good idea on servers in general to create a separate

/var

parition so files that tend to grow without bounds do not take down the server all together. Both the voicemail store as well as all the log files are kept in the /var partition.
NOTE: LVM disk partitioning can also be used, of course, if you prefer that.

3. Selecting base Packages

In order to get the best possible performance, the sipXecs team recommends installing without an X Server or a graphical desktop. However, there is absolutely no incompatibilities with a graphics desktop.

Different Fedora / CentOS distributions offer different ways of selecting a minimal system. On older versions you can select minimal system. Newer versions require de-selecting all the offered packages except the base package. Select custom package installation to get to the correct screen.

4. Network Settings

With DHCP

If you have DHCP assign static IP addresses and host names, you can leave network settings blank and default values. This requires that your DHCP server is configured with a special host entry for the dedicated sipXecs server so that the same (static) IP address is assigned every time and also so that the DHCP server assigns a host name. This hostname has to be added to your DNS server so that it resolves on your local network.

Without DHCP

1. Select a fixed IP address (specify IP address, netmask, gateway, and DNS) and make sure the host and domainname resolves in DNS
2. Define the hostname manually by entering a fully qualified name (e.g. sipx.your.domain). For more info on how your /etc/hosts file should look like if properly configured see Hostname Configuration.

5. Reboot

After installation finishes allow it to reboot your system

6. Disable Firewall

Assuming you elected to install just the base system, a terminal-based tool comes up on first reboot to finish your installation. It will timeout and disappear if you do not enter any keys. To activate it again, type

system-config-securitylevel

. More info on how to disable the firewall from the console can be find on Firewall Configuration page.

7. Update your system

Immediately after installing your system is the best time to update your system with latest patches, this will take 10 minutes or so depending on your network and Fedora / CentOS mirror availability at that moment.

yum update

8. Disable SELinux

SELinux has to be disabled for sipXecs because there is currently no SELinux policy file available. Fedora / CentOS by default enable SELinux. Change SELINUX in /etc/selinux/config file as

SELINUX=disabled

You now have a first basic system installed. Reboot and login as root and you'll be ready to go to next step - install sipXecs from RPMs via yum.

9. Import sipXecs yum repository

You can choose to install a latest stable version or a nightly development build.

Latest Stable Version

For installing importing repository for latest stable version go to download area and identify the file that (e.g. stable 4.4.0 repo files are sipxecs-4.4.0-fedora.repo and sipxecs-4.4.0-centos.repo). Add sipXecs yum repository by issuing:

wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://download.sipfoundry.org/pub/sipXecs/sipxecs-4.4.0-fedora.repo

wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d/ http://download.sipfoundry.org/pub/sipXecs/sipxecs-4.4.0-centos.repo

Nightly Development Builds

There is a different repository file, be sure you do not have any other sipx repo files in your /etc/yum.repos.d directory

wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://download.sipfoundry.org/pub/sipXecs/sipxecs-fedora-snapshot.repo

wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://download.sipfoundry.org/pub/sipXecs/sipxecs-centos-snapshot.repo

10. Install sipXecs

For installing sipXecs from RPMs type

yum install sipxecs

as root.

Note: The sipxecs package is a new package introduced as an umbrella package that includes all the other required packages as dependencies. It contains no files, but just facilitates the installation process. For distributed or redundant systems not all the packages are required on every host. Refer to more documentation on how to setup redundant or distributed systems.

11. Configure sipXecs

Setup your system by running

sipxecs-setup

as root.