How to Install FreePBX 16 on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Time needed: 10 minutes

FreePBX is an open source GUI tool for administering Asterisk PBX systems. FreePBX is written in PHP and available for both Red Hat and Debian Linux family.

1. Step 1: Setup Pre-requisites

   Disable SELinux
   
   setenforce 0 sudo sed -i ‘s/\(^SELINUX=\).*/\SELINUX=disabled/’ /etc/selinux/config
   
   Update CentOS system and Install Development Tools.
   
   sudo yum -y update
   sudo yum -y groupinstall  “Development Tools”
   
   Install other required dependencies:
   
   sudo yum -y install lynx tftp-server ncurses-devel sendmail sendmail-cf sox newt-devel libxml2-devel libtiff-devel audiofile-devel gtk2-devel subversion kernel-devel git crontabs cronie cronie-anacron wget vim php-xml uuid-devel sqlite-devel net-tools gnutls-devel unixODBC mysql-connector-odbc

2. Step 2: Install MariaDB Database server

   FreePBX requires a database server. Run the commands below to install MariaDB database server.
   
   curl -LsS https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup | sudo bash -s —
   sudo yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client MariaDB-backup
   
   Start and enable MariaDB server service:
   
   sudo systemctl enable –now mariadb
   
   Confirm service status
   
   systemctl status mariadb

3. Step 3: Installing Node.js LTS

   FreePBX has Node.js as a dependency, install it on your system by using our guide below:
   
   sudo yum -y install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm
   sudo yum -y install nodejs npm
   
   Once installed, confirm version using:
   
   $ node -v
   v16.14.1

4. Step 4: Install and configure Apache Web Server

   Install httpd package using yum package manager:
   sudo yum -y install httpd
   
   Then change Apache user to asterisk and turn on AllowOverride option :
   
   sudo cp /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf_orig
   sudo sed -i ‘s/^\(User\|Group\).*/\1 asterisk/’ /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
   sudo sed -i ‘s/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/’ /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
   
   Remove default index.html page
   
   sudo rm -f /var/www/html/index.html
   sudo rm /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf
   
   Start and enable httpd service
   
   sudo systemctl enable –now httpd

5. Step 5: Install PHP and required extensions

   FreePBX is dependent on PHP, we shall install PHP 7.4 on the system. Start by enabling Remi RPM repository.
   
   ### CentOS 7 ###
   sudo yum -y install epel-release yum-utils
   sudo yum -y install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm
   ### RHEL 7 ###
   sudo yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
   sudo subscription-manager repos –enable=rhel-7-server-rpms \
   –enable=rhel-7-server-extras-rpms \
   –enable=rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
   
   Enable PHP 7.4 repo:
   
   sudo yum-config-manager –disable remi-php54
   sudo yum-config-manager –enable remi-php74
   
   run the following commands to install php and required extensions.
   
   sudo yum -y install wget php php-pear php-cgi php-common php-curl php-mbstring php-gd php-mysql php-gettext php-bcmath php-zip php-xml php-imap php-json php-process php-snmp
   
   Change php maximum file upload size:
   sudo sed -i ‘s/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/’ /etc/php.ini
   sudo sed -i ‘s/\(^memory_limit = \).*/\1256M/’ /etc/php.ini

6. Step 6: Install FreePBX 16 on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

   Download the latest version of FreePBX using wget or curl command.
   sudo yum -y install wget
   wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/modules/packages/freepbx/7.4/freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz
   
   Extract the file:
   tar xfz freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz
   rm -f freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz
   
   Install FreePBX on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7
   cd freepbx
   sudo systemctl disable –now asterisk
   sudo ./start_asterisk start
   sudo ./install -n
   
   If you have a root password for database server, use:
   ./install -n –dbuser root –dbpass dbpassword
   
   Replace password with the root database password.
   Sample installation output:
   
   Done. All modules installed.
   Updating Hooks…Done
   Done installing modules
   Taking too long? Customize the chown command, See http://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FOP/FreePBX+Chown+Conf
   Setting Permissions…
   Setting base permissions…Done
   Setting specific permissions…
   32451 [============================]
   Finished setting permissions
   Generating default configurations…
   Finished generating default configurations
   You have successfully installed FreePBX
   
   Install all Freepbx modules using fwconsole command:
   sudo fwconsole ma disablerepo commercial
   sudo fwconsole ma installall
   sudo fwconsole ma delete firewall
   sudo fwconsole reload
   sudo fwconsole restart
   
   Restart httpd service
   sudo systemctl restart httpd
   
   If you have an active firewalld firewall service, open http & https ports
   
   sudo firewall-cmd –add-service={http,https} –permanent
   sudo firewall-cmd –reload
   
   You have successfully installed FreePBX on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7.
   Create a systemd unit for auto-starting the service:
   
   sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/freepbx.service<<EOF
   [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
   EOF
   
   Enable the service to autostart
   
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable freepbx

7. Step 7: Access FreePBX Web Interface

   Open your web browser and connect to the IP address or hostname of your new FreePBX server.
   1. Create the first admin account
   
   
   You’ll get to FreePBX dashboard where you can manage your Asterisk PBX.