How to Install Asterisk on CentOS 7

Marin Todorov

1 hour ago

Install Asterisk on CentOS 7

Asterisk is an open source framework used for building communication applications.

You can use it to turn a local computer or server to communication server. It is used to
power IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and other solutions. It’s
used by all kind of organizations worldwide and finally, but not last it is free and open
source.

In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to install Asterisk on CentOS
7 (instructions also works on RHEL 7), but before we start, we will need to make
some preparations so Asterisk can run smoothly after the installation.

Step 1: Disable SELinux on CentOS 7

To do this, first SSH to your system and using your favorite command line text editor,
open /etc/selinux/config and disable SELINUX.
# vim /etc/selinux/config
SELinux line should look like this:
SELINUX=disabled
Now reboot your system. Once it comes back SSH again to that system.
Step 2: Install Required Packages

Asterisk has quite a few requirements that need to be installed. You can use the
following yum command to install required packages as shown.
# yum install -y epel-release dmidecode gcc-c++ ncurses-devel libxml2-devel
make wget openssl-devel newt-devel kernel-devel sqlite-devel libuuid-devel
gtk2-devel jansson-devel binutils-devel
Next, install PJSIP, is a free open source multimedia communication library that
implements standard based protocols such as SIP,SDP,RTP,STUN,TURN and ICE. It
is the Asterisk SIP channel driver that should improve the clarity of the calls.

To get the latest version, first let’s create a temporary directory where we will build
the package from source.
# mkdir ~/build && cd ~/build
Now go the PJSIP download page and grab the package or use the following wget
command to download the package directly in terminal.

Note that by the writing of this article the latest version is 2.8, this may change in
future, thus make sure to use the latest version:
# wget https://www.pjsip.org/release/2.8/pjproject-2.8.tar.bz2
Once the download is complete, extract the file and change to that directory.
# tar xvjf pjproject-2.8.tar.bz2
# cd pjproject-2.8
The next step is to prepare the package to be compiled. You can use the following
command:
./configure CFLAGS="-DNDEBUG -DPJ_HAS_IPV6=1" --prefix=/usr --
libdir=/usr/lib64 --enable-shared --disable-video --disable-sound --disable-
opencore-amr
You should not see any errors or warnings. Ensure that all dependencies are met:
# make dep
And now we can complete the install and link libraries with:
# make && make install && ldconfig
Finally ensure that all libraries are installed and present:
# ldconfig -p | grep pj
You should get the following output:
libpjsua2.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsua2.so.2
libpjsua2.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsua2.so
libpjsua.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsua.so.2
libpjsua.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsua.so
libpjsip.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsip.so.2
 libpjsip.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsip.so
libpjsip-ua.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsip-ua.so.2
libpjsip-ua.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsip-ua.so
libpjsip-simple.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsip-simple.so.2
libpjsip-simple.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjsip-simple.so
libpjnath.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjnath.so.2
libpjnath.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjnath.so
libpjmedia.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia.so.2
libpjmedia.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia.so
libpjmedia-videodev.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia-
videodev.so.2
libpjmedia-videodev.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia-
videodev.so
libpjmedia-codec.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia-codec.so.2
libpjmedia-codec.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia-codec.so
libpjmedia-audiodev.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia-
audiodev.so.2
libpjmedia-audiodev.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjmedia-
audiodev.so
libpjlib-util.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjlib-util.so.2
libpjlib-util.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpjlib-util.so
libpj.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpj.so.2
libpj.so (libc6,x86-64) => /lib64/libpj.so

Step 3: Install Asterisk in CentOS 7

We are now ready to initiate the installation of Asterisk. Navigate back to

our ~/build directory:
# cd ~/build
Go to Asterisk download page and grab the the latest version or you can use the
following wget command to download the file in terminal.
# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-16-
current.tar.gz
By the writing of this tutorial, the latest Asterisk version is 16. Make sure that you are
downloading the latest version of Asterisk, when you are following the steps.

Now extract the archive and navigate to the newly created directory:
# tar -zxvf asterisk-16-current.tar.gz
# cd asterisk-16.0.0
This is the time to mention, that if you wish to enable mp3 support to play music
while client is on hold, you will need to install few more dependencies. These steps
are optional:
# yum install svn
# ./contrib/scripts/get_mp3_source.sh
After the second step, you should get output similar to these:
A addons/mp3
A addons/mp3/MPGLIB_README
A addons/mp3/common.c
A addons/mp3/huffman.h
A addons/mp3/tabinit.c
A addons/mp3/Makefile
A addons/mp3/README
A addons/mp3/decode_i386.c
A addons/mp3/dct64_i386.c
A addons/mp3/MPGLIB_TODO
A addons/mp3/mpg123.h
A addons/mp3/layer3.c
A addons/mp3/mpglib.h
A addons/mp3/decode_ntom.c
A addons/mp3/interface.c
Start by running the configure script to prepare the package for compiling:
# ./configure --libdir=/usr/lib64
If you get any missing dependencies install them. In my case, I got the following
error:
configure: error: patch is required to configure bundled pjproject
To go around this simply run:
# yum install patch
And re-run the configure script. Now lets start the build process:
# make menuselect
Afterasterisk server on centos

few seconds, you should get a list of features to enable:

Asterisk Modules

If you attempt to use music on hold feature, you will need to enable the
“format_mp3” feature from “Add-ons” section. Save your list and run the following
command:
# make install
To install the sample configuration files, use the command below:
# make samples
To start Asterisk on boot, use:
# make config
Finally let’s test our installation with:
# service asterisk start
# asterisk -rvv
You should see output similar to this one:
Asterisk 16.0.0, Copyright (C) 1999 - 2018, Digium, Inc. and others.
Created by Mark Spencer <markster@digium.com>
Asterisk comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type 'core show warranty' for
details.
This is free software, with components licensed under the GNU General Public
License version 2 and other licenses; you are welcome to redistribute it
under
certain conditions. Type 'core show license' for details.
=========================================================================
Connected to Asterisk 16.0.0 currently running on asterisk (pid = 3985)
asterisk*CLI>
If you want to see a list of available commands type:
asterisk*CLI> core show help
To exit the Asterisk prompt, simply type:
asterisk*CLI> exit
Asterisk will still be running in the background.
Conclusion

Now you have a running Asterisk server and you can start connecting phones and
extensions and adjust your configuration per your needs. For more details how to
achieve this, it is recommended to use the Asterisk Wiki page. If you have any
questions or comments, please let us know in the comment section below.