Install And Maintain Kamailio (OpenSER) v1.5.x From SVN

Main author:
   Daniel-Constantin Mierla <miconda (at) gmail.com>

This is a step by step tutorial about how to install and maintain Kamailio (OpenSER) using the sources from SVN. Even it is more complex to install, it is easier to maintain. Installation is done once while maintainace has to be done each time a new issue was discovered and fixed. Using the SVN, you get access to the latest code very quickly.

This document focuses on Kamailio (OpenSER) v1.5.0 with MySQL support, using a Debian unstable system.

To be able to follow the guidelines from this document you need root access.

The following packages are required before proceeding to the next steps.

- svn client: apt-get install subversion

- gcc compiler: apt-get install gcc

- flex - apt-get install flex

- bison - apt-get install bison

- libmysqlclient15-dev - apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev

- make - apt-get install make

First of all, you have to create a directory on the file system where the sources will be stored.

mkdir -p /usr/local/src/kamailio-1.5.0

cd /usr/local/src/kamailio-1.5.0

Download the sources from svn using the following command.

svn co http://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openser/branches/1.5 sip-server

Next step is to edit Makefile.var files to include the MySQL module.

cd sip-server

nano Makefile.vars

Uncomment the next line in the file:

MODS_MYSQL=on

Save the Makefile.vars and exit.

Note: if you need PCRE-dependent modules (e.g., lcr, dialplan, regexp), instal the PCRE devel library and uncomment

MODS_PCRE=on

Once the mysql module was removed from excluded modules list, you can compile Kamailio (OpenSER).

make all

You can get a nicer output of the compilation process using:

NICER=1 make all

When the compilation is ready, install Kamailio (OpenSER) with the following command:

make install

The binaries and executable scripts were installed in:

/usr/local/sbin

These are:

- kamailio - Kamailio (OpenSER) server

- kamdbctl - script to create and manage the Databases

- kamctl - script to manage and control Kamailio (OpenSER) server

To be able to use the binaries from command line, make sure that '/usr/local/sbin' is set in PATH environment variable. You can check that with 'echo $PATH'. If not and you are using 'bash', open '/root/.bash_profile' and at the end add:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin
export PATH

Kamailio (OpenSER) modules are installed in:

/usr/local/lib/kamailio/modules/

The documentation and readme files are installed in:

/usr/local/share/doc/kamailio/

The man pages are installed in:

/usr/local/share/man/man5/
/usr/local/share/man/man8/

The configuration file was installed in:

/usr/local/etc/kamailio/kamailio.cfg

To create the MySQL database, you have to use the database setup script:

/usr/local/sbin/kamdbctl create

In order to create the database you need to specify the wanted db type (DBENGINE=MYSQL) in the

/usr/local/etc/kamailio/kamctlrc

file. Call this script without any parameter to get some help for the usage. You will be asked for the domain name Kamailio (OpenSER) is going to serve (e.g., mysipserver.com) and the password of the 'root' MySQL user. The script will create a database named 'openser' containing the tables required by Kamailio (OpenSER). You can change the default settings in the kamctlrc file mentioned above.

The script will add two users in MySQL:

- openser - having the password 'openserrw', user which has full access rights to 'openser' database

- openserro - having the password 'openserro', user which has read-only access rights to 'openser' database

Do change the passwords for these two users immediately after the database is created.

To fit your requirements for the VoIP platform, you have to edit the configuration file.

/usr/local/etc/kamailio/kamailio.cfg

Follow the instruction in the comments to enable usage of MySQL. If you changed the password for the 'openser' user of MySQL, you have to update the value for 'db_url' parameters.

The init.d script can be used to start/stop the Kamailio (OpenSER) server in a nicer way. A sample of init.d script for Kamailio (OpenSER) is provided at:

/usr/local/src/kamailio-1.5.0/sip-server/packaging/debian/kamailio.init

Just copy the init file into the /etc/init.d/kamailio. Then change the permisions:

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/kamailio 

then edit the file changing the $DAEMON thusly:

DAEMON=/usr/local/sbin/kamailio

You need also setup a configuration file in the /etc/default/ directory. This file can be found at:

/usr/local/src/kamailio-1.5.0/sip-server/packaging/debian/kamailio.default

You need to rename the file to 'kamailio' after you've copied it.

Create the directory for pid file:

mkdir -p /var/run/kamailio

Then you can start/stop Kamailio (OpenSER) using the following commands:

  /etc/init.d/kamailio start
  /etc/init.d/kamailio stop

Now everything is in place. You can start the VoIP service, creating new accounts and setting the phones.

A new account can be added using 'kamctl' tool via 'kamctl add <username> <password> <email>'. (or try without the email)

kamctl add test testpasswd test@mysipserver.com

If you are asked for SIP_DOMAIN environment variable do one of the following option.

  1.
  export SIP_DOMAIN=mysipserver.com

  2.
  edit '/root/.kamctlrc' and add:
  SIP_DOMAIN=mysipserver.com

The maintenance process is very simple right now. You have to be user 'root' and execute following commands:

  cd /usr/local/src/kamailio-1.5.0/sip-server
  svn up
  make all
  make install
  /etc/init.d/kamailio restart

Now you have the latest Kamailio (OpenSER) v1.5.0 running on your system.

Notification about SVN commits are sent to the mailing list: devel@lists.kamailio.org. Each commit notification contains the reference to the branch where the commit has been done. If the commit message contains the line:

Modified Paths:
--------------
    branches/1.5/..

then an update has been made to Kamailio (OpenSER) version 1.5.0 and it will be available to the public SVN in no time.

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