How to Install Kamailio SIP Server on Ubuntu Linux

This article describes steps to install and use the Kamailio SIP server on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support.

Kamailio is a free, open-source, and flexible SIP server capable of handling thousands of call setups per second. It is based on OpenSER and SER.

With Kamailio, you can build large VoIP and real-time communications platforms – presence, WebRTC, Instant messaging, and other applications.

If you’re looking for an open-source SIP server to run your business VoIP and real-time communication presence, you might want to look at Kamailio.

You will want to install the Siremis web portal to easily manage Kamailio. This post shows you how to do that as well.

For more on the Kamailio platform, please visit its home page

How to install the Kamailio SIP server on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support

As described above, Kamailio is a free, open-source, and flexible SIP server capable of handling thousands of call setups per second. It is based on OpenSER and SER.

Below is how to install it on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support.

Install Apache2 HTTP

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server, so install it since Kamailio needs it.

To install Apache2 HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

To test the Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see the Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.

http://localhost

Install MariaDB Database Server

v also needs a database server to store its content. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with v.

To install MariaDB run the commands below.

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

• Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
• Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
• New password: Enter password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat password
• Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
• Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
• Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon into the MariaDB server

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-imagick php-pear php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip php7.2-sqlite

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Apache2.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is a great setting to apply in your environment.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
max_input_vars = 1500
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, save the file and close it. After installing PHP and related modules, you must restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations.

To restart Apache2, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in the Apache2 root directory by running the commands below

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Save the file. then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

Download Kamailio Latest Release

Kamailio packages are not available in the Ubuntu default repositories. To install it you’ll have to add its official repository to Ubuntu.

To do that, follow the steps below:

First, download and add the GPG key for its repository by running the commands below:

wget -O- http://deb.kamailio.org/kamailiodebkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Next, run the commands below to create its repository file.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kamailio.list

Then copy and paste the lines below into the file and save it.

deb http://deb.kamailio.org/kamailio52 bionic main
deb-src http://deb.kamailio.org/kamailio52 bionic main

Finally, update Ubuntu packages and install Kamailio.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install kamailio kamailio-mysql-modules kamailio-websocket-modules

After installing Kamailio, you can check whether it’s installed and ready by running the commands below.

kamailio -V

You should see similar lines as shown below:

Output:
version: kamailio 5.2.6 (x86_64/linux) 
flags: STATS: Off, USE_TCP, USE_TLS, USE_SCTP, TLS_HOOKS, USE_RAW_SOCKS, DISABLE_NAGLE, USE_MCAST, DNS_IP_HACK, SHM_MEM, SHM_MMAP, PKG_MALLOC, Q_MALLOC, F_MALLOC, TLSF_MALLOC, DBG_SR_MEMORY, USE_FUTEX, FAST_LOCK-ADAPTIVE_WAIT, USE_DNS_CACHE, USE_DNS_FAILOVER, USE_NAPTR, USE_DST_BLACKLIST, HAVE_RESOLV_RES, TLS_PTHREAD_MUTEX_SHARED
ADAPTIVE_WAIT_LOOPS=1024, MAX_RECV_BUFFER_SIZE 262144 MAX_URI_SIZE 1024, BUF_SIZE 65535, DEFAULT PKG_SIZE 8MB
poll method support: poll, epoll_lt, epoll_et, sigio_rt, select.
id: unknown 
compiled with gcc 7.4.0

The kamailio default configuration file is located at /etc/kamailio/kamctlrc.

For configurations, open the file, add your changes, and save it. To specify a domain name for your server, run the commands below to open its configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/kamailio/kamctlrc

Then edit the highlighted lines in the file and save.

# The Kamailio configuration file for the control tools.
#
## your SIP domain
 SIP_DOMAIN=kamailio.example.com
## chrooted directory
#
# If you want to setup a database with kamdbctl, you must at least specify
# this parameter.
 DBENGINE=MYSQL
## database host
## database read only user

After making the changes above, run the script below to create a database, user, and tables needed by Kamailio.

kamdbctl create

If you get access denied for root@localhost, follow the steps below to resolve.

Login to the MariaDB server by running the commands below

sudo mysql -u root

That should get you into the database server. After that, run the commands below to disable plugin authentication for the root user

use mysql;
update user set plugin='' where User='root';
flush privileges;
exit

Restart and run the commands below to set a new password.

sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service

Now run the Kamailio script to create a database and user.

When prompted, answer with the settings below:

Enter character set name: 
latin1
INFO: creating database kamailio .
INFO: granting privileges to database kamailio .
INFO: creating standard tables into kamailio .
INFO: Core Kamailio tables succesfully created.
Install presence related tables? (y/n): y
INFO: creating presence tables into kamailio .
INFO: Presence tables succesfully created.
Install tables for imc cpl siptrace domainpolicy carrierroute
		drouting userblacklist htable purple uac pipelimit mtree sca mohqueue
		rtpproxy rtpengine? (y/n): y
INFO: creating extra tables into kamailio .
INFO: Extra tables succesfully created.
Install tables for uid_auth_db uid_avp_db uid_domain uid_gflags
		uid_uri_db? (y/n): y
INFO: creating uid tables into kamailio .
INFO: UID tables succesfully created.

Next, open the /etc/kamailio/kamailio.cfg file by running the commands below:

sudo nano /etc/kamailio/kamailio.cfg

Then add the following lines below #!KAMAILIO.

#!define WITH_MYSQL
#!define WITH_AUTH
#!define WITH_USRLOCDB
#!define WITH_ACCDB

Save and exit.

To apply your changes, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl restart kamailio

Kamailio is now installed and ready to use.

Install and Configure Siremis

Now that Kamailio is installed, you will need a simple web interface to manage the server. To accomplish that, install Siremis.

Siremis is a web-based interface for Kamailio SIP Server. It provides an easy way to create and manage user profiles, routing rules, view accounting, register phones, and communicate with the SIP server.

To get Siremis installed, you’ll want to install XML_RPC. Run the commands below to install.

sudo pear install XML_RPC2

Next, change the directory to Apache web root, install git and download Siremis packages.

cd /var/www/
sudo apt install git
sudo git clone https://github.com/asipto/siremis

After that, change into the Siremis folder and prepare your environment.

cd /var/www/siremis
sudo make prepare24
sudo make chown

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Siremis. This file will control how users access Siremis content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called siremis.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/siremis.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/siremis/siremis
     Alias /siremis "/var/www/siremis/siremis"
     ServerName kamailio.example.com
     ServerAlias www.kamailio.example.com

     <Directory "/var/www/siremis/siremis">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    
        <FilesMatch "\.xml$">
            Require all denied
         </FilesMatch>
         <FilesMatch "\.inc$">
            Require all denied
         </FilesMatch>
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Enable the Siremis and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo a2ensite siremis.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Finally, follow the steps below to grant Siremis user access to its database.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password, when prompted.

Then run the SQL statement below

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON siremis.* TO siremis@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Then flush the privileges and exit

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name or hostname. This is often localhost but can be a hostname or IP address. Your server admin or hosting company will have this information available.

http://kamailio.example.com/

Begin the installation wizard

Validate that all requirements are met, then continue with the wizard.

Please enter your database configuration information below.

If you select to create the Siremis database, then the user set to access it must have privileges to create it. Importing the default data inserts the records required by the Siremis administration.

The Siremis database is for internal use while the SIP database is the one used by Kamailio – it has to be created separately (i.e., kamdbctl create). Attention: Update SIP DB is removing and recreating acc and missed_calls tables in the Kamailio database.

After a brief moment, the setup should complete and provides you with an admin username and password. Use the credential to log in and begin setting up your environment.

Username: admin
Password: admin

That should complete the setup.

Conclusion:

You have learned how to install the Kamailio SIP server with the Siremis backend on Ubuntu with an Apache2 HTTP server. If you find any errors above, please leave a comment below

Thanks