Asterisk 1.6.1 on openSUSE 11.1 (Part 2)

In this second part I will explain step-by-step configuration to use our appliance to build an Asterisk PABX server. Without further ado, here is the list:

Install the Digium card on the PCI slot

Install our appliance. You can also use any linux distribution, download asterisk from its website and install it.

There are several softwares I forget when I made the appliance, it is not the mandatory (dependencies) but they are useful when we want to use asterisk optimally. They are: mpg123, sox, libmad, and festival. The easiest way to install it in openSUSE is using zypper. Check it first where they reside in repositories and add the repositories accordingly. mpg123 and sox are in the packman repositoriy, libmad in OBS (please check with webpin) and festival in oss. Then as root run: "zypper install mpg123 sox libmad0 festival".
It is always useful to update your installation to update repository, to make sure that all the security update is up to date.

Download the latest dahdi from trunk and install it. Don't forget you should connected to internet to run this command as root

“svn co http://svn.digium.com/svn/dahdi/linux/trunk dahdi-linux”

“cd dahdi-linux”

“make”

and follow the instructions on the screen.

If all the installation successful, then you will have :

/etc/dahdi/

/etc/asterisk/

/var/lib/asterisk/

/var/spool/asterisk/

/etc/init.d/dahdi

/etc/init.d/asterisk161

/usr/sbin/asterisk

/usr/sbin/dahdi_genconf (and several dahdi-tools files)

Connect the telephone line(s) to your digium. Make sure that all the telephone lines are functioning before you connect it (please pay your bill if you don't to that yet, otherwise the announcement in the telephone lines will screw up your asterisk :-)).
As root run “/usr/sbin/dahdi_genconf”. This command will generate the automatic configuration for digium card in file /etc/dahdi/system.conf. In my server it contains:
# Autogenerated by /usr/sbin/dahdi_genconf on Tue Nov 17 18:38:30 2009
# If you edit this file and execute /usr/sbin/dahdi_genconf again,   
# your manual changes will be LOST.                                  
# Dahdi Configuration File                                           
#                                                                    
# This file is parsed by the Dahdi Configurator, dahdi_cfg           
#                                                                    
# Span 1: WCTDM/0 "Wildcard TDM410P Board 1" (MASTER)                
fxsks=1                                                              
echocanceller=mg2,1                                                  
fxsks=2
echocanceller=mg2,2
fxsks=3
echocanceller=mg2,3
fxsks=4
echocanceller=mg2,4

# Span 2: WCTDM/1 "Wildcard TDM410P Board 2"
fxsks=5
echocanceller=mg2,5
fxsks=6
echocanceller=mg2,6
fxsks=7
echocanceller=mg2,7
fxsks=8
echocanceller=mg2,8

# Span 3: WCTDM/2 "Wildcard TDM410P Board 3"
fxsks=9
echocanceller=mg2,9
fxsks=10
echocanceller=mg2,10
fxsks=11
echocanceller=mg2,11
fxsks=12
echocanceller=mg2,12

# Global data

loadzone        = nl
defaultzone     = nl

Actually default loadzone and defaultzone is “us” but I change it to “nl” which is according to ITU is close to Indonesia signaling system. Please check ITU Operational Bulletin No. 781 – 1.II.2003. At least busy tone, congestion tone, and dial tone are running in the same frequency and cadence. If you want you can also rebuild asterisk so that it already contain the frequency and cadence for your country.

Besides /etc/dahdi/system.conf, dahdi_genconf will also automatically configure the file /etc/asterisk/dahdi-channels.conf. In my installation the content of the file is:

; Autogenerated by /usr/sbin/dahdi_genconf on Tue Nov 17 18:38:30 2009
; If you edit this file and execute /usr/sbin/dahdi_genconf again,   
; your manual changes will be LOST.                                  
; Dahdi Channels Configurations (chan_dahdi.conf)                    
;                                                                    
; This is not intended to be a complete chan_dahdi.conf. Rather, it is intended
; to be #include-d by /etc/chan_dahdi.conf that will include the global settings
;                                                                              

; Span 1: WCTDM/0 "Wildcard TDM410P Board 1" (MASTER)
;;; line="1 WCTDM/0/0"                               
signalling=fxs_ks                                    
callerid=asreceived                                  
group=0                                              
context=from-pstn                                    
channel => 1                                         
callerid=                                            
group=                                               
context=default                                      

;;; line="2 WCTDM/0/1"
signalling=fxs_ks    
callerid=asreceived  
group=0              
context=from-pstn    
channel => 2         
callerid=            
group=               
context=default      

;;; line="3 WCTDM/0/2"
signalling=fxs_ks    
callerid=asreceived  
group=0              
context=from-pstn    
channel => 3         
callerid=            
group=               
context=default      

;;; line="4 WCTDM/0/3"
signalling=fxs_ks    
callerid=asreceived  
group=0              
context=from-pstn    
channel => 4         
callerid=            
group=               
context=default      


; Span 2: WCTDM/1 "Wildcard TDM410P Board 2"
;;; line="5 WCTDM/1/0"                      
signalling=fxs_ks                           
callerid=asreceived                         
group=0                                     
context=from-pstn                           
channel => 5                                
callerid=                                   
group=                                      
context=default                             

;;; line="6 WCTDM/1/1"
signalling=fxs_ks    
callerid=asreceived  
group=0              
context=from-pstn    
channel => 6         
callerid=            
group=               
context=default      

;;; line="7 WCTDM/1/2"
signalling=fxs_ks    
callerid=asreceived  
group=0              
context=from-pstn    
channel => 7         
callerid=            
group=               
context=default      

;;; line="8 WCTDM/1/3"
signalling=fxs_ks    
callerid=asreceived  
group=0              
context=from-pstn    
channel => 8         
callerid=            
group=               
context=default      


; Span 3: WCTDM/2 "Wildcard TDM410P Board 3"
;;; line="9 WCTDM/2/0"                      
signalling=fxs_ks                           
callerid=asreceived                         
group=0                                     
context=from-pstn                           
channel => 9                                
callerid=                                   
group=                                      
context=default                             

;;; line="10 WCTDM/2/1"
signalling=fxs_ks
callerid=asreceived
group=0
context=from-pstn
channel => 10
callerid=
group=
context=default

;;; line="11 WCTDM/2/2"
signalling=fxs_ks
callerid=asreceived
group=0
context=from-pstn
channel => 11
callerid=
group=
context=default

;;; line="12 WCTDM/2/3"
signalling=fxs_ks
callerid=asreceived
group=0
context=from-pstn
channel => 12
callerid=
group=
context=default

The core of the asterisk configuration is dialplan. Dialplan manage how asterisk handle all the incoming and outgoing call. It can consist of 3 lines but also can reach tenth or hundreds lines, depends on how the complexity of our configuration. We can also use macro feature on asterisk. Dialplan is placed on /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf. My extensions.conf manage how the incoming call should be handled, how to make outgoing call to PSTN, GSM line and sip extensions, how to make conference call, how to connect to other asterisk server using IAX2 protocol, use the monitor application to record the conversation and how to make greeting. I will explain our extensions.conf in more detail in the next post together with sip.conf, iax.conf, meetme.conf and voicemail.conf.

Stay tuned and have a lot of fun :-)