Guide to install Kamailio SIP Server v5.2 (stable) from Git repository.
For more about Kamailio Project visit: kamailio.org.
This is a step by step tutorial about how to install and maintain Kamailio SIP server v5.2.x using the sources downloaded from GIT repository.
This document focuses on Kamailio v5.2.x with MySQL support, using a Debian stable 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.
apt-get install git-core - it is recommended to have a recent version, if your Linux distro has an old version, you can download newer one from git-scm.comapt-get install gcc g++apt-get install flexapt-get install bisonapt-get install libmysqlclient-dev (or: apt install default-libmysqlclient-dev)apt-get install make autoconfapt-get install libssl-devapt-get install libcurl4-openssl-devapt-get install libxml2-devapt-get install libpcre3-dev
Important Note: starting with version 4.3.0, Kamailio uses the directory /var/run/kamailio/ for creating FIFO and UnixSocket RPC control files. You may have to complete the section related to installation of init.d script for creating /var/run/kamailio even if you plan to start Kamailio manually from command line. The alternative is to set different paths via parameters of jsonrpcs and ctl modules.
Note: g++ compiler is needed for couple of modules that link to C++ libraries, such as app_sqlang, phonenum or ndb_cassandra.
To complete all the steps in this tutorial, it is required to have a MySQL or MariaDB server installed. Consult the documentation of MySQL or MariaDB server for Debian for a proper installation.
For testing purposes, it can just be done with apt-get install mysql-server or apt-get install default-mysql-server. During or after installation you may have to complete some configuration steps, such as setting the password for mysql root user or initialize the database system.
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-5.2 cd /usr/local/src/kamailio-5.2
Download the sources from GIT using the following commands.
git clone --depth 1 --no-single-branch https://github.com/kamailio/kamailio kamailio cd kamailio git checkout -b 5.2 origin/5.2
Note: if your git client version does not support –no-single-branch command line parameter, then just remove it.
The first step is to generate build config files.
make cfg
Next step is to enable the MySQL module. Edit modules.lst file:
nano -w src/modules.lst # or vim src/modules.lst
Add db_mysql to the variable include_modules.
include_modules= db_mysql
Save the modules.lst and exit.
NOTE: this is one mechanism to enable modules which are not compiled by default, such as lcr, dialplan, presence – add the modules to include_modules variable inside the modules.lst file, like:
include_modules= db_mysql dialplan
Alternative is to set include_modules variable with the list of extra modules to be included for compilation when building Makefile cfg:
make include_modules="db_mysql dialplan" cfg
NOTE: If you want to install everything in one directory (so you can delete all installed files at once), say /usr/local/kamailio-5.2, then set PREFIX variable to the install path in make cfg ... command:
make PREFIX="/usr/local/kamailio-5.2" include_modules="db_mysql dialplan" cfg
More hints about Makefile system at:
Once you added the mysql module to the list of enabled modules, you can compile Kamailio:
make all
You can get full compile flags output using:
make Q=0 all
When the compilation is ready, install Kamailio with the following command:
make install
The binaries and executable scripts were installed in:
/usr/local/sbin
These are:
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 modules are installed in:
/usr/local/lib/kamailio/modules/
Note: On 64 bit systems, /usr/local/lib64 may be used.
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
NOTE:: In case you set the PREFIX variable in make cfg ... command, then replace /usr/local in all paths above with the value of PREFIX in order to locate the files installed.
To create the MySQL database, you have to use the database setup script. First edit kamctlrc file to set the database server type:
nano -w /usr/local/etc/kamailio/kamctlrc
Locate DBENGINE variable and set it to MYSQL:
DBENGINE=MYSQL
You can change other values in kamctlrc file, at least it is recommended to change the default passwords for the users to be created to connect to database.
Note that the existing line with DBENGINE or other attributes may be commented, uncomment by removing the # character at the beginning of the line.
Once you are done updating kamctlrc file, run the script to create the database used by Kamailio:
/usr/local/sbin/kamdbctl create
You can call this script without any parameter to get some help for the usage. You will be asked for the domain name Kamailio is going to serve (e.g., mysipserver.com) and the password of the root MySQL user. The script will create a database named kamailio containing the tables required by Kamailio. You can change the default settings in the kamctlrc file mentioned above.
The script will add two users in MySQL:
kamailiorw) - user which has full access rights to kamailio databasekamailioro) - user which has read-only access rights to kamailio databaseIMPORTANT: do change the passwords for these two users to something different that the default values that come with sources.
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. Basically you have to add several lines at the top of config file, like:
#!define WITH_MYSQL #!define WITH_AUTH #!define WITH_USRLOCDB
If you changed the password for the kamailio user of MySQL, you have to update the value for db_url parameters.
You can browse kamailio.cfg online on GIT repository.
There are couple of variants for starting/stopping/restarting Kamailio, the recommended ones being via init.d script or systemd unit, a matter of what the Debian OS is configured to use.
To install the init.d script, run in Kamailio source code directory:
make install-initd-debian
Follow any instructions that may be printed by the above commad.
Then you can start/stop Kamailio using the following commands:
/etc/init.d/kamailio start /etc/init.d/kamailio stop
To install the systemd unit, run in Kamailio source code directory:
make install-systemd-debian
Follow any instructions that may be printed by the above commad.
Then you can start/stop Kamailio using the following commands:
systemctl start kamailio systemctl stop kamailio
You may need to edit edit /usr/local/etc/kamailio/kamctlrc and set the PID_FILE and STARTOPTIONS attributes.
The you can use:
kamctl start kamctl stop
Kamailio can be started from command line by executing the binary with specific parameters. For example:
/usr/local/sbin/kamailio -P /var/run/kamailio/kamailio.pid -m 128 -M 12
killall kamailio # or kill -TERM $(cat /var/run/kamailio/kamailio.pid)
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
If SIP_DOMAIN was not set in kamctlrc file do one of the following option.
export SIP_DOMAIN=mysipserver.com kamctl add username password
/usr/local/etc/kamailio/kamctlrc and add:SIP_DOMAIN=mysipserver.com
and then run again kamctl add ... as above.
kamctl add ... parameter:kamctl add username@mysipserver.com password
Instead of mysipserver.com it has to be given the real domain for the SIP service or the IP address of Kamailio.
The maintenance process is very simple right now. You have to be user root and execute following commands:
cd /usr/local/src/kamailio-5.2/kamailio git pull origin make all make install /etc/init.d/kamailio restart
Now you have the latest Kamailio devel running on your system.
Notification about GIT commits are sent to the mailing list: sr-dev@lists.kamailio.org. Each commit notification contains the reference to the branch where the commit has been done. If the commit message contains the lines:
Module: kamailio Branch: 5.2
then an update has been made to Kamailio devel version and it will be available to the public GIT in no time.
Questions about how to use Kamailio and the content of kamailio.cfg can be addressed via email to:
More documentation resources can be found at:
Anyone is welcome to contribute to this document. It is recommended to make a pull request via:
This version of the document is in GIT branch 5.2.
Errors and other issues can be reported via the tracker at: