PIONEERS Return of the 5-Minute PBX

[wardmundy]

We've created a second-generation VirtualBox image (.ova) of the Scientific Linux 6.7 (certified) version of Incredible PBX 13-12.02 for those that would like to try it out. It appears to resolve the Asterisk loading problem experienced by some running earlier versions of VirtualBox as well VirtualBox on some platforms.

This week's Nerd Vittles tutorial provides an overview of the VirtualBox setup process.

Basically, you install (free) VirtualBox 5 on any desktop machine, download the .ova image, double-click on it, define your soundcard, configure the network for Bridged Adapter, and click Start.

Root credentials are root:password. Once you login, the setup procedure will finish and reboot. Login again, and then...

1. Set your root password to something really secure: passwd
2. Set your admin password for the GUI with ./admin-pw-change
3. Set your admin password and email address for AvantFax with ./avantfax-pw-change
4. Set your web application admin password with: htpasswd /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd admin
5. Set your timezone with: ./timezone-setup

Done.

Here's the SourceForge download link for the new .ova image (3.15GB). With a decent Internet connection, it's about a 90-minute download for a 5-minute install.

Better yet, try the second-gen torrent which can improve download times dramatically.

The good news is you can deploy dozens of images at 5 minutes a pop after a single download.

 

[kenn10]

wardmundy I've tried several times and Asterisk does not run. I'm examining to see what is going on.

 

[wardmundy]

wardmundy I've tried several times and Asterisk does not run. I'm examining to see what is going on.

Sounds like a bad image. I just built a couple new VMa from a fresh download and a torrent with no problems. Check your MD5:

MD5 (IncrediblePBX-13-12-SL67.ova) = 265347fd9afabbf13bb4f00e40e2a41b

 

[wardmundy]

Nerd Vittles tutorial is now available. Be sure you are using VirtualBox 5.x, not 4.x. Problems have been reported loading the image and getting Asterisk to run on the 4.x platform. Tested on Mac Yosemite and Windows 8 with no issues.

 

[drewament]

SWEEEEET! I just spun up a new image -- very nice! FYI... I am seeding the image on my 1GIG connection for the next 24 hours...so might be a quicker way for some people to get/dl.

Also FYI -- I have ran PBXiaF on VirtualBox for just under 2 years now, production environment, with the older/stable "Green" image. Never had a problem.

 

[budman]

Hello congrats on the great work
i have the same prob as kenn10, i made sure my .ova was md5 ok, got the latest virtual box, set network/sound and did all kind of test(re-imported clean 10X+) to make sure i was following guide 100%, and still asterisk wont start, some resolve_conf issues, i aint sure i am total n00b @ piaf but some log reading pointed that issue. i have log files avail.
again, thanks for your great work
hope this could be helpfull

bud

 

[The Deacon]

I had the same problem as kenn10, even after downloading the new image. Verified that the md5sum was what you said it was, but still no joy.

Downloading the image again. I'll update this once I get it pulled down and installed.

 

[wardmundy]

What platform are the failures occurring on??

 

[budman]

in my case window 7- 64 bit integral edition core 2 duo e8400@3ghz 6g ram ssd

regards
bud

 

[budman]

ps i would be avail for remote session for the next hour or so if that could help (teamviewer)

 

[wardmundy]

We've got a machine on which Asterisk fails but no idea why. Identical image, identical network, with earlier VirtualBox 4 platform and file permissions are all over the place. Setting them correctly and restarting Asterisk trashes them again. Definitely looks to be a VirtualBox bug. So far, we've only seen it on Windows 7 platform or older version 4 of VirtualBox running on the Mac. With VirtualBox 5 running on Mac or Windows 8, it runs just fine. Definitely not a damaged image download. We've ruled that one out.

 

[budman]

FYI: i'm running version 5.0.4r1025-46 of virtualbox.

have a great day
bud

 

[The Deacon]

I downloaded the image again, verified the md5sum. Upon initial boot, I see that the box has a problem trying to install any packages (it thinks that yum is already running and has a lock on the system - so it blows off installing any packages). Once it gets past that step, it installs a bunch of openssh packages, then I see this message before it wants to reboot:

Complete!
Reconfiguring network for your new server...
Unable to connect to remote asterisk (does /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.ctl exist?)
Unable to connect to remote asterisk (does /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.ctl exist?)

Upon reboot, I see this:

Setting default whitelist for IPtables...
cp: accessing `/etc/sysconfig/iptables/iptables.orig': Not a directory
iptables: Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter mangle na[  OK  ]
iptables: Flushing firewall rules:                        [  OK  ]
iptables: Unloading modules:                              [  OK  ]
iptables: Applying firewall rules:                        [  OK  ]
No IPtables problems found.
Stopping fail2ban:                                        [  OK  ]
Starting fail2ban: mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/run/fail2ban': File exists
ERROR  NOK: ('Action iptables-multiport already exists',)
                                                          [  OK  ]
Initilializing PortKnocker ports for remote access...
sed: can't read /etc/default/knockd: No such file or directory
Shutting down knockd:                                      [  OK  ]
Starting knockd:                                          [  OK  ]
Randomizing all of your FreePBX extension 701 and DISA passwords...
Error(s) have occured, the following is the retrieve_conf output:
exit: 1
[FATAL] Unable to connect to Asterisk Manager from /var/lib/asterisk/bin/retrieve_conf, aborting
 
Please wait...
 
SETTING FILE PERMISSIONS..................Done
Removing any dangling symlinks
Dangling symlinks removed
 
Please wait...
 
Getting Data from Online Server...Done
Checking Signatures of Modules...
Checking announcement...Good
Checking arimanager...Good
Checking asteriskinfo...Good
Checking avantfax...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking backup...Good
Checking blacklist...Good
Checking builtin...Good
Checking callforward...Good
Checking callrecording...Good
Checking callwaiting...Good
Checking campon...Good
Checking cdr...Good
Checking certman...Good
Checking cidlookup...Good
Checking conferences...Good
Checking configedit...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking contactmanager...Good
Checking core...Good
Checking customappsreg...Good
Checking dashboard...Good
Checking daynight...Good
Checking digium_phones...Good
Checking digiumaddoninstaller...Good
Checking directory...Good
Checking disa...Good
Checking donotdisturb...Good
Checking fax...Good
Checking featurecodeadmin...Good
Checking findmefollow...Good
Checking framework...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking hotelwakeup...Good
Checking iaxsettings...Good
Checking incrediblepbx...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking infoservices...Good
Checking ivr...Good
Checking logfiles...Good
Checking manager...Good
Checking miscapps...Good
Checking miscdests...Good
Checking motif...Good
Checking music...Good
Checking outroutemsg...Good
Checking paging...Good
Checking parking...Good
Checking pbdirectory...Good
Checking phonebook...Good
Checking phpagiconf...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking phpinfo...Good
Checking phpmyadmin...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking pinsets...Good
Checking presencestate...Good
Checking printextensions...Good
Checking queues...Good
Checking recordings...Good
Checking ringgroups...Good
Checking setcid...Good
Checking sipsettings...Good
Checking speeddial...Good
Checking superfecta...Good
Checking sysinfo...Signature Invalid
    Could not find signed module on remote server!
Checking timeconditions...Good
Checking ucp...Good
Checking userman...Good
Checking vmblast...Good
Checking voicemail...Good
Checking weakpasswords...Good
Checking webrtc...Good
Done
 
SETTING FILE PERMISSIONS..................Done
Removing any dangling symlinks
Dangling symlinks removed
trying to run as user asterisk:
 
[SIGNATURECHECK] already set to [0]
 
 
Please wait...
 
Error(s) have occured, the following is the retrieve_conf output:
exit: 1
[FATAL] Unable to connect to Asterisk Manager from /var/lib/asterisk/bin/retrieve_conf, aborting
--2015-09-16 00:46:09--  http://incrediblepbx.com/favicon.ico
Resolving incrediblepbx.com... 74.86.213.25
Connecting to incrediblepbx.com|74.86.213.25|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 894 [image/x-icon]
Saving to: “favicon.ico”
 
100%[======================================>] 894        --.-K/s  in 0s
 
2015-09-16 00:46:09 (94.6 MB/s) - “favicon.ico” saved [894/894]
 
cp: cannot create regular file `/var/www/html/admin/modules/framework/amp_conf/htdocs/admin/images/.': No such file or directory
 
Please wait...
 
 
STOPPING ASTERISK
Waiting for Asterisk to Stop Gracefully...
SETTING FILE PERMISSIONS..................Done
Removing any dangling symlinks
Dangling symlinks removed
 
STARTING ASTERISK
Asterisk Started
*** IMPORTANT *** READ THESE NEXT STEPS BEFORE DEPARTING! *** IMPORTANT ***
*** Install Complete. Set FreePBX admin password: /root/admin-pw-change ***
*** Configure your correct time zone by running: /root/timezone-setup  ***
 
WARNING: Server access locked down to server IP address and your current IP address.
Add additional whitelist IP addresses by running: /root/add-ip or /root/add-fqdn
To restart IPtables, issue command: iptables-restart
 
Knock ports for access to XX.XXX.XX.XXX set to TCP: 1234 5678 9012
Install iOS PortKnock or Android DroidKnocker on remote device. Read knock.FAQ.
 
You may access webmin at https://192.168.1.176:9001
 
Have a great day!
Press ENTER key to continue...

I'm running VirtualBox 5.0.2 on CentOS 6.7, which is running on Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2.93GHz

 

[wardmundy]

The telltale sign is...

Unable to connect to remote asterisk (does /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.ctl exist?)
Unable to connect to remote asterisk (does /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.ctl exist?)

Let's try a fresh install into VirtualBox. When it initially prompts to reconfigure, press Ctrl-C. Then issue these commands:

rm /etc/update_serverconfig
reboot

Let the phase #2 reconfiguraation proceed. Then try amportal restart and asterisk -r to see if Asterisk is running. If that fails...

Next thing to try is another fresh install, press Ctrl-C, and issue these commands:

rm /etc/update_serverconfig
rm /etc/update_hostconfig
reboot

Now try amportal restart and asterisk -r to see if Asterisk is running. If that fails.. I'm out of ideas at the moment. Pretty much confirms, it's a VirtualBox bug.

 

[The Deacon]

Tried both things, still seeing the message:

Unable to connect to remote asterisk (does /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.ctl exist?)

 

[wardmundy]

OK. Thanks. Definitely a VirtualBox issue.

 

[budman]

tried both, same result

 

[Greg Etchell]

I am having the same problem with Asterisk not running but I am using a non-supported configuration. Windows Server 2012R2 Hyper-V, HP Proliant G6, 2 HexCore Xeons, and 72GB memory. The virtual machine is single processor and 1GB memory.

I converted the VirtualBox image to Hyper-V using the StarWind V2V Image Converter.
The machine boots fine but I am getting the same errors as above with everything running except asterisk. So it appears to be not only a VirtualBox issue.

I am running Centos6.6 installation on Hyper-V and it is working fine but I would like to try a pre-configured image.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[wardmundy]

This is a pretty nasty and pervasive VirtualBox bug. We're going to drop back to VirtualBox 4 and build a new image that hopefully will play well on all platforms. With a little luck, we should have something for everyone to test later today.

 

[wardmundy]

The Deacon Greg Etchell budman kenn10

New image built with VirtualBox 4 seems to be compatible with all of the VirtualBox platforms we have in house. The .ova image is available on SourceForge now: IncrediblePBX13-12.2-SL67.ova. Torrent to follow.