provided by Star2Billing S.L.

Hi All. I have been trying to get a2billing up and running with various distros, mainly centos, but there are clearly issues with the install details that are floating around.
I have covered the 1.8.1 (updated about 6 months ago) but they still seem incorrect. It seems like some instructions have been cut and pasted from older versions or distros which on later versions use different directories for example, or different permissions.

I have followed the latest ones to the letter, but they simply dont seem to work.

The latest version tried was the one based on 1.8.1 which was modified for ubuntu. When this is followed, all seems to go fine, but when making outgoing calls the AGI script just exits with zero. That is where all help on theforums stops. Clearly either an important file permission issue or other step is missing. Nothing in any of the logs seems to point to any error.

Is there any newer install documentation?

its driving me nuts!! ))

I agree..Too many outdated stuff floating around and not much help from this forum either..

It seems that many people will be forced to go with the Star2billing managed install due to so much conflicting solutions.(Which i am sure is good for their business but for the rest trying to get it working it will be a problem)

Someone needs to compile a list of installation instructions (or scripts) for the common install (i.e Trixbox, Elastix, Centos etc) in a single wiki of sorts and update with each new version.

I am actually scared to upgrade as I cannot afford downtime of sorts

Driving me nuts as well

Yes...The response will be read the forums, but there is just no single point of reference which compared to other open source projects is somewhat dissapointing

Hi

There are two documents in the tarball that describe the install for both CentOS, and Debian in detail.

A2Billing is only a PHP MySQL application with a few cronjobs thrown in, once you understand how it all goes together, then anyone with a basic understanding of Linux/Apache/PHP can put this together.

The overall process is as follows:-

Install Asterisk - lots of instructions to do that, so no need to cover that here.
download the tarball, and put it in some location on your server and untar it. My preference is to use /usr/share/a2billing as a location and use symlinks, as you can upgrade everything all in one place. The latest stable version can always be found here. https://github.com/Star2Billing/a2billi ... v1-current. You need to install PHP 5.2 at least, as well as apache & MySQL.

1. MySQL database

Create an empty database and apply the MySQL schema from the tarball, a2billing-mysql-schema-v1.7.0.sql

Apply the update scripts in order from UPDATE-a2billing-v1.7.0-to-v1.7.1.sql to the latest one.

2. Connecting A2Billing DB

Copy a2billing.conf to /etc/ and adjust the database permissions to suit your install in terms of name, username and password.

Symlink a2billing.php to /var/lib/asterisk/agi-conf


3. Web pages

My preferred method is to create entries in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ to alias the Customer, Agent and Admin screens in Apache, but if you prefer, you can symlink to your apache root directory.

You should now be able to access the webpages.

4 Cronjobs

Create Crontabs for each of the PHP files in the Cronjobs directory, the top of each file is commented with the suggested schedule.

The Cronjobs also create a PID file when they run, so you will need to create a directory for them to run in, e.g. /var/run/a2billing.

5 AMI Connection
Check the asterisk manager password in the settings in the admin UI and create an associated entry in /etc/asterisk/manager.conf

6 Dialplan
Create Asterisk dial plan to suit your services, There are some samples to assist you here. https://github.com/Star2Billing/a2billi ... lling.conf, and in the tarball.

7 Sound Files
Take the sound files, and put them in the ./asterisk/sounds/ directory. This is usually found in /var/lib/

Callback is covered in some detail elsewhere and is not applicable to everyone.

After you have installed the basics, you then need to look at securing everything down. I suggest using iptables, OSSEC or fail2ban, some HT Directory access on the admin pages is a good idea as well. Remember that running A2Billing on the internet makes you a prime target, and you could lose real money if you don't secure everything down, so if the above instructions are unintelligible to you, you maybe should consider some help.

I believe that any Linux Admin, with the most basic of asterisk understanding should be able to do this install without much difficulty.

I would agree that we are lacking in documentation, but time constraints don't allow us to create the docs we would like, but this is a community project, and we have asked on a number of occasions for the community to donate some documentation for A2Billing Admin in operating and using A2Billing. You can see the results of the contributions we have had from the links at the top of each A2Billing page in the Admin UI.

If you have followed the above instructions, then upgrading is as simple as untarring the latest tarball into /usr/share/a2billing, and applying the latest MySQL upgrade scripts in order.

I've done this from memory, so if anyone has any corrections and additions, when you are happy with the process, then we can add these instructions to the Tarball.

Joe

Hi..Thanks for the info. I think from memory the docs in the tarballs are often taken from a few versions 'ago' but i will check the latest 1.9 version and give it one more shot...

Ive used a great many projects that have been opensource, and 'become' commercial in some way, and where they seem to differ is that the open source docs are really very good from the get go...

Then you get a system that works really easily, and quickly.
If, like me you have real customers, you have no issue in paying for maintenece ongoing as a part of business moving forward.

I think a lot of people i have spoken with over forums and at trade shows know the a2billing product, but its lack of documentation to make it 'sticky' is the issue, and the reason people go elsewhere. I like the idea of making money from the install process, ie to get help at the outset, but thats quite a short term view. Getting the yearly subscriptions to software fixes etc is the way to go. A good example of this is the endian firewall project. An OS project which by virtue of the OS nature will always provide a 'community' version which is excellent, and fully functional, but then the commercial one provides support, email, and phone, and software bug fixes...for a fee..
just a thought...

Hi

We don't have the resources to maintain two versions, and also I'm not that keen on community version / Pro Version software.

The documentation is not out of date on purpose, nor to increase our revenue stream, and would refute that allegation rigorously. If I believed that, then I would not have bothered to write the post above, but we are very busy, and some community assistance would be nice to bring the docs up to a higher standard.

However, it would seem not everyone agrees with your point of view - see the last 2 or 3 posts here - viewtopic.php?f=22&t=6560

Installing A2Billing is only about installing a database, some web pages, some cronjobs, put a few files in the right place, and a minimum of 3 lines of asterisk dial plan, and the job is done, which any Linux Admin, possibly with the aid of Webmin, should have no problems with.

I would argue that if you are building a billing switch on Linux and maintaining it, you should have some basic Linux skills and understand and manage the security risks before you start. To deploy your switch without an adequate level of security is downright irresponsible.

I don't believe there has been any change in the basic installation procedure in theory since A2Billing version 1.2, with very few exceptions.


Joe

Firstly Joe, im sure you are a very helpful chappy here, and we dont want to get off on the wrong foot, but please don't infer that i was making accusations.



Where did i say that?? Maybe you should be quoting mobzone's post in your reply, and not inferring the last post which is how it reads right now.

Back on the the subject, I have looked at the install notes on some newer versions, and they differ, ie it seems like they have not been updated to match the release..that is all i was trying to say.
Maybe a 'cut and paste' was done to save time?? IE on the file locations (where stuff should be linked or copied to, or the permissions, or the user names for services etc.)

The point im trying to make is that there seems to be some holes or omissions of key steps, which when you are testing a system for use in production, it takes more time to debug and troubleshoot which causes frustration, and a bit of anxiety when looking at a solution for production.

I've been using/looking at OpenSource projects in VoIP since the late 90's and consider that i have a good level of linux.

thanks

Hi Joe

My apology if I had inferred that the state of the documentation was due to the need to increase revenue. I have just found myself trying to figure out if the steps are correct when looking through the vast array of documents out there.

Sorry if I have offended you.

BTW: Have 1.9 running but seems that autocreate card does not always create an account number. I have to manually delete automatic CID's which are not allocated to accounts. This has been an issue since 1.6 but I am not too sure if something I have missed or some configs not set correctly. Problem is that most of the CID's are allocated to accounts on first use but some are not and the custoemr will not be bale to call the system until I delete those not allocated to accounts. not sure what to do

Hi

This is all set via the agi-conf you are using.

Yours

Joe

Thanks Joe

Yes via the AGI.have been using it for 2 years now but have to delete CIDs not allocated an account on a daily basis.Not alot but few.Have 10000 clients so not sure if something else is wrong

Thanks