How to Install Asterisk on Centos

What Packages Do I Need?

• Most Asterisk configurations are composed of three main packages : the main Asterisk program (asterisk), the Zapata telephony drivers (zaptel), and the PRI libraries (libpri). If you plan on a pure VoIP network, the only real requirement is the asterisk package, but we recommend installing all three packages.

Step-by-step install Asterisk system:

Step 1: Obtaining Asterisk Source Files

The commands we issue to download version to /usr/src:

# cd /usr/src/
# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/old-releases/asterisk-1.6.2.6.tar.gz
# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/old-releases/asterisk-addons-1.6.2.1.tar.gz
# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/releases/asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.tar.gz
# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/zaptel/releases/zaptel-1.4.12.tar.gz

If you plan to use PRI cards(eg. TE110P, TE406P) you need to download  LIBPRI. If you do want to use LIBPRI, make sure you compile and install it before you compile Asterisk

# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/libpri/releases/libpri-1.4.12.tar.gz

Step 2: Extracting the Source Files

# tar -zxvf  zaptel-1.4.12.tar.gz
# tar -zxvf  libpri-1.12.tar.gz
# tar -zxvf  asterisk-1.6.2.6.tar.gz
# tar –xzvf  asterisk-addons-1.6.2.1.tar.gz
# tar –xzvf  asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.tar.gz

Step 3: Install Zaptel

The Zaptel sources are contained in /usr/src/zaptel. Type the following to install:
# cd /usr/src/zaptel-version
# make clean; make install

Zaptel, containing the Zapata drivers created for Asterisk, is necessary to use Digium's telephony hardware, but also includes a number of libraries that Asterisk depends on, whether we use Digium's hardware or not.
If we want to have Asterisk start up at boot time, we should issue the command:
# make config

Step 4 : Install libpri
Next, we will compile and install the sources contained in /usr/src/libpri. We do this by typing:
#cd /usr/src/asterisk/libpri-VERSION
#make clean
#make
#make install

Libpri provides the libraries required for using Primary Rate ISDN (PRI) trunks, as well as a number of other telephony interfaces. Even if we do not have a PRI line at this time, it is a good idea to install it, as it will not create any conflicts.

Step 5 : Install Asterisk

Download the pre-requisite of asterisk:. Install them by command

#yum install name of library   ( # yum install gcc)

• gcc
• gcc-c++
• kernel-devel
• bison
• openssl-devel
• libtermcap-devel

Asterisk

Now, it is time to actually install Asterisk, contained in /usr/src/asterisk, like so:

# cd /usr/src/asterisk-version
# make clean
# ./configure
# make install
At this point, it is probably wise to install some sample configuration files so that we can acclimatize ourselves to Asterisk's structure. This is done by running:
# make samples

Check Start Asterisk!

#asterisk -vvvvc 
#stop now

 If not, you've probably not been following these instructions carefully! Assuming it does start properly, you probably want to start it in the background:

#/etc/init.d/asterisk start  (or  #service asterisk start)

Asterisk-addons

#cd /usr/src/asterisk/asterisk-addons-VERSION

#make clean
#./configure
#make menuselect

Choose what you do and don't want. Unless you really need oh323, deselect it as it can be the cause of compilation woes.

#make
#make install

Install sample files in /etc/asterisk

#make samples

Now you're finish installing asterisk, there are some basic behaviors of Asterisk