A2Billing is a voip billing software licensed under the AGPL 3. Copyright (C) 2004-2015 - Star2billing S.L. http://www.star2billing.com/
This document focuses on the installation of A2Billing system for the Asterisk open source PBX. The document covers the installation and basic configuration of A2Billing. A2billing is an open source implementation of a telecommunication billing and added value services platform.
A2billing is a LAMP (Linux Apache Mysql(Postgresql) PHP) application that interfaces with Asterisk using both the AMI and AGI interfaces.
This documentation has been tested using Debian etch, Debian etch and half, Ubuntu 8.04 and Ubuntu 8.10 and A2Billing.
This documentation assumes that you are using a .deb based distro that has used the folder /usr/share/asterisk during packaging. Other distributions use the alternate folder /var/lib/asterisk. If you compile from source the path by default is /var/lib/asterisk.
- The basic assumptions of this documentation is that used pre-packaged software and:
- your apache2 default root folder is /var/www
- your asterisk sounds are under /usr/share/asterisk
- your asterisk AGI folder is expected under /usr/share/asterisk
- your apache2 runs as www-data (uid)
- you asterisk runs as asterisk (uid)
- those using subversion to check out the code, can use symbolic links instead of copying the files to the right directories
- This are the default passwords that you should know about
- mysql root password (in default system normally is <ENTER>)
- A2Billing default database is mya2billing, user is a2billinguser and password is a2billing
- asterisk manager default information is: [myasterisk] and secret=mycode
- A2Billing admin default password is: user: root password: changepassword
A2billing requires the packages of a LAMP (PHP5) installation. To install the necessary packages, run the following commands:
apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php5-common apt-get install php5-cli php5-mysql mysql-server apache2 php5-gd apt-get install openssh-server subversionA2Billing also requires MCrypt module for PHP5:
apt-get install php5-mcryptAsterisk is of course also needed.
apt-get install asterisk1.3.1 Extra software to support text-to-speech IVR monitoring
Version 1.7.1 includes a new AGI mode that allows the monitoring of the a2billing system via an IVR.
The new monitoring feature requires text-to-speech TTS support, the default TTS engine is Cepstral http://www.cepstral.com/ although a2billing can support Festival too.
Install Cepstral (default path: /opt/swift) and make a symbolic link: - ln -s /opt/swift/bin/swift /usr/bin/swift
Make sure that the dynamic libraries are linked, create a file called cepstral.conf under /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ including the path : /opt/swift/lib
Do not forget to register your voice!
In a nutshell installing A2Billing requires a minimum of seven steps (1-7)
- Download and unpack source code
- Setup the database
- Edit a2billing.conf file. Setting up the database parameters
- Fix permissions and folders
- Installing the web based graphical user interfaces (Customer and Admin)
- Place the AGI files
- Prepare your dialplan
- Add your cronjobs (only for notifcations, alarms and recurring services)
- Configure your callback daemon (only for callback)
- Enable monitoring (only for IVR monitoring)
- Enable card locking (only for card PIN locking)
2.1. Step 1: Download and unpack source code
Create a a2billing folder under /usr/local/src:
mkdir /usr/local/src/a2billingUnpack the code
Download the code from the GIT repository run:
git clone https://github.com/Star2Billing/a2billing.git /usr/local/src/a2billing/ && rm -rf /usr/local/src/a2billing/.gitAt the end of this step you should have a a2billing tree structure that should look like:
/usr/local/src/a2billing/
- Files :
- AGI
- CHANGELOG
- COPYING
- CallBack
- Cronjobs : Recurrent services run via crontab
- DataBase : Database Schema / DB Installation
- FEATURES_LIST
- a2billing.conf : Main Configuration file
- addons : Sounds and other addons
- admin : Admin UI
- agent : Agent UI
- customer : Customer UI
- webservice
2.2. Step 2: Prepare the Database
We will now create a MySQL database (mya2billing) for the billing software. The file a2billing-createdb-user.sql includes a script that creates the database with the correct access control users and permissions.
cd /usr/local/src/a2billing mysql -u root -p < DataBase/mysql-5.x/a2billing-createdb-user.sql
- The script with create a database, username and password with the following default values
- Database name is: mya2billing
- Database user is: a2billinguser
- User password is: a2billing
After creating the database structure, we will create a set of tables and insert some initial basic configuration data:
cd DataBase/mysql-5.x/ ./install-db.shCheckpoint 1 : Check that the database (my2billing) and that (97) tables have been created.
mysql -u root -p mya2billing mysql>show tables mysql>exit2.3. Step 3: Edit the a2billing.conf configuration file
The A2Billing configuration file (a2billing.conf) contains the basic information to connect to the a2billing database. Copy or make a symbolic link from /usr/local/src/a2billing/a2billing.conf to /etc/a2billing.conf
a2billing.conf -> /usr/local/src/a2billing/a2billing.conf
Option 1:
cp /usr/local/src/a2billing/a2billing.conf /etc/Option 2:
ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/a2billing.conf /etc/a2billing.confOpen the file with your favorite text editor (vi is used in this example). If you are new to Linux, we recommend you to use the text editor Gedit.
vi /etc/a2billing.confThe only parameters that you need to change here is the database connection information, an example follows:
[database] hostname = localhost port = 3306 user = a2billinguser password = a2billing dbname = mya2billing dbtype = mysql2.4. Step 4: Fix permissions, files and folders
In this step, we will tweak the file permissions of Asterisk to fit the A2Billing software. We will also create a number of additional files and folders that A2Billing needs, which does not come with the default installation.
2.4.1. SIP and IAX
First we will set a few file permissions (chmod, chown) and create (touch) the SIP and IAX configuration files for Asterisk.:
chmod 777 /etc/asterisk touch /etc/asterisk/additional_a2billing_iax.conf touch /etc/asterisk/additional_a2billing_sip.conf echo \#include additional_a2billing_sip.conf >> /etc/asterisk/sip.conf echo \#include additional_a2billing_iax.conf >> /etc/asterisk/iax.conf chown -Rf www-data /etc/asterisk/additional_a2billing_iax.conf chown -Rf www-data /etc/asterisk/additional_a2billing_sip.conf2.4.2. Sound files
Run the sounds installation script available in the addons folder (IMPORTANT: the script assumes that asterisk sounds are under /usr/share/asterisk/sounds/):
/usr/local/src/a2billing/addons/install_a2b_sounds_deb.sh chown -R asterisk:asterisk /usr/share/asterisk/sounds/2.4.3. Configure Asterisk Manager
Configure the Asterisk Manager by editing the manager.conf file.
vi /etc/asterisk/manager.confNotice that we are using the default values (myasterisk, mycode) in this section. The configuration should look like this:
[general] enabled = yes port = 5038 bindaddr = 0.0.0.0 [myasterisk] secret=mycode read=system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user write=system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user2.5. Step 6: Install The AGI components
Copy or create a symbolic link of the entire content of the AGI directory into asterisk agi-bin directory.
mkdir /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin chown asterisk:asterisk /usr/share/asterisk/agi-binOption 1:
cd /usr/local/src/a2billing/AGI cp a2billing.php /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/ cp a2billing-monitoring.php /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/ cp -Rf ../common/lib /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/Option 2:
ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/AGI/a2billing.php /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/a2billing.php ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/AGI/lib /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/libMake sure the scripts are executable:
chmod +x /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/a2billing.php(if you are going to run the monitoring AGI script):
chmod +x /usr/share/asterisk/agi-bin/a2billing_monitoring.php2.6. Step 5: Install web-based Graphical interfaces
In this step, we will install the three graphical interfaces of A2Billing: the Administration (admin), Agent (agent) and Customer (customer) interface. As in previous steps you can copy the folders of make symbolic links.
Place the directories "admin" and "customer" into your webserver document root.
Create a2billing folder in your web root folder:
mkdir /var/www/a2billing chown www-data:www-data /var/www/a2billingCreate folder directory for monitoring Scripts:
mkdir -p /var/lib/a2billing/scriptCreate folder directory for Cronts PID:
mkdir -p /var/run/a2billingOption 1:
cp -rf /usr/local/src/a2billing/admin /var/www/a2billing cp -rf /usr/local/src/a2billing/agent /var/www/a2billing cp -rf /usr/local/src/a2billing/customer /var/www/a2billing cp -rf /usr/local/src/a2billing/common /var/www/a2billingOption 2:
ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/admin /var/www/a2billing/admin ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/agent /var/www/a2billing/agent ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/customer /var/www/a2billing/customer ln -s /usr/local/src/a2billing/common /var/www/a2billing/commonFix the permissions of the templates_c folder in each of the UI:
chmod 755 /usr/local/src/a2billing/admin/templates_c chmod 755 /usr/local/src/a2billing/customer/templates_c chmod 755 /usr/local/src/a2billing/agent/templates_c chown -Rf www-data:www-data /usr/local/src/a2billing/admin/templates_c chown -Rf www-data:www-data /usr/local/src/a2billing/customer/templates_c chown -Rf www-data:www-data /usr/local/src/a2billing/agent/templates_c
- Checkpoint 2: Direct a browser to the administrative web interface (http://<ip-addr>/a2billing/admin) and login as administrator. Default passwords are:
- user: root
- pass: changepassword
2.7. Step 7: Create a dialplan for A2Billing
The extensions.conf is the Asterisk dialplan. Calls that interact with the billing software need to be handled inside of one or many A2Billing related contexts.
The calls that reach the context are processed using the a2billing.php AGI script. The a2billing.php script can be invoked in many different modes (standard, did,voucher, callback, etc). In the example, we create two different contexts, the first context [a2billing] handles all the calls from our VoIP clients. When a call arrives, any extension number _X. (2 digits or more) reaches the script a2billing.php
The second context [did], will be used to route inward calls back to the users. Calls to the clients (DID) are handled inside of the [did] context. The script a2billing.php in did mode is responsible of routing the call back to one of our users.
Edit extension.conf:
vi /etc/asterisk/extensions.confand the following contexts:
[a2billing] include => a2billing_callingcard include => a2billing_monitoring include => a2billing_voucher [a2billing_callingcard] ; CallingCard application exten => _X.,1,NoOp(A2Billing Start) exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php|1) exten => _X.,n,Hangup [a2billing_voucher] exten => _X.,1,Answer(1) exten => _X.,n,DeadAgi(a2billing.php|1|voucher) ;exten => _X.,n,AGI(a2billing.php|1|voucher44) ; will add 44 in front of the callerID for the CID authentication exten => _X.,n,Hangup [a2billing_did] exten => _X.,1,DeadAgi(a2billing.php|1|did) exten => _X.,2,HangupNote that newer versions of Asterisk use a comma (,) instead of a pipe (|) to separate the AGI arguments.
2.8. Step 8: Configure recurring services
Recurring services are handled via the /etc/crontab
You can add the following cron jobs to your /etc/crontab or create a file with the jobs in /var/spool/cron/a2billing
update the currency table:
0 6 * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/currencies_update_yahoo.phpmanage the monthly services subscription:
0 6 1 * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_subscription_fee.phpTo check account of each Users and send an email if the balance is less than the user have choice:
0 * * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_notify_account.phpthis script will browse all the DID that are reserve and check if the customer need to pay for it bill them or warn them per email to know if they want to pay in order to keep their DIDs:
0 2 * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_bill_diduse.phpThis script will take care of the recurring service.
0 12 * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_batch_process.phpGenerate Invoices at 6am everyday:
0 6 * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_batch_billing.phpto proceed the autodialer:
* / 5 * * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_batch_autodialer.phpmanage alarms:
0 * * * * php /usr/local/src/a2billing/Cronjobs/a2billing_alarm.php2.9. Step 9: Call back daemon (only for Call backs)
The call back daemon is responsible of reading from the database the pool of calls stored for call back and trigger those calls periodically.
The daemon is written in Python. Install the python-setuptools and use easy_install to install the callback_daemon:
apt-get install python-setuptools python-mysqldb python-psycopg2 python-sqlalchemy cd /usr/local/src/a2billing/CallBack easy_install callback-daemon-py/dist/callback_daemon-1.0.prod_r1527-py2.5.eggInstall the init.d startup script:
cd /usr/local/src/a2billing/CallBack/callback-daemon-py/callback_daemon/For Debian:
cp a2b-callback-daemon.debian /etc/init.d/a2b-callback-daemonFor RedHat:
cp a2b-callback-daemon.rc /etc/init.d/a2b-callback-daemon chmod +x /etc/init.d/a2b-callback-daemon
- Make sure the daemon starts
For Debian:
update-rc.d a2b-callback-daemon defaults 40 60If you need to remove the daemon in the future run:
update-rc.d -f a2b-callback-daemon removeFor RedHat:
chkconfig --add a2b-callback-daemon service a2b-callback-daemon start chkconfig a2b-callback-daemon on2.10. Step 10: Enable Monitoring
General system monitoring via IVR is available from version 1.7, the new AGI a2billing_monitoring.php provides access to an IVR where monitoring tasks can be configured via the new Monitoring Menu under Maintenance.
SQL queries can be performed and shell scripts can be invoked. Place your scripts under /var/lib/a2billing/script/
2.11. Step 11: Security features via IVR (Monitor account and locking calling card)
Two new IVR menus are now available via the main a2billing.php AGI. The menus needs to be enabled setting the variables in the agi-conf menu (GUI system settings)
Locking Options IVR menu ivr_enable_locking_option = true (default: false)
Monitoring your Calling Card IVR menu ivr_enable_account_information = true (default: false)
Star2Billing S.L. offers consultancy including installation, training and customisation
Please email us at [email protected] for more information