Installing Ejabberd Chat Messaging Server on Linux

Ejabberd is instant messaging server software that can be incorporated into any environment. Basic installation instructions for Unix / Linux are as follows:

1. Install Erlang:

sudo apt-get install erlang.

or from source,

Ensure all requirements are installed, Libncurses and OpenSS. Use apt-get for these.

Erlang:

wget http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R14B.tar.gz
tar -xzvf otp_src_R14B.tar.gz
cd otp_src_R14B.tar.gz
LANG=C; export LANG 

./configure
make
make install 

Verify installation, type erl 
The following should be displayed:  

Erlang R14B (erts-5.8) [source] [smp:2:2] [rq:2] [async-threads:0] [kernel-poll:false]

Eshell V5.8  (abort with ^G)
1>
 
2.  Install Ejabberd:

debian package: 
apt-get install ejabberd

binary installer:

wget http://www.process-one.net/downloads/ejabberd/2.1.6/ejabberd-2.1.6-linux-x86_64-installer.bin.gz
gunzip ejabberd-2.1.6-linux-x86_64-installer.bin.gz
chmod a+x ejabberd-2.1.6-linux-x86_64-installer.bin.gz
./ejabberd-2.1.6-linux-x86_64-installer.bin 


Accept all default options, installation complete



or from source:

wget http://www.process-one.net/downloads/ejabberd/2.1.5/ejabberd-2.1.5.tar.gz
tar -xzvf ejabberd-2.1.5.tar.gz
cd ejabberd-2.1.5/src
./configure
make
make install

/bin/ejabberd.cfg to specify settings




Use ejabberdctl start to start node instance.

Browse to http://localhost:5280/admin/ for server web admin, you will need to add exception for user admin to browse to web admin page.

Enter the following in /bin/ejabberd.cfg:

{acl, admin, {user, "admin_user", "your_sever"}}.


N.B ejabberd uses an internal Mnesia database by default. But it possible to an alternative relational database or LDAP server to ensure data is persistent.

In later posts I will discuss using a PostgreSQL database to store data for various applications such as ejabberd.

Refer to Ejabberd installation and operation guide