A couple of days ago, while helping the business side test an outbound-calling platform migration, I got my first hands-on exposure to FreePBX. Even though this is more of a data era than a voice one, as someone who works in telecom I found this kind of voice-trunking system genuinely interesting. Since it was the weekend, I figured I’d deploy a full instance myself and write down the process, as a reference for next time.
This post mainly covers installing and doing the basic setup of FreePBX 17 on Debian — it doesn’t get into actual call routing, trunks, or dialing policy yet.
1. Picking the environment#
Cloud host
A lot of older tutorials recommend Vultr’s one-click FreePBX image, but that option has since been discontinued — now you install the OS yourself and deploy manually.
Vultr still offers a new-user trial credit (roughly $250), which is plenty for learning and testing. The credit is valid for 30 days, so there’s no need to be stingy with resources — just use it up.
For this deployment I went with:
- Provider: Vultr
- Instance: 2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM
- Disk: 50 GB (more than enough for learning and testing)
- Region: Osaka, Japan
- OS: Debian (FreePBX 17’s officially recommended choice)
A note on the OS
Starting with FreePBX 17, the project has made clear that it’s no longer based on CentOS — it now runs exclusively on Debian Linux, distributed as a Debian install script package. So when creating the cloud instance, just pick Debian directly — no need to agonize over which OS track to take.
2. Basic system prep#
After logging into the server, update the system first:
apt update && apt upgrade -yIf a PAM configuration prompt comes up (asking whether to overwrite /etc/pam.d/common-*), just choose Yes and go with the system defaults.
Then install a few common tools:
apt install -y curl wget sudo gnupg23. Running the FreePBX 17 install script#
Move into a temp directory and download the install script:
cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/FreePBX/sng_freepbx_debian_install/raw/master/sng_freepbx_debian_install.sh
chmod +x sng_freepbx_debian_install.sh
./sng_freepbx_debian_install.shA couple of things to note: the install takes a while (anywhere from ten-odd minutes to half an hour), and it doesn’t need any manual input along the way — just let it run.
Once it’s done, Asterisk and the FreePBX web service start automatically.
4. Web interface setup#
Visit the server’s IP address in a browser to reach the FreePBX setup screen.
System activation
The first time in, you’ll see a “Welcome to your new FreePBX Server” prompt. Choose Activate.
Activation requires registering a Portal Account — my first attempt failed, and it turned out I needed to fill in the optional fields too before it would go through.
5. Firewall configuration (the important part)#
FreePBX ships with its firewall and intrusion detection enabled by default, and if you’re not careful with the configuration, it’s very easy to lock yourself out.
If you get locked out
Restart the server twice in a row within 5 minutes, and the system will automatically disable the firewall for about 5 minutes — use that window to fix your configuration.
Recommended initial setup
Under Firewall → Networks, and under Interfaces, confirm the default zone is set to Internet (Default Firewall). Early on, I wouldn’t recommend getting too granular with the rules — just make sure you can reliably access and manage the box first.
6. Updating the system and modules#
Once the web setup is done, it’s worth updating everything right away.
System update:
apt update && apt upgradeFreePBX module update:
fwconsole
fwconsole ma upgradeall
fwconsole restart
After that, the system is in a relatively clean, usable baseline state.
Wrap-up#
This round of deployment covered: picking a VPS and installing Debian, installing and deploying FreePBX 17 on top of it, and turning on the firewall for basic network protection.
Going to sleep now — next up, building on this: setting up HTTPS, and getting a client connected to actually place a call.
This post is a record of the install and initial setup; I’ll keep writing up the rest as the deployment progresses.
