How To Install ejabberd on Amazon Linux 2

In this blog post we will show you how to install ejabberd on Amazon Linux 2. ejabberd is an open-source, distributed and fault-tolerant solution that enables you to create large-scale instant messaging applications. The ejabberd server is capable of reliably supporting thousands of simultaneous users on a single node without failure.

Some of the key features provided by ejabberd are:

• Cross-platform: ejabberd runs on Unix-derived systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD and Windows systems.
• Fault-tolerant: Ejabberd can be deployed across a number of machines with replication to ensure there is high availability.
• Distributed Architecture: You can run ejabberd on a cluster of machines and all of them will serve the same XMPP domain(s). Additional nodes can be added on the fly.
• Administrator-friendly: The solution is ready to run out of the box without a need for external database or web server.
• Internationalized: It is translated to 25 languages and has support for IDNA.
• Open Standards: ejabberd is an open-source XMPP server that fully comply with the XMPP standard
• Modularity: Load only the modules you want and extend its functions with your own custom modules
• Authentication: Provides Internal authentication and well as integration to PAM, LDAP and ODBC.

When compiling ejabberd from source code you’ll need:

• GNU Make.
• GCC.
• Libexpat ≥ 1.95.
• Libyaml ≥ 0.1.4.
• Erlang/OTP ≥ 19.3.
• OpenSSL ≥ 1.0.0.
• Zlib ≥ 1.2.3, for Stream Compression support (XEP-0138). Optional.
• PAM library. Optional. For Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM).
• ImageMagick’s Convert program and Ghostscript fonts. Optional. For CAPTCHA challenges

Step 1: Update System

Ensure the packages in your system are updated. We love working on upgraded system.

sudo yum -y update

Once updated perform a reboot.

sudo reboot

Step 2: Download ejabberd RPM Package

Install Development tools on Amazon Linux 2 server:

sudo yum groupinstall -y "Development Tools"

Ejabberd package is provided from RPM based Linux operating systems. When installing from the package it will check dependencies and performs basic configuration tasks like creating the initial administrator account.

EJ_VERSION=21.12
wget https://static.process-one.net/ejabberd/downloads/$EJ_VERSION/ejabberd-$EJ_VERSION-0.x86_64.rpm

Step 3: Install ejabberd on Amazon Linux 2

Now that the package has been downloaded let’s install it using the following commands:

sudo yum localinstall ejabberd-$EJ_VERSION-0.x86_64.rpm

Accept installation prompt:

Dependencies resolved.
====================================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                        Architecture                                 Version                                       Repository                                          Size
====================================================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 ejabberd                                       x86_64                                       21.12-0                                       @commandline                                        18 M

Transaction Summary
====================================================================================================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total size: 18 M
Installed size: 29 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y

The init script is placed in /etc/init.d directory:

$ ls /etc/init.d/ejabberd
/etc/init.d/ejabberd

Ejabberd application directory is:

$ ls /opt/ejabberd
conf  database  logs

Step 4: Start ejabberd systemd service on Amazon Linux 2

Copy systemd unit file of ejabberd to /etc/systemd/system directory:

sudo cp $(sudo find / -name ejabberd.service) /etc/systemd/system

Reload systemd:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start the service and enable it to start on boot:

sudo systemctl start ejabberd
sudo systemctl enable ejabberd

Check to confirm the service was started successfully.

$ systemctl status ejabberd
● ejabberd.service - XMPP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/ejabberd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-01-16 09:22:39 UTC; 19s ago
   CGroup: /system.slice/ejabberd.service
           ├─2626 /opt/ejabberd-20.12/bin/epmd -daemon
           ├─2627 /opt/ejabberd-20.12/bin/beam.smp -K true -P 250000 -- -root /opt/ejabberd-20.12 -progname /opt/ejabberd-20.12/bin/erl -- -home /opt/ejabberd ...
           ├─2634 erl_child_setup 65536
           └─2701 /opt/ejabberd-20.12/lib/os_mon-2.4.7/priv/bin/memsup

Jan 16 09:22:33 amazon-linux systemd[1]: Starting XMPP Server...
Jan 16 09:22:39 amazon-linux systemd[1]: Started XMPP Server.

Step 5: Add ejabberdctl command location to your PATH

Locate ejabberdctl binary file:

$ sudo find / -name ejabberdctl
/opt/ejabberd-21.12/bin/ejabberdctl

Add the path of to your .bashrc file.

sudo su -
vi ~/.bashrc

Update PATH:

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/ejabberd-21.12/bin

Source your bashrc file to update settings.

source ~/.bashrc

Step 6: Add an Admin user to Ejabberd

Once Ejabberd is installed and configured you’ll need to add an initial admin user for administrative purposes.

# ejabberdctl register myadmin $(hostname) StrongAdminPassword

Where:

• myadmin – Is the name of the admin user to be created
• StrongAdminPassword is the password for the myadmin user created.

Expected command execution output:

User [email protected] successfully registered

You can now edit the ejabberd configuration file and give the user we just added administration rights to the XMPP account.

The user syntax is:

"[email protected]"

Get your machine hostname:

$ hostname
amazon-linux

Edit ejabberd configuration acl section:

$ sudo vi /opt/ejabberd/conf/ejabberd.yml
.....
acl:
  local:
    user_regexp: ""
  loopback:
    ip:
      - 127.0.0.0/8
      - ::1/128
      - ::FFFF:127.0.0.1/128
  admin:
    user:
      - "[email protected]"
      - "[email protected]" # Added line

Restart the ejabberd service after making the changes:

sudo systemctl restart ejabberd

Step 7: Access ejabberd Web Admin

Ejabberd admin console can be accessed on below URL:

http://[server_ip_address_or_hostname]:5280/admin/

Login with the username and password as created earlier.

On successful authentication you’ll be presented with Ejabberd admin console.

Read through Ejabberd documentation to get detailed how-to guides which are fit for both newbies and experienced XMPP users.