The following Linux distributions are supported by Enswitch:

  • Ubuntu 18.04 or newer: No issues. If you have no strong preference as to Linux distribution, we suggest the latest Ubuntu LTS.
  • CentOS 8 or newer: No issues.
  • Debian GNU/Linux 9.0 or newer: No issues.
  • Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 or newer: Requires Redhat subscription.

When installing machines, please note the following:

  • If possible, please configure the disks as RAID1 for reliability. If the machine has 4 disks, please use 2 as RAID1 for the root filesystem, and 2 as RAID1 for a separate filesystem for the database or NFS files. Database filesystems should be mounted on /var/lib/mysql, and NFS filesystems on /var/lib/enswitch.
  • Please use a fresh Linux installation.
  • Please install the minimum set of packages to get the machines on the internet, plus:
    • An SSH daemon so we can connect in remotely.
    • A mail transport agent (MTA) such as Postfix, Exim, or Sendmail. Please test that each machine can send emails to internet addresses, and that the headers on the emails are correct.
  • Hostnames must be lower-case only, match the machines' DNS entries, and be unique within the Enswitch cluster.
  • Please do not create an "enswitch" user; the Enswitch installer expects to create this user for daemons to run as.
  • Do not install Asterisk, Kamailio, MySQL, or Apache. The Enswitch installation process will install fresh versions. If these are already installed, we will ask you to wipe the machine and re-install Linux.
  • If your Linux distribution automatically installs any extra daemons such as X windows or network servers, please disable them. This improves both performance and security.
  • Please use static (not DHCP) IP addresses only.
  • Please disable ACPI in the BIOS settings or grub menu.
  • Please put the machines directly on the internet, not behind a firewall, even if the firewall claims to support SIP. Please have the public IP addresses configured on the servers themselves rather than on a machine in front of them. We configure iptables based firewalling on each machine as a standard part of the installation.