The Lean, Mean Asterisk® Machine
If you've longed for the good ol' days of Asterisk@Home, welcome back to the new steroid-enhanced version. PBX in a Flash™ is the Lean, Mean Asterisk Machine designed to meet the needs of hobbyists as well as business users and VARs. You'll have a high-performance turnkey Asterisk PBX that's easy to upgrade with dozens of add on scripts to provide virtually any feature you can imagine. With PIAF you can choose from tons of Nerd Vittles and FreePBX® applications that install in under 15 seconds: AsteriDex, Weather Reports, News Feeds, Email by Phone, Telephone Reminders, and many more. You add features when you need additional functionality. Otherwise, Just Say No to Bloatware!
On behalf of the PBX in a Flash Development Team, we want to welcome you to the world of PBX in a Flash. We've tried to collect in one place everything you will need to create your own PBX in a Flash system in under an hour! Once you have your system installed, you'll have a fully functional server with the CentOS 6.2 Linux operating system including an Apache web server, a SendMail server, a MySQL database server, an IPtables firewall, PHP, phpMyAdmin, WebMin, and more plus your choice of Asterisk 1.8 or 10 and FreePBX 2.8, 2.9, or 2.10. You'll then be ready to choose (or not choose) from dozens of Add-On's that make PBX in a Flash a unique offering in the IP telephony marketplace. There's automatic backups, CallerID lookup services, X-Windows, SSL Keys, Gtalk and Google Voice, Cepstral with Allison for text-to-speech applications, fax support, and on and on. If you don't need the extra features, don't load 'em. But every Add-On is designed to install with one click in under a minute! For some applications, you may have to perform a bit of customization, but we've strived to make that an easy process with excellent documentation. What really separates PBX in a Flash from the competition is its painless upgradeability... and our #1 Goal is No Bloat, No Bugs! Whether it is the underlying CentOS operating system, the Asterisk telephony platform, the FreePBX web-based user interface, or Bug Fixes, upgrades are always one button click away. Enjoy and welcome to the PBX in a Flash family!
Asterisk is a registered trademark of Digium, Inc. FreePBX is a registered trademark of Bandwidth.com. PBX in a Flash is a trademark of pbxinaflash.com.
Getting Started with PBX in a Flash
- Choose Your Hardware Platform. For production systems, you'll need a dedicated machine. For experimentation, use the PIAF Virtual Machine or Incredible PBX Virtual Machine with any Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop computer. Just released: PBX in a Flash for Amazon EC2 and Incredible PBX 11 for VMware. For tinkerers, try Incredible PBX for the $35 Raspberry Pi.
- Choose PBX in a Flash Flavor. Always use the latest available PIAF ISO. We recommend the 32-bit ISO; however, a 64-bit ISO is available but not widely supported. For production systems, we recommend PIAF-Purple (Asterisk 1.8 with FreePBX 2.10). For pioneers, try PIAF-Green (Asterisk 11 with FreePBX 2.11).
- Install PBX in a Flash. For dedicated machines, download the latest ISO from SourceForge, burn it to a CD, and boot your machine with the CD. Choose your flavor of Asterisk and FreePBX and have a cup of coffee while the system is installed. Depending upon the horsepower of your server and Internet connection, the process takes about an hour. For experimenters, install VirtualBox onto your Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop computer. Download the latest PIAF Virtual Machine from SourceForge (PIAF-Purple and PIAF-Green are available). Then import the PIAF .ova Appliance into VirtualBox and you're ready to go. The import takes less than 5 minutes.
- Boot PBX in a Flash. For a dedicated machine, just turn the machine on. For PIAF Virtual Machine, run VirtualBox on your desktop and Start the desired VM.
- Install Incredible PBX if desired. Incredible PBX adds nearly 50 preconfigured Asterisk applications to your PIAF server. To use the latest version, first install 32-bit PIAF-Purple with FreePBX 2.10. To determine whether Incredible PBX is right for you, read the Quick Start Guide.
- Update Your Server to Current Spec. Complete your install by running update-programs and then update-fixes after logging into your server as root.
- Manage Your Server with the FreePBX GUI. Use a web browser to manage your PBX in a Flash server. Point the browser to the IP address of your server. Click the Users tab to expose the Admin menu. Click FreePBX Administration to load the FreePBX GUI. Log into FreePBX with maint as the username and whatever FreePBX password you established when you set up your server.
- Security. Unless you are an expert in network and VoIP security, always run your PBX in a Flash server behind a hardware-based firewall with no exposure to the Internet and no port mappings from the firewall to your server! A serious Asterisk vulnerability has been reported in all versions of Asterisk and PIAF installed on or before Sunday, January 6, 2013. Upgrade or patch your server now! See this thread for details.
- Documentation. Read the latest documentation for the product you have chosen: PBX in a Flash, Incredible PBX, PIAF Virtual Machine, or Raspberry Pi.
- Support. Free support for PBX in a Flash and Incredible PBX is available in the PIAF Forum. Paid support is available through Schmooze. They're the best in the business.
- Legal. What You Can and Can't Do With Our Applications. It's all GPLv.2 unless otherwise stated.