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ejabberd is a free and open source instant messaging server written in Erlang.
ejabberd is cross-platform, distributed, fault-tolerant, and based on open standards to achieve real-time communication.
ejabberd is designed to be a rock-solid and feature rich XMPP server.
ejabberd is suitable for small deployments, whether they need to be scalable or not, as well as extremely big deployments.
ejabberd is:
Moreover, ejabberd comes with a wide range of other state-of-the-art features:
Probably the easiest way to install an ejabberd instant messaging server is using the binary installer published by Process-one. The binary installers of released ejabberd versions are available in the Process-one ejabberd downloads page: http://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/downloads
The installer will deploy and configure a full featured ejabberd server and does not require any extra dependencies.
In *nix systems, remember to set executable the binary installer before starting it. For example:
chmod +x ejabberd-2.0.0_1-linux-x86-installer.bin ./ejabberd-2.0.0_1-linux-x86-installer.bin
The installer generates desktop shortcuts to start and stop ejabberd.
The Windows installer also adds ejabberd as a system service, and a shortcut to a debug console for experienced administrators. You can start ejabberd using the shortcut or the Windows service. Note that the Windows service is a feature still in development, and for example it doesn’t keep track of changes made manually in ejabberdctl.cfg. If you want ejabberd to be started automatically at boot time, go to the Windows service settings and set ejabberd to be automatic started.
On a Linux system, if you want ejabberd to start as daemon at boot time, copy ejabberd.init from the bin directory to something like /etc/init.d/ejabberd (depending on your distribution) and call /etc/inid.d/ejabberd start to start it.
The ejabberdctl administration script is included in the bin directory. Please refer to the section 4.1 for details about ejabberdctl, and configurable options to fine tune the Erlang runtime system.
Some Operating Systems provide a specific ejabberd package adapted to the system architecture and libraries. It usually also checks dependencies and performs basic configuration tasks like creating the initial administrator account. Some examples are Debian and Gentoo. Consult the resources provided by your Operating System for more information.
Usually those packages create a script like /etc/init.d/ejabberd to start and stop ejabberd as a service at boot time.
CEAN (Comprehensive Erlang Archive Network) is a repository that hosts binary packages from many Erlang programs, including ejabberd and all its dependencies. The binaries are available for many different system architectures, so this is an alternative to the binary installer and Operating System’s ejabberd packages.
You will have to create your own ejabberd start script depending of how you handle your CEAN installation. The default ejabberdctl script is located into ejabberd’s priv directory and can be used as an example.
The canonical form for distribution of ejabberd stable releases is the source code package. Compiling ejabberd from source code is quite easy in *nix systems, as long as your system have all the dependencies.
To compile ejabberd on a ‘Unix-like’ operating system, you need:
Released versions of ejabberd are available in the Process-one ejabberd downloads page: http://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/downloads
Alternatively, the latest development version can be retrieved from the Subversion repository using this command:
svn co http://svn.process-one.net/ejabberd/trunk ejabberd
To compile ejabberd execute the commands:
./configure make
The build configuration script provides several parameters. To get the full list run the command:
./configure --help
Some options that you may be interested in modifying:
To install ejabberd in the destination directories, run the command:
make install
Note that you may need to have administrative privileges in the system.
The files and directories created are, by default:
You can use the ejabberdctl command line administration script to start and stop ejabberd.
Usage example:
$ ejabberdctl start $ ejabberdctl status Node ejabberd@localhost is started. Status: started ejabberd is running $ ejabberdctl stop
Please refer to the section 4.1 for details about ejabberdctl, and configurable options to fine tune the Erlang runtime system.
The command to compile ejabberd in BSD systems is:
gmake
To compile ejabberd on a Microsoft Windows system, you need:
We assume that we will try to put as much library as possible into C:\sdk\ to make it easier to track what is install for ejabberd.
C:\sdk\erl5.5.5).
C:\sdk\Expat-2.0.0
directory.Copy file C:\sdk\Expat-2.0.0\Libs\libexpat.dll
to your Windows system directory (for example, C:\WINNT or
C:\WINNT\System32)
C:\sdk\GnuWin32.Copy file C:\sdk\GnuWin32\bin\lib*.dll to your
Windows system directory (more installation instructions can be found in the
file README.woe32 in the iconv distribution).
Note: instead of copying libexpat.dll and iconv.dll to the Windows
directory, you can add the directories
C:\sdk\Expat-2.0.0\Libs and
C:\sdk\GnuWin32\bin to the PATH environment
variable.
C:\sdk\OpenSSL and add C:\sdk\OpenSSL\lib\VC to your path or copy the binaries to your system directory.
C:\sdk\gnuWin32. Copy
C:\sdk\GnuWin32\bin\zlib1.dll to your system directory. If you change your path it should already be set after libiconv install.
set PATH=%PATH%;"C:\sdk\erl5.5.5\bin"
ejabberd\src run:
configure.bat nmake -f Makefile.win32
ejabberd\src\ejabberd.cfg and run
werl -s ejabberd -name ejabberd
You need a Jabber account and grant him administrative privileges to enter the ejabberd Web Admin:
{acl, admins, {user, "admin1", "example.org"}}.
{access, configure, [{allow, admins}]}.
You can grant administrative privileges to many Jabber accounts,
and also to accounts in other Jabber servers.
http://server:port/admin/) in your
favourite browser. Make sure to enter the full JID as username (in this
example: admin1@example.org. The reason that you also need to enter the
suffix, is because ejabberd’s virtual hosting support.
To upgrade an ejabberd installation to a new version, simply uninstall the old version, and then install the new one. Of course, it is important that the configuration file and Mnesia database spool directory are not removed.
ejabberd automatically updates the Mnesia table definitions at startup when needed. If you also use an external database for storage of some modules, check if the release notes of the new ejabberd version indicates you need to also update those tables.
The configuration file will be loaded the first time you start ejabberd. The content from this file will be parsed and stored in the internal ejabberd database. Subsequently the configuration will be loaded from the database and any commands in the configuration file are appended to the entries in the database.
Note that ejabberd never edits the configuration file. So, the configuration changes done using the Web Admin are stored in the database, but are not reflected in the configuration file. If you want those changes to be use after ejabberd restart, you can either edit the configuration file, or remove all its content.
The configuration file contains a sequence of Erlang terms. Lines beginning with a ‘%’ sign are ignored. Each term is a tuple of which the first element is the name of an option, and any further elements are that option’s values. If the configuration file do not contain for instance the ‘hosts’ option, the old host name(s) stored in the database will be used.
You can override the old values stored in the database by adding next lines to the configuration file:
override_global. override_local. override_acls.
With these lines the old global options (shared between all ejabberd nodes in a cluster), local options (which are specific for this particular ejabberd node) and ACLs will be removed before new ones are added.
The option hosts defines a list containing one or more domains that ejabberd will serve.
Examples:
{hosts, ["example.org"]}.
{host, "example.org"}.
{hosts, ["example.net", "example.com"]}.
Options can be defined separately for every virtual host using the host_config option. It has the following syntax:
{host_config, <hostname>, [<option>, <option>, ...]}.
Examples:
{host_config, "example.net", [{auth_method, internal}]}.
{host_config, "example.com", [{auth_method, ldap},
{ldap_servers, ["localhost"]},
{ldap_uids, [{"uid"}]},
{ldap_rootdn, "dc=localdomain"},
{ldap_rootdn, "dc=example,dc=com"},
{ldap_password, ""}]}.
{host_config, "example.net", [{auth_method, odbc},
{odbc_server, "DSN=ejabberd;UID=ejabberd;PWD=ejabberd"}]}.
{host_config, "example.com", [{auth_method, ldap},
{ldap_servers, ["localhost", "otherhost"]},
{ldap_uids, [{"uid"}]},
{ldap_rootdn, "dc=localdomain"},
{ldap_rootdn, "dc=example,dc=com"},
{ldap_password, ""}]}.
If you have several virtual hosts, and you want to define options such as modules with values specific for some virtual host, instead of defining each option with the syntax
{<option-name>, <option-value>}
you must use this syntax:
{{add, <option-name>}, <option-value>}
Example:
% This ejabberd server has three vhosts:
{hosts, ["one.example.org", "two.example.org", "three.example.org"]}.
% Configuration of modules that are common to all vhosts
{modules,
[
{mod_roster, []},
{mod_configure, []},
{mod_disco, []},
{mod_private, []},
{mod_time, []},
{mod_last, []},
{mod_version, []}
]}.
% Add some modules to vhost one:
{host_config, "one.example.org", [{{add, modules}, [
{mod_echo, [{host, "echo-service.one.example.org"}]}
{mod_http_bind, []},
{mod_logxml, []}
]}]}.
% Add a module just to vhost two:
{host_config, "two.example.org", [{{add, modules}, [
{mod_echo, [{host, "mirror.two.example.org"}]}
]}]}.
The option listen defines for which addresses and ports ejabberd will listen and what services will be run on them. Each element of the list is a tuple with the following elements:
The available modules, their purpose and the options allowed by each one are:
ejabberd_c2s Description Handles c2s connections. Options access, certfile, inet6, ip, max_stanza_size, shaper, starttls, starttls_required, tls, zlib ejabberd_s2s_in Description Handles incoming s2s connections. Options inet6, ip, max_stanza_size ejabberd_service Description Interacts with external components (as defined in the Jabber Component Protocol (XEP-0114). Options access, hosts, inet6, ip, shaper ejabberd_http Description Handles incoming HTTP connections. Options certfile, http_bind, http_poll, inet6, ip, request_handlers, tls, web_admin
This is a detailed description of each option allowed by the listening modules:
Remember that you must also install and enable the module mod_http_bind.
If HTTP Bind is enabled, it will be available at
http://server:port/http-bind/. Be aware that support for HTTP Bind
is also needed in the Jabber client. Remark also that HTTP Bind can be
interesting to host a web-based Jabber client such as
JWChat (there is a tutorial to
install JWChat with
instructions for ejabberd).
If HTTP Polling is enabled, it will be available at
http://server:port/http-poll/. Be aware that support for HTTP Polling
is also needed in the Jabber client. Remark also that HTTP Polling can be
interesting to host a web-based Jabber client such as
JWChat (there is a tutorial to
install JWChat with
instructions for ejabberd).
{ip, {192, 168, 1, 1}}.
{max_stanza_size, 65536}. The default
value is infinity. Recommended values are 65536 for c2s
connections and 131072 for s2s connections. s2s max stanza size
must always much higher than c2s limit. Change this value with
extreme care as it can cause unwanted disconnect if set too low.
http://server:port/admin/. Login and password are the username and
password of one of the registered users who are granted access by the
‘configure’ access rule.
There are some additional global options:
For example, the following simple configuration defines:
{hosts, ["example.com", "example.org", "example.net"]}.
{listen,
[
{5222, ejabberd_c2s, [
{access, c2s},
{shaper, c2s_shaper},
starttls, {certfile, "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"},
{max_stanza_size, 65536}
]},
{5223, ejabberd_c2s, [
{access, c2s},
{shaper, c2s_shaper},
tls, {certfile, "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"},
{max_stanza_size, 65536}
]},
{5269, ejabberd_s2s_in, [
{shaper, s2s_shaper},
{max_stanza_size, 131072}
]},
{5280, ejabberd_http, [
http_poll
]},
{5281, ejabberd_http, [
web_admin,
tls, {certfile, "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"},
]}
]
}.
{s2s_use_starttls, true}.
{s2s_certfile, "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"}.
{domain_certfile, "example.com", "/etc/ejabberd/example_com.pem"}.
In this example, the following configuration defines that:
{acl, blocked, {user, "bad"}}.
{access, c2s, [{deny, blocked},
{allow, all}]}.
{shaper, normal, {maxrate, 1000}}.
{access, c2s_shaper, [{none, admin},
{normal, all}]}.
{listen,
[{5222, ejabberd_c2s, [{access, c2s}, {shaper, c2s_shaper}]},
{5223, ejabberd_c2s, [{access, c2s},
ssl, {certfile, "/path/to/ssl.pem"}]},
{5269, ejabberd_s2s_in, []},
{5280, ejabberd_http, [http_poll, web_admin]},
{5233, ejabberd_service, [{host, "aim.example.org",
[{password, "aimsecret"}]}]},
{5234, ejabberd_service, [{hosts, ["icq.example.org", "sms.example.org"],
[{password, "jitsecret"}]}]},
{5235, ejabberd_service, [{host, "msn.example.org",
[{password, "msnsecret"}]}]},
{5236, ejabberd_service, [{host, "yahoo.example.org",
[{password, "yahoosecret"}]}]},
{5237, ejabberd_service, [{host, "gg.example.org",
[{password, "ggsecret"}]}]},
{5238, ejabberd_service, [{host, "jmc.example.org",
[{password, "jmcsecret"}]}]},
{5239, ejabberd_service, [{host, "custom.example.org",
[{password, "customsecret"}]},
{service_check_from, false}]}
]
}.
{s2s_use_starttls, true}.
{s2s_certfile, "/path/to/ssl.pem"}.
Note, that for jabberd 1.4- or WPJabber-based services you have to make the transports log and do XDB by themselves:
<!--
You have to add elogger and rlogger entries here when using ejabberd.
In this case the transport will do the logging.
-->
<log id='logger'>
<host/>
<logtype/>
<format>%d: [%t] (%h): %s</format>
<file>/var/log/jabber/service.log</file>
</log>
<!--
Some Jabber server implementations do not provide
XDB services (for example, jabberd2 and ejabberd).
xdb_file.so is loaded in to handle all XDB requests.
-->
<xdb id="xdb">
<host/>
<load>
<!-- this is a lib of wpjabber or jabberd -->
<xdb_file>/usr/lib/jabber/xdb_file.so</xdb_file>
</load>
<xdb_file xmlns="jabber:config:xdb_file">
<spool><jabberd:cmdline flag='s'>/var/spool/jabber</jabberd:cmdline></spool>
</xdb_file>
</xdb>
The option auth_method defines the authentication method that is used for user authentication:
{auth_method, [<method>]}.
The following authentication methods are supported by ejabberd:
ejabberd uses its internal Mnesia database as the default authentication method.
Examples:
{host_config, "example.org", [{auth_method, [internal]}]}.
{host_config, "example.net", [{auth_method, [ldap]}]}.
{auth_method, internal}.
The anonymous authentication method can be configured with the following options. Remember that you can use the host_config option to set virtual host specific options (see section 3.1.2). Note that there also is a detailed tutorial regarding SASL Anonymous and anonymous login configuration.
Those options are defined for each virtual host with the host_config parameter (see section 3.1.2).
Examples:
{auth_method, [anonymous]}.
{anonymous_protocol, login_anon}.
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [anonymous]},
{anonymous_protocol, login_anon}]}.
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [internal,anonymous]},
{anonymous_protocol, login_anon}]}.
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [anonymous]},
{anonymous_protocol, sasl_anon}]}.
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [anonymous]},
{anonymous_protocol, both}]}.
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [internal,anonymous]},
{anonymous_protocol, both}]}.
ejabberd supports authentication via Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM). PAM is currently supported in AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, NetBSD and Solaris. PAM authentication is disabled by default, so you have to configure and compile ejabberd with PAM support enabled:
./configure --enable-pam && make install
Options:
Example:
{auth_method, [pam]}.
{pam_service, "ejabberd"}.
Though it is quite easy to set up PAM support in ejabberd, PAM itself introduces some security issues:
/var/lib/ejabberd/priv/lib/
directory. You have to set it root on execution in the case when your PAM module
requires root privileges (pam_unix.so for example). Also you have to grant access
for ejabberd to this file and remove all other permissions from it:
# chown root:ejabberd /var/lib/ejabberd/priv/lib/epam # chmod 4750 /var/lib/ejabberd/priv/lib/epam
Access control in ejabberd is performed via Access Control Lists (ACLs). The declarations of ACLs in the configuration file have the following syntax:
{acl, <aclname>, {<acltype>, ...}}.
<acltype> can be one of the following:
{acl, all, all}.
{acl, admin, {user, "yozhik"}}.
{acl, admin, {user, "yozhik", "example.org"}}.
{acl, exampleorg, {server, "example.org"}}.
{acl, tests, {user_regexp, "^test[0-9]*$"}}.
{acl, tests, {user_regexp, "^test", "example.org"}}.
{acl, icq, {server_regexp, "^icq\\."}}.
{acl, yohzik, {node_regexp, "^yohzik$", "^example.(com|org)$"}}.
The following ACLs are pre-defined:
An entry allowing or denying access to different services looks similar to this:
{access, <accessname>, [{allow, <aclname>},
{deny, <aclname>},
...
]}.
When a JID is checked to have access to <accessname>, the server sequentially checks if that JID matches any of the ACLs that are named in the second elements of the tuples in the list. If it matches, the first element of the first matched tuple is returned, otherwise the value ‘deny’ is returned.
Example:
{access, configure, [{allow, admin}]}.
{access, something, [{deny, badmans},
{allow, all}]}.
The following access rules are pre-defined:
The special access max_user_sessions specifies the maximum number of sessions (authenticated connections) per user. If a user tries to open more sessions by using different resources, the first opened session will be disconnected. The error session replaced will be sent to the disconnected session. The value for this option can be either a number, or infinity. The default value is infinity.
The syntax is:
{access, max_user_sessions, [{<maxnumber>, <aclname>},
...
]}.
Examples:
{access, max_user_sessions, [{10, all}]}.
Shapers enable you to limit connection traffic. The syntax of shapers is like this:
{shaper, <shapername>, <kind>}.
Currently only one kind of shaper called maxrate is available. It has the following syntax:
{maxrate, <rate>}
where <rate> stands for the maximum allowed incoming rate in bytes per second.
Examples:
{shaper, normal, {maxrate, 1000}}.
{shaper, fast, {maxrate, 50000}}.
The option language defines the default language of server strings that can be seen by Jabber clients. If a Jabber client do not support xml:lang, the specified language is used. The default value is en. In order to take effect there must be a translation file <language>.msg in ejabberd’s msgs directory.
Examples:
{language, "ru"}.
{language, "es"}.
ejabberd uses its internal Mnesia database by default. However, it is possible to use a relational database or an LDAP server to store persistent, long-living data. ejabberd is very flexible: you can configure different authentication methods for different virtual hosts, you can configure different authentication mechanisms for the same virtual host (fallback), you can set different storage systems for modules, and so forth.
The following databases are supported by ejabberd:
The following LDAP servers are tested with ejabberd:
Although this section will describe ejabberd’s configuration when you want to use the native MySQL driver, it does not describe MySQL’s installation and database creation. Check the MySQL documentation and the tutorial Using ejabberd with MySQL native driver for information regarding these topics. Note that the tutorial contains information about ejabberd’s configuration which is duplicate to this section.
Moreover, the file mysql.sql in the directory src/odbc might be interesting for you. This file contains the ejabberd schema for MySQL. At the end of the file you can find information to update your database schema.
By default ejabberd opens 10 connections to the database for each virtual host. Use this option to modify the value:
{odbc_pool_size, 10}.
You can configure an interval to make a dummy SQL request to keep alive the connections to the database. The default value is ’undefined’, so no keepalive requests are made. Specify in seconds: for example 28800 means 8 hours.
{odbc_keepalive_interval, undefined}.
You can skip this step if you installed ejabberd using a binary installer or if the binary packages of ejabberd you are using include support for MySQL.
./configure --enable-odbc && make install
The option value name may be misleading, as the auth_method name is used for access to a relational database through ODBC, as well as through the native MySQL interface. Anyway, the first configuration step is to define the odbc auth_method. For example:
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [odbc]}]}.
The actual database access is defined in the option odbc_server. Its value is used to define if we want to use ODBC, or one of the two native interface available, PostgreSQL or MySQL.
To use the native MySQL interface, you can pass a tuple of the following form as parameter:
{mysql, "Server", "Database", "Username", "Password"}
mysql is a keyword that should be kept as is. For example:
{odbc_server, {mysql, "localhost", "test", "root", "password"}}.
Optionally, it is possible to define the MySQL port to use. This option is only useful, in very rare cases, when you are not running MySQL with the default port setting. The mysql parameter can thus take the following form:
{mysql, "Server", Port, "Database", "Username", "Password"}
The Port value should be an integer, without quotes. For example:
{odbc_server, {mysql, "localhost", Port, "test", "root", "password"}}.
MySQL also can be used to store information into from several ejabberd modules. See section 3.3.1 to see which modules have a version with the ‘_odbc’. This suffix indicates that the module can be used with relational databases like MySQL. To enable storage to your database, just make sure that your database is running well (see previous sections), and replace the suffix-less or ldap module variant with the odbc module variant. Keep in mind that you cannot have several variants of the same module loaded!
Although this section will describe ejabberd’s configuration when you want to use Microsoft SQL Server, it does not describe Microsoft SQL Server’s installation and database creation. Check the MySQL documentation and the tutorial Using ejabberd with MySQL native driver for information regarding these topics. Note that the tutorial contains information about ejabberd’s configuration which is duplicate to this section.
Moreover, the file mssql.sql in the directory src/odbc might be interesting for you. This file contains the ejabberd schema for Microsoft SQL Server. At the end of the file you can find information to update your database schema.
By default ejabberd opens 10 connections to the database for each virtual host. Use this option to modify the value:
{odbc_pool_size, 10}.
You can configure an interval to make a dummy SQL request to keep alive the connections to the database. The default value is ’undefined’, so no keepalive requests are made. Specify in seconds: for example 28800 means 8 hours.
{odbc_keepalive_interval, undefined}.
You can skip this step if you installed ejabberd using a binary installer or if the binary packages of ejabberd you are using include support for ODBC.
If you want to use Microsoft SQL Server with ODBC, you need to configure, compile and install ejabberd with support for ODBC and Microsoft SQL Server enabled. This can be done, by using next commands:
./configure --enable-odbc --enable-mssql && make install
The configuration of Microsoft SQL Server is the same as the configuration of ODBC compatible servers (see section 3.2.4).
Microsoft SQL Server also can be used to store information into from several ejabberd modules. See section 3.3.1 to see which modules have a version with the ‘_odbc’. This suffix indicates that the module can be used with relational databases like Microsoft SQL Server. To enable storage to your database, just make sure that your database is running well (see previous sections), and replace the suffix-less or ldap module variant with the odbc module variant. Keep in mind that you cannot have several variants of the same module loaded!
Although this section will describe ejabberd’s configuration when you want to use the native PostgreSQL driver, it does not describe PostgreSQL’s installation and database creation. Check the PostgreSQL documentation and the tutorial Using ejabberd with MySQL native driver for information regarding these topics. Note that the tutorial contains information about ejabberd’s configuration which is duplicate to this section.
Also the file pg.sql in the directory src/odbc might be interesting for you. This file contains the ejabberd schema for PostgreSQL. At the end of the file you can find information to update your database schema.
By default ejabberd opens 10 connections to the database for each virtual host. Use this option to modify the value:
{odbc_pool_size, 10}.
You can configure an interval to make a dummy SQL request to keep alive the connections to the database. The default value is ’undefined’, so no keepalive requests are made. Specify in seconds: for example 28800 means 8 hours.
{odbc_keepalive_interval, undefined}.
You can skip this step if you installed ejabberd using a binary installer or if the binary packages of ejabberd you are using include support for PostgreSQL.
./configure --enable-odbc && make install
The option value name may be misleading, as the auth_method name is used for access to a relational database through ODBC, as well as through the native PostgreSQL interface. Anyway, the first configuration step is to define the odbc auth_method. For example:
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [odbc]}]}.
The actual database access is defined in the option odbc_server. Its value is used to define if we want to use ODBC, or one of the two native interface available, PostgreSQL or MySQL.
To use the native PostgreSQL interface, you can pass a tuple of the following form as parameter:
{pgsql, "Server", "Database", "Username", "Password"}
pgsql is a keyword that should be kept as is. For example:
{odbc_server, {pgsql, "localhost", "database", "ejabberd", "password"}}.
Optionally, it is possible to define the PostgreSQL port to use. This option is only useful, in very rare cases, when you are not running PostgreSQL with the default port setting. The pgsql parameter can thus take the following form:
{pgsql, "Server", Port, "Database", "Username", "Password"}
The Port value should be an integer, without quotes. For example:
{odbc_server, {pgsql, "localhost", 5432, "database", "ejabberd", "password"}}.
PostgreSQL also can be used to store information into from several ejabberd modules. See section 3.3.1 to see which modules have a version with the ‘_odbc’. This suffix indicates that the module can be used with relational databases like PostgreSQL. To enable storage to your database, just make sure that your database is running well (see previous sections), and replace the suffix-less or ldap module variant with the odbc module variant. Keep in mind that you cannot have several variants of the same module loaded!
Although this section will describe ejabberd’s configuration when you want to use the ODBC driver, it does not describe the installation and database creation of your database. Check the documentation of your database. The tutorial Using ejabberd with MySQL native driver also can help you. Note that the tutorial contains information about ejabberd’s configuration which is duplicate to this section.
By default ejabberd opens 10 connections to the database for each virtual host. Use this option to modify the value:
{odbc_pool_size, 10}.
You can configure an interval to make a dummy SQL request to keep alive the connections to the database. The default value is ’undefined’, so no keepalive requests are made. Specify in seconds: for example 28800 means 8 hours.
{odbc_keepalive_interval, undefined}.
You can skip this step if you installed ejabberd using a binary installer or if the binary packages of ejabberd you are using include support for ODBC.
./configure --enable-odbc && make install
The first configuration step is to define the odbc auth_method. For example:
{host_config, "public.example.org", [{auth_method, [odbc]}]}.
The actual database access is defined in the option odbc_server. Its value is used to defined if we want to use ODBC, or one of the two native interface available, PostgreSQL or MySQL.
To use a relational database through ODBC, you can pass the ODBC connection string as odbc_server parameter. For example:
{odbc_server, "DSN=database;UID=ejabberd;PWD=password"}.
An ODBC compatible database also can be used to store information into from several ejabberd modules. See section 3.3.1 to see which modules have a version with the ‘_odbc’. This suffix indicates that the module can be used with ODBC compatible relational databases. To enable storage to your database, just make sure that your database is running well (see previous sections), and replace the suffix-less or ldap module variant with the odbc module variant. Keep in mind that you cannot have several variants of the same module loaded!
ejabberd has built-in LDAP support. You can authenticate users against LDAP server and use LDAP directory as vCard storage. Shared rosters are not supported yet.
Parameters:
Example:
{auth_method, ldap}.
{ldap_servers, ["ldap.example.org"]}.
{ldap_port, 389}.
{ldap_rootdn, "cn=Manager,dc=domain,dc=org"}.
{ldap_password, "secret"}.
Note that current LDAP implementation does not support SSL secured communication and SASL authentication.
You can authenticate users against an LDAP directory. Available options are:
Let’s say ldap.example.org is the name of our LDAP server. We have users with their passwords in "ou=Users,dc=example,dc=org" directory. Also we have addressbook, which contains users emails and their additional infos in "ou=AddressBook,dc=example,dc=org" directory. Corresponding authentication section should looks like this:
%% authentication method
{auth_method, ldap}.
%% DNS name of our LDAP server
{ldap_servers, ["ldap.example.org"]}.
%% Bind to LDAP server as "cn=Manager,dc=example,dc=org" with password "secret"
{ldap_rootdn, "cn=Manager,dc=example,dc=org"}.
{ldap_password, "secret"}.
%% define the user's base
{ldap_base, "ou=Users,dc=example,dc=org"}.
%% We want to authorize users from 'shadowAccount' object class only
{ldap_filter, "(objectClass=shadowAccount)"}.
Now we want to use users LDAP-info as their vCards. We have four attributes defined in our LDAP schema: "mail" — email address, "givenName" — first name, "sn" — second name, "birthDay" — birthday. Also we want users to search each other. Let’s see how we can set it up:
{modules,
...
{mod_vcard_ldap,
[
%% We use the same server and port, but want to bind anonymously because
%% our LDAP server accepts anonymous requests to
%% "ou=AddressBook,dc=example,dc=org" subtree.
{ldap_rootdn, ""},
{ldap_password, ""},
%% define the addressbook's base
{ldap_base, "ou=AddressBook,dc=example,dc=org"},
%% uidattr: user's part of JID is located in the "mail" attribute
%% uidattr_format: common format for our emails
{ldap_uids, [{"mail", "%u@mail.example.org"}]},
%% We have to define empty filter here, because entries in addressbook does not
%% belong to shadowAccount object class
{ldap_filter, ""},
%% Now we want to define vCard pattern
{ldap_vcard_map,
[{"NICKNAME", "%u", []}, % just use user's part of JID as his nickname
{"GIVEN", "%s", ["givenName"]},
{"FAMILY", "%s", ["sn"]},
{"FN", "%s, %s", ["sn", "givenName"]}, % example: "Smith, John"
{"EMAIL", "%s", ["mail"]},
{"BDAY", "%s", ["birthDay"]}]},
%% Search form
{ldap_search_fields,
[{"User", "%u"},
{"Name", "givenName"},
{"Family Name", "sn"},
{"Email", "mail"},
{"Birthday", "birthDay"}]},
%% vCard fields to be reported
%% Note that JID is always returned with search results
{ldap_search_reported,
[{"Full Name", "FN"},
{"Nickname", "NICKNAME"},
{"Birthday", "BDAY"}]}
]},
...
}.
Note that mod_vcard_ldap module checks for the existence of the user before searching in his information in LDAP.
Active Directory is just an LDAP-server with predefined attributes. A sample configuration is shown below:
{auth_method, ldap}.
{ldap_servers, ["office.org"]}. % List of LDAP servers
{ldap_base, "DC=office,DC=org"}. % Search base of LDAP directory
{ldap_rootdn, "CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=office,DC=org"}. % LDAP manager
{ldap_password, "*******"}. % Password to LDAP manager
{ldap_uids, [{"sAMAccountName"}]}.
{ldap_filter, "(memberOf=*)"}.
{modules,
...
{mod_vcard_ldap,
[{ldap_vcard_map,
[{"NICKNAME", "%u", []},
{"GIVEN", "%s", ["givenName"]},
{"MIDDLE", "%s", ["initials"]},
{"FAMILY", "%s", ["sn"]},
{"FN", "%s", ["displayName"]},
{"EMAIL", "%s", ["mail"]},
{"ORGNAME", "%s", ["company"]},
{"ORGUNIT", "%s", ["department"]},
{"CTRY", "%s", ["c"]},
{"LOCALITY", "%s", ["l"]},
{"STREET", "%s", ["streetAddress"]},
{"REGION", "%s", ["st"]},
{"PCODE", "%s", ["postalCode"]},
{"TITLE", "%s", ["title"]},
{"URL", "%s", ["wWWHomePage"]},
{"DESC", "%s", ["description"]},
{"TEL", "%s", ["telephoneNumber"]}]},
{ldap_search_fields,
[{"User", "%u"},
{"Name", "givenName"},
{"Family Name", "sn"},
{"Email", "mail"},
{"Company", "company"},
{"Department", "department"},
{"Role", "title"},
{"Description", "description"},
{"Phone", "telephoneNumber"}]},
{ldap_search_reported,
[{"Full Name", "FN"},
{"Nickname", "NICKNAME"},
{"Email", "EMAIL"}]}
]},
...
}.
The option modules defines the list of modules that will be loaded after ejabberd’s startup. Each entry in the list is a tuple in which the first element is the name of a module and the second is a list of options for that module.
Examples:
{modules,
[{mod_echo, []}
]}.
{modules,
[{mod_echo, []},
{mod_time, []},
{mod_version, []}
]}.
The following table lists all modules included in ejabberd.
Module Feature Dependencies Needed for XMPP? mod_adhoc Ad-Hoc Commands (XEP-0050) No mod_announce Manage announcements mod_adhoc No mod_caps Request and cache Entity Capabilities (XEP-0115) No mod_configure Server configuration using Ad-Hoc mod_adhoc No mod_disco Service Discovery (XEP-0030) No mod_echo Echoes Jabber packets No mod_irc IRC transport No mod_last Last Activity (XEP-0012) No mod_last_odbc Last Activity (XEP-0012) supported database (*) No mod_muc Multi-User Chat (XEP-0045) No mod_muc_log Multi-User Chat room logging mod_muc No mod_offline Offline message storage No mod_offline_odbc Offline message storage supported database (*) No mod_privacy Blocking Communications Yes mod_privacy_odbc Blocking Communications supported database (*) Yes mod_private Private XML Storage (XEP-0049) No mod_private_odbc Private XML Storage (XEP-0049) supported database (*) No mod_proxy65 SOCKS5 Bytestreams (XEP-0065) No mod_pubsub Publish-Subscribe (XEP-0060) and PEP (XEP-0163) mod_caps No mod_register In-Band Registration (XEP-0077) No mod_roster Roster management Yes (**) mod_roster_odbc Roster management supported database (*) Yes (**) mod_service_log Copy user messages to logger service No mod_shared_roster Shared roster management mod_roster or No mod_roster_odbc mod_stats Statistics Gathering (XEP-0039) No mod_time Entity Time (XEP-0090) No mod_vcard vcard-temp (XEP-0054) No mod_vcard_ldap vcard-temp (XEP-0054) LDAP server No mod_vcard_odbc vcard-temp (XEP-0054) supported database (*) No mod_version Software Version (XEP-0092) No
You can see which database backend each module needs by looking at the suffix:
If you want to, it is possible to use a relational database to store pieces of information. You can do this by changing the module name to a name with an _odbc suffix in ejabberd config file. You can use a relational database for the following data:
You can find more contributed modules on the ejabberd website. Please remember that these contributions might not work or that they can contain severe bugs and security leaks. Therefore, use them at your own risk!
The following options are used by many modules. Therefore, they are described in this separate section.
Many modules define handlers for processing IQ queries of different namespaces to this server or to a user (e. g. to example.org or to user@example.org). This option defines processing discipline for these queries. Possible values are:
Example:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_time, [{iqdisc, no_queue}]},
...
]}.
This option defines the Jabber ID of a service provided by an ejabberd module. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host string.
This example configures the echo module to provide its echoing service in the Jabber ID mirror.example.org:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_echo, [{host, "mirror.example.org"}]},
...
]}.
However, if there are several virtual hosts and this module is enabled in all of them, the "@HOST@" keyword must be used:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_echo, [{host, "mirror.@HOST@"}]},
...
]}.
This module enables configured users to broadcast announcements and to set the message of the day (MOTD). Configured users can do these actions with their Jabber client using Ad-hoc commands or by sending messages to specific JIDs. These JIDs are listed in next paragraph. The first JID in each entry will apply only to the virtual host example.org, while the JID between brackets will apply to all virtual hosts:
Options:
Examples:
{access, announce, [{allow, admins}]}.
{modules,
[
...
{mod_announce, [{access, announce}]},
...
]}.
{acl, direction, {user, "big_boss", "example.org"}}.
{acl, direction, {user, "assistant", "example.org"}}.
{acl, admins, {user, "admin", "example.org"}}.
...
{access, announce, [{allow, admins},
{allow, direction}]}.
...
{modules,
[
...
{mod_announce, [{access, announce}]},
...
]}.
Note that mod_announce can be resource intensive on large deployments as it can broadcast lot of messages. This module should be disabled for instances of ejabberd with hundreds of thousands users.
This module adds support for Service Discovery (XEP-0030). With this module enabled, services on your server can be discovered by Jabber clients. Note that ejabberd has no modules with support for the superseded Jabber Browsing (XEP-0011) and Agent Information (XEP-0094). Accordingly, Jabber clients need to have support for the newer Service Discovery protocol if you want them be able to discover the services you offer.
Options:
Examples:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_disco, [{extra_domains, ["users.jabber.org"]}]},
...
]}.
{modules,
[
...
{mod_disco, [{extra_domains, ["icq.example.com",
"msn.example.com"]}]},
...
]}.
{modules,
[
...
{mod_disco, [{extra_domains, ["example.org",
"example.com"]}]},
...
]}.
This module simply echoes any Jabber packet back to the sender. This mirror can be of interest for ejabberd and Jabber client debugging.
Options:
Example: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the most beautiful of them all?
{modules,
[
...
{mod_echo, [{host, "mirror.example.org"}]},
...
]}.
This module implements XMPP over Bosh (formerly known as HTTP Binding) as outlined by XEP-0206. It extends ejabberd’s built in HTTP service with a configurable resource at which this service will be hosted.
To use HTTP-Binding, enable the module:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_http_bind, []},
...
]}.
and add http_bind in the HTTP service. For example:
{listen,
[
...
{5280, ejabberd_http, [
http_bind,
http_poll,
web_admin
]
},
...
]}.
With this configuration, the module will serve the requests sent to
http://example.org:5280/http-bind/
Remember that this page is not designed to be used by web browsers,
it is used by Jabber clients that support XMPP over Bosh.
If you want to set the service in a different URI path or use a different module,
you can configure it manually using the option request_handlers.
For example:
{listen,
[
...
{5280, ejabberd_http, [
{request_handlers, [{["http-bind"], mod_http_bind}]},
http_poll,
web_admin
]
},
...
]}.
This simple module serves files from the local disk over HTTP.
Options:
This example configuration will serve the files from
the local directory /var/www
in the address http://example.org:5280/pub/archive/.
To use this module you must enable it:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_http_fileserver, [
{docroot, "/var/www"},
{accesslog, "/var/log/ejabberd/access.log"}
]
},
...
]}.
And define it as a handler in the HTTP service:
{listen,
[
...
{5280, ejabberd_http, [
...
{request_handlers, [
...
{["pub", "archive"], mod_http_fileserver},
...
]
},
...
]
},
...
]}.
This module is an IRC transport that can be used to join channels on IRC servers.
End user information:
Options:
Examples:
{modules,
[
...
{mod_irc, [{access, all}, {default_encoding, "iso8859-15"}]},
...
]}.
{acl, paying_customers, {user, "customer1", "example.net"}}.
{acl, paying_customers, {user, "customer2", "example.com"}}.
{acl, paying_customers, {user, "customer3", "example.org"}}.
...
{access, paying_customers, [{allow, paying_customers},
{deny, all}]}.
...
{modules,
[
...
{mod_irc, [{access, paying_customers},
{host, "irc.example.net"}]},
...
]}.
This module adds support for Last Activity (XEP-0012). It can be used to discover when a disconnected user last accessed the server, to know when a connected user was last active on the server, or to query the uptime of the ejabberd server.
Options:
With this module enabled, your server will support Multi-User Chat (XEP-0045). End users will be able to join text conferences.
Some of the features of Multi-User Chat:
The MUC service allows any Jabber ID to register a nickname, so nobody else can use that nickname in any room in the MUC service. To register a nickname, open the Service Discovery in your Jabber client and Register in the MUC service.
The MUC service allows the service administrator to send a message to all existing chatrooms. To do so, send the message to the Jabber ID of the MUC service.
This module supports clustering and load balancing. One module can be started per cluster node. Rooms are distributed at creation time on all available MUC module instances. The multi-user chat module is clustered but the room themselves are not clustered nor fault-tolerant: if the node managing a set of rooms goes down, the rooms disappear and they will be recreated on an available node on first connection attempt.
Options: