docs.ejabberd.im

Managing an ejabberd server

ejabberdctl

With the ejabberdctl command line administration script you can execute ejabberdctl commands (described in the next section, ejabberdctl Commands) and also many general ejabberd commands (described in section ejabberd Commands). This means you can start, stop and perform many other administrative tasks in a local or remote ejabberd server (by providing the argument –node NODENAME).

The ejabberdctl script can be configured in the file ejabberdctl.cfg. This file includes detailed information about each configurable option. See section Erlang Runtime System.

The ejabberdctl script returns a numerical status code. Success is represented by 0, error is represented by 1, and other codes may be used for specific results. This can be used by other scripts to determine automatically if a command succeeded or failed, for example using: echo $?

To restrict what commands can be executed; see API Permissions.

If you use Bash, you can get Bash completion by copying the file tools/ejabberdctl.bc to the directory /etc/bash_completion.d/ (in Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and maybe others). Or adding to your $HOME/.bashrc a line similar to: source /path/to/ejabberd/tools/ejabberdctl.bc

ejabberdctl Commands

When ejabberdctl is executed without any parameter, it displays the available options. If there isn't an ejabberd server running, the available parameters are:

start: Start ejabberd in background mode. This is the default method.

debug: Attach an Erlang shell to an already existing ejabberd server. This allows to execute commands interactively in the ejabberd server.

live: Start ejabberd in live mode: the shell keeps attached to the started server, showing log messages and allowing to execute interactive commands.

If there is an ejabberd server running in the system, ejabberdctl shows the ejabberdctl commands described below and all the ejabberd commands available in that server (see List of ejabberd Commands).

The ejabberdctl commands are:

help: Get help about ejabberdctl or any available command. Try ejabberdctl help help.

status: Check the status of the ejabberd server.

stop: Stop the ejabberd server.

restart: Restart the ejabberd server.

mnesia: Get information about the Mnesia database.

ejabberd Commands

Please go to the API section.

Erlang Runtime System

ejabberd is an Erlang/OTP application that runs inside an Erlang runtime system. This system is configured using environment variables and command line parameters. The ejabberdctl administration script uses many of those possibilities. You can configure some of them with the file ejabberdctl.cfg, which includes detailed description about them. This section describes for reference purposes all the environment variables and command line parameters.

The environment variables:

EJABBERD_CONFIG_PATH: Path to the ejabberd configuration file.

EJABBERD_MSGS_PATH: Path to the directory with translated strings.

EJABBERD_LOG_PATH: Path to the ejabberd service log file.

EJABBERD_SO_PATH: Path to the directory with binary system libraries.

EJABBERD_DOC_PATH: Path to the directory with ejabberd documentation.

EJABBERD_PID_PATH: Path to the PID file that ejabberd can create when started.

HOME: Path to the directory that is considered ejabberd’s home. This path is used to read the file .erlang.cookie.

ERL_CRASH_DUMP: Path to the file where crash reports will be dumped.

ERL_EPMD_ADDRESS: IP address where epmd listens for connections (see epmd).

ERL_INETRC: Indicates which IP name resolution to use. If using -sname, specify either this option or -kernel inetrc filepath.

ERL_MAX_PORTS: Maximum number of simultaneously open Erlang ports.

ERL_MAX_ETS_TABLES: Maximum number of ETS and Mnesia tables.

The command line parameters:

-sname ejabberd: The Erlang node will be identified using only the first part of the host name, i.e. other Erlang nodes outside this domain cannot contact this node. This is the preferable option in most cases.

-name ejabberd: The Erlang node will be fully identified. This is only useful if you plan to setup an ejabberd cluster with nodes in different networks.

-kernel inetrc ’/etc/ejabberd/inetrc’: Indicates which IP name resolution to use. If using -sname, specify either this option or ERL_INETRC.

-kernel inet_dist_listen_min 4200 inet_dist_listen_min 4210: Define the first and last ports that epmd can listen to (see epmd).

-kernel inet_dist_use_interface { 127,0,0,1 }: Define the IP address where this Erlang node listens for other nodes connections (see epmd).

-detached: Starts the Erlang system detached from the system console. Useful for running daemons and background processes.

-noinput: Ensures that the Erlang system never tries to read any input. Useful for running daemons and background processes.

-pa /var/lib/ejabberd/ebin: Specify the directory where Erlang binary files (*.beam) are located.

-s ejabberd: Tell Erlang runtime system to start the ejabberd application.

-mnesia dir ’/var/lib/ejabberd/’: Specify the Mnesia database directory.

-sasl sasl_error_logger {file, /var/log/ejabberd/erlang.log}: Path to the Erlang/OTP system log file. SASL here means “System Architecture Support Libraries” not “Simple Authentication and Security Layer”.

+K [true|false]: Kernel polling.

-smp [auto|enable|disable]: SMP support.

+P 250000: Maximum number of Erlang processes.

-remsh ejabberd@localhost: Open an Erlang shell in a remote Erlang node.

-hidden: The connections to other nodes are hidden (not published). The result is that this node is not considered part of the cluster. This is important when starting a temporary ctl or debug node.

Note that some characters need to be escaped when used in shell scripts, for instance " and {}. You can find other options in the Erlang manual page (erl -man erl).

Web Admin

The ejabberd Web Admin allows to administer some parts of ejabberd using a web browser: accounts, Shared Roster Groups, manage the Mnesia database, create and restore backups, view server statistics, …

Basic Setup

  1. If not done already, register an account and grant administration rights to it (see Administration Account):

    acl:
  admin:
    user: admin1@example.org
access_rules:
  configure:
    allow: admin

  2. Make sure ejabberd_web_admin is available in request_handlers of a ejabberd_http listener. If you want to use HTTPS, enable tls. For example:

    listen:
  -
    port: 5443
    ip: "::"
    module: ejabberd_http
    tls: true
    request_handlers:
      /admin: ejabberd_web_admin

  3. Open the Web Admin page in your favourite web browser. The exact address depends on your configuration; in this example the address is: https://example.net:5443/admin/

  4. In the login window provide the full Jabber ID: admin1@example.org and password. If the web address hostname is the same that the account JID, you can provide simply the username instead of the full JID: admin1.

  5. Finally you will see a page similar to:

Web Admin

Advanced Configuration

There are two access rules supported:

  • configure determines what accounts can access the Web Admin and make changes.
  • webadmin_view grants only view access: those accounts can browse the Web Admin with read-only access.

Example configurations:

  • You can serve the Web Admin on the same port as the HTTP Polling interface. In this example you should point your web browser to http://example.org:5280/admin/ to administer all virtual hosts or to http://example.org:5280/admin/server/example.com/ to administer only the virtual host example.com. Before you get access to the Web Admin you need to enter as username, the JID and password from a registered user that is allowed to configure ejabberd. In this example you can enter as username admin@example.net to administer all virtual hosts (first URL). If you log in with admin@example.com on http://example.org:5280/admin/server/example.com/ you can only administer the virtual host example.com. The account reviewer@example.com can browse that vhost in read-only mode.
  acl:
    admin:
      user:
        - admin: example.net
   
  host_config:
    example.com:
      acl:
        admin:
          user:
            - admin: example.com
        viewers:
          user:
            - reviewer: example.com
  
  access:
    configure:
      admin: allow
    webadmin_view:
      viewers: allow
  
  hosts:
    - example.org
  
  listen:
    ...
    -
      port: 5280
      module: ejabberd_http
      request_handlers:
        /admin: ejabberd_web_admin
    ...
  • For security reasons, you can serve the Web Admin on a secured connection, on a port differing from the HTTP Polling interface, and bind it to the internal LAN IP. The Web Admin will be accessible by pointing your web browser to https://192.168.1.1:5282/admin/:
  hosts:
    - example.org
  listen:
    ...
    - 
      port: 5280
      module: ejabberd_http
    - 
      ip: "192.168.1.1"
      port: 5282
      module: ejabberd_http
      certfile: "/usr/local/etc/server.pem"
      tls: true
      request_handlers:
        /admin: ejabberd_web_admin
    ...

Certain pages in the ejabberd Web Admin contain a link to a related section in the ejabberd Installation and Operation Guide. In order to view such links, a copy in HTML format of the Guide must be installed in the system. The file is searched by default in /share/doc/ejabberd/guide.html. The directory of the documentation can be specified in the environment variable EJABBERD_DOC_PATH. See section Erlang Runtime System.

Ad-hoc Commands

If you enable mod_configure and mod_adhoc, you can perform several administrative tasks in ejabberd with an XMPP client. The client must support Ad-Hoc Commands (XEP-0050), and you must login in the XMPP server with an account with proper privileges.

Change Computer Hostname

ejabberd uses the distributed Mnesia database. Being distributed, Mnesia enforces consistency of its file, so it stores the name of the Erlang node in it (see section Erlang Node Name). The name of an Erlang node includes the hostname of the computer. So, the name of the Erlang node changes if you change the name of the machine in which ejabberd runs, or when you move ejabberd to a different machine.

You have two ways to use the old Mnesia database in an ejabberd with new node name: put the old node name in ejabberdctl.cfg, or convert the database to the new node name.

Those example steps will backup, convert and load the Mnesia database. You need to have either the old Mnesia spool dir or a backup of Mnesia. If you already have a backup file of the old database, you can go directly to step 5. You also need to know the old node name and the new node name. If you don’t know them, look for them by executing ejabberdctl or in the ejabberd log files.

Before starting, setup some variables:

OLDNODE=ejabberd@oldmachine
NEWNODE=ejabberd@newmachine
OLDFILE=/tmp/old.backup
NEWFILE=/tmp/new.backup

  1. Start ejabberd enforcing the old node name:

    ejabberdctl --node $OLDNODE start

  2. Generate a backup file:

    ejabberdctl --node $OLDNODE backup $OLDFILE

  3. Stop the old node:

    ejabberdctl --node $OLDNODE stop

  4. Make sure there aren't files in the Mnesia spool dir. For example:

    mkdir /var/lib/ejabberd/oldfiles
mv /var/lib/ejabberd/*.* /var/lib/ejabberd/oldfiles/

  5. Start ejabberd. There isn't any need to specify the node name anymore:

    ejabberdctl start

  6. Convert the backup to new node name using mnesia_change_nodename:

    ejabberdctl mnesia_change_nodename $OLDNODE $NEWNODE $OLDFILE $NEWFILE

  7. Install the backup file as a fallback using install_fallback:

    ejabberdctl install_fallback $NEWFILE

  8. Stop ejabberd:

    ejabberdctl stop

    You may see an error message in the log files, it’s normal, so don’t worry:

    Mnesia(ejabberd@newmachine):
** ERROR ** (ignoring core)
** FATAL ** A fallback is installed and Mnesia must be restarted.
  Forcing shutdown after mnesia_down from ejabberd@newmachine...

  9. Now you can finally start ejabberd:

    ejabberdctl start

  10. Check that the information of the old database is available: accounts, rosters... After you finish, remember to delete the temporary backup files from public directories.