ejabberd 14.07
 
Installation and Operation Guide


Contents

Chapter 1  Introduction

ejabberd is a free and open source instant messaging server written in Erlang/OTP.

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.

1.1  Key Features

ejabberd is:

1.2  Additional Features

Moreover, ejabberd comes with a wide range of other state-of-the-art features:

Chapter 2  Installing ejabberd

2.1  Installing ejabberd with Binary Installer

Probably the easiest way to install an ejabberd instant messaging server is using the binary installer published by ProcessOne. The binary installers of released ejabberd versions are available in the ProcessOne 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

ejabberd can be started manually at any time, or automatically by the operating system at system boot time.

To start and stop ejabberd manually, use the desktop shortcuts created by the installer. If the machine doesn’t have a graphical system, use the scripts ’start’ and ’stop’ in the ’bin’ directory where ejabberd is installed.

The Windows installer also adds ejabberd as a system service, and a shortcut to a debug console for experienced administrators. If you want ejabberd to be started automatically at boot time, go to the Windows service settings and set ejabberd to be automatically started. Note that the Windows service is a feature still in development, and for example it doesn’t read the file ejabberdctl.cfg.

On a *nix system, if you want ejabberd to be started as daemon at boot time, copy ejabberd.init from the ’bin’ directory to something like /etc/init.d/ejabberd (depending on your distribution). Create a system user called ejabberd, give it write access to the directories database/ and logs/, and set that as home; the script will start the server with that user. Then you can call /etc/inid.d/ejabberd start as root to start the server.

When ejabberd is started, the processes that are started in the system are beam or beam.smp, and also epmd. In Microsoft Windows, the processes are erl.exe and epmd.exe. For more information regarding epmd consult the section 5.2.

If ejabberd doesn’t start correctly in Windows, try to start it using the shortcut in desktop or start menu. If the window shows error 14001, the solution is to install: "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package". You can download it from www.microsoft.com. Then uninstall ejabberd and install it again.

If ejabberd doesn’t start correctly and a crash dump is generated, there was a severe problem. You can try starting ejabberd with the script bin/live.bat in Windows, or with the command bin/ejabberdctl live in other Operating Systems. This way you see the error message provided by Erlang and can identify what is exactly the problem.

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.

2.2  Installing ejabberd with Operating System Specific Packages

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.

2.3  Installing ejabberd with CEAN

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.

2.4  Installing ejabberd from Source Code

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.

2.4.1  Requirements

To compile ejabberd on a ‘Unix-like’ operating system, you need:

2.4.2  Download Source Code

Released versions of ejabberd are available in the ProcessOne ejabberd downloads page: http://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/downloads

Alternatively, the latest development source code can be retrieved from the Git repository using the commands: 

git clone git://github.com/processone/ejabberd.git ejabberd
cd ejabberd
git checkout -b 2.1.x origin/2.1.x

2.4.3  Compile

To compile ejabberd execute the commands: 

./configure
make

The build configuration script allows several options. To get the full list run the command: 

./configure --help

Some options that you may be interested in modifying:

--prefix=/
Specify the path prefix where the files will be copied when running the make install command.

--enable-user[=USER]
Allow this normal system user to execute the ejabberdctl script (see section 4.1), read the configuration files, read and write in the spool directory, read and write in the log directory. The account user and group must exist in the machine before running make install. This account doesn’t need an explicit HOME directory, because /var/lib/ejabberd/ will be used by default.

--enable-pam
Enable the PAM authentication method (see section 3.1.5).

--enable-mssql
Required if you want to use an external database. See section 3.2 for more information.
--enable-tools
Enable the use of development tools.
--enable-mysql
Enable MySQL support (see section 3.2.1).
--enable-pgsql
Enable PostgreSQL support (see section 3.2.1).
--enable-zlib
Enable Stream Compression (XEP-0138) using zlib.
--enable-iconv
Enable iconv support. This is needed for mod_irc (see seciont 3.3.8).
--enable-debug
Compile with +debug_info enabled.

--enable-full-xml
Enable the use of XML based optimisations. It will for example use CDATA to escape characters in the XMPP stream. Use this option only if you are sure your XMPP clients include a fully compliant XML parser.

--disable-transient-supervisors
Disable the use of Erlang/OTP supervision for transient processes.

--enable-nif
Replaces some critical Erlang functions with equivalents written in C to improve performance.

2.4.4  Install

To install ejabberd in the destination directories, run the command: 

make install

Note that you probably need administrative privileges in the system to install ejabberd.

The files and directories created are, by default:

/etc/ejabberd/
Configuration directory:
ejabberd.yml
ejabberd configuration file
ejabberdctl.cfg
Configuration file of the administration script
inetrc
Network DNS configuration file
/lib/ejabberd/
ebin/
Erlang binary files (*.beam)
include/
Erlang header files (*.hrl)
priv/
Additional files required at runtime
bin/
Executable programs
lib/
Binary system libraries (*.so)
msgs/
Translation files (*.msgs)
/sbin/ejabberdctl
Administration script (see section 4.1)
/share/doc/ejabberd/
Documentation of ejabberd
/var/lib/ejabberd/
Spool directory:
.erlang.cookie
Erlang cookie file (see section 5.3)
acl.DCD, ...
Mnesia database spool files (*.DCD, *.DCL, *.DAT)
/var/log/ejabberd/
Log directory (see section 7.1):
ejabberd.log
ejabberd service log
erlang.log
Erlang/OTP system log

2.4.5  Start

You can use the ejabberdctl command line administration script to start and stop ejabberd. If you provided the configure option --enable-user=USER (see 2.4.3), you can execute ejabberdctl with either that system account or root.

Usage example: 

ejabberdctl start

ejabberdctl status
The node ejabberd@localhost is started with status: started
ejabberd is running in that node

ejabberdctl stop

If ejabberd doesn’t start correctly and a crash dump is generated, there was a severe problem. You can try starting ejabberd with the command ejabberdctl live to see the error message provided by Erlang and can identify what is exactly the problem.

Please refer to the section 4.1 for details about ejabberdctl, and configurable options to fine tune the Erlang runtime system.

If you want ejabberd to be started as daemon at boot time, copy ejabberd.init to something like /etc/init.d/ejabberd (depending on your distribution). Create a system user called ejabberd; it will be used by the script to start the server. Then you can call /etc/inid.d/ejabberd start as root to start the server.

2.4.6  Specific Notes for BSD

The command to compile ejabberd in BSD systems is: 

gmake

2.4.7  Specific Notes for Sun Solaris

You need to have GNU install, but it isn’t included in Solaris. It can be easily installed if your Solaris system is set up for blastwave.org package repository. Make sure /opt/csw/bin is in your PATH and run: 

pkg-get -i fileutils

If that program is called ginstall, modify the ejabberd Makefile script to suit your system, for example: 

cat Makefile | sed s/install/ginstall/ > Makefile.gi

And finally install ejabberd with: 

gmake -f Makefile.gi ginstall

2.4.8  Specific Notes for Microsoft Windows

Requirements

To compile ejabberd on a Microsoft Windows system, you need:

Compilation

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.

  1. Install Erlang emulator (for example, into C:\sdk\erl5.5.5).
  2. Install Expat library into 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)

  3. Build and install the Iconv library into the directory 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.

  4. Install OpenSSL in C:\sdk\OpenSSL and add C:\sdk\OpenSSL\lib\VC to your path or copy the binaries to your system directory.
  5. Install ZLib in 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.
  6. Make sure the you can access Erlang binaries from your path. For example: set PATH=%PATH%;"C:\sdk\erl5.6.5\bin"
  7. Depending on how you end up actually installing the library you might need to check and tweak the paths in the file configure.erl.
  8. While in the directory ejabberd\src run: 
    configure.bat
nmake -f Makefile.win32
  9. Edit the file ejabberd\src\ejabberd.yml and run 
    werl -s ejabberd -name ejabberd

2.5  Create an XMPP Account for Administration

You need an XMPP account and grant him administrative privileges to enter the ejabberd Web Admin:

  1. Register an XMPP account on your ejabberd server, for example admin1@example.org. There are two ways to register an XMPP account:
    1. Using ejabberdctl (see section 4.1): 
      ejabberdctl register admin1 example.org FgT5bk3
    2. Using an XMPP client and In-Band Registration (see section 3.3.19).
  2. Edit the ejabberd configuration file to give administration rights to the XMPP account you created: 
    acl:
  admin:
    user:
      - "admin1": "example.org"
access:
  configure:
    admin: allow
    You can grant administrative privileges to many XMPP accounts, and also to accounts in other XMPP servers.
  3. Restart ejabberd to load the new configuration.
  4. Open the Web Admin (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.

2.6  Upgrading ejabberd

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.

Chapter 3  Configuring ejabberd

3.1  Basic Configuration

The configuration file will be loaded the first time you start ejabberd. The configuration file name MUST have “.yml” extension. This helps ejabberd to differentiate between the new and legacy file formats (see section 3.1.1).

Note that ejabberd never edits the configuration file.

The configuration file is written in YAML. However, different scalars are treated as different types:

3.1.1  Legacy Configuration File

In previous ejabberd version the configuration file should be written in Erlang terms. The format is still supported, but it is highly recommended to convert it to the new YAML format using convert_to_yaml command from ejabberdctl (see 4.1 and 4.2.1 for details).

3.1.2  Host Names

The option hosts defines a list containing one or more domains that ejabberd will serve.

The syntax is:

[HostName]

Examples:

3.1.3  Virtual Hosting

Options can be defined separately for every virtual host using the host_config option.

The syntax is:

{HostName: [Option, ...]}

Examples:

To define specific ejabberd modules in a virtual host, you can define the global modules option with the common modules, and later add specific modules to certain virtual hosts. To accomplish that, instead of defining each option in host_config use append_host_config with the same syntax.

In this example three virtual hosts have some similar modules, but there are also other different modules for some specific virtual hosts: 

## 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:
append_host_config:
  "one.example.org":
    modules:
      mod_echo:
        host: "echo-service.one.example.org"
      mod_http_bind: {}
      mod_logxml: {}

## Add a module just to vhost two:
append_host_config:
  "two.example.org":
    modules:
      mod_echo:
        host: "mirror.two.example.org"

3.1.4  Listening Ports

The option listen defines for which ports, addresses and network protocols ejabberd will listen and what services will be run on them. Each element of the list is an associative array with the following elements:

The option syntax is:

[Listener, ...]

Example: 

listen:
  -
    port: 5222
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    starttls: true
    certfile: "/path/to/certfile.pem"
  -
    port: 5269
    module: ejabberd_s2s_in
    transport: tcp

Port Number, IP Address and Transport Protocol

The port number defines which port to listen for incoming connections. It can be a Jabber/XMPP standard port (see section 5.1) or any other valid port number.

The IP address can be represented as a string. The socket will listen only in that network interface. It is possible to specify a generic address, so ejabberd will listen in all addresses. Depending in the type of the IP address, IPv4 or IPv6 will be used. When not specified the IP address, it will listen on all IPv4 network addresses.

Some example values for IP address:

The transport protocol can be tcp or udp. Default is tcp.

Listening Module

The available modules, their purpose and the options allowed by each one are:

ejabberd_c2s
Handles c2s connections.
Options: access, certfile, ciphers, protocol_options max_ack_queue, max_fsm_queue, max_stanza_size, resend_on_timeout, resume_timeout, shaper, starttls, starttls_required, stream_management, tls, zlib, tls_compression
ejabberd_s2s_in
Handles incoming s2s connections.
Options: max_stanza_size, shaper, tls_compression
ejabberd_service
Interacts with an external component (as defined in the Jabber Component Protocol (XEP-0114).
Options: access, hosts, max_fsm_queue, service_check_from, shaper_rule
ejabberd_sip
Handles SIP requests as defined in RFC 3261.
Options: certfile, tls
ejabberd_stun
Handles STUN/TURN requests as defined in RFC 5389 and RFC 5766.
Options: certfile, tls, use_turn, turn_ip, turn_port_range, turn_max_allocations, turn_max_permissions, shaper, server_name, auth_realm, auth_type
ejabberd_http
Handles incoming HTTP connections.
Options: captcha, certfile, default_host, http_bind, http_poll, request_handlers, tls, tls_compression, trusted_proxies, web_admin
ejabberd_xmlrpc
Handles XML-RPC requests to execute ejabberd commands (4.2).
Options: access_commands, maxsessions, timeout.
You can find option explanations, example configuration in old and new format, and example calls in several languages in the old ejabberd_xmlrpc documentation.

Options

This is a detailed description of each option allowed by the listening modules:

access: AccessName
This option defines access to the port. The default value is all.
backlog: Value
The backlog value defines the maximum length that the queue of pending connections may grow to. This should be increased if the server is going to handle lots of new incoming connections as they may be dropped if there is no space in the queue (and ejabberd was not able to accept them immediately). Default value is 5.
captcha: true|false
Simple web page that allows a user to fill a CAPTCHA challenge (see section 3.1.9).
certfile: Path
Full path to a file containing the default SSL certificate. To define a certificate file specific for a given domain, use the global option domain_certfile.
ciphers: Ciphers
OpenSSL ciphers list in the same format accepted by ‘openssl ciphers’ command.
protocol_options: ProtocolOpts
List of general options relating to SSL/TLS. These map to OpenSSL’s set_options(). For a full list of options available in ejabberd, see the source. The default entry is: "no_sslv2"
default_host: undefined|HostName}
If the HTTP request received by ejabberd contains the HTTP header Host with an ambiguous virtual host that doesn’t match any one defined in ejabberd (see 3.1.2), then this configured HostName is set as the request Host. The default value of this option is: undefined.
hosts: {Hostname: [HostOption, ...]}
The external Jabber component that connects to this ejabberd_service can serve one or more hostnames. As HostOption you can define options for the component; currently the only allowed option is the password required to the component when attempt to connect to ejabberd: password: Secret. Note that you cannot define in a single ejabberd_service components of different services: add an ejabberd_service for each service, as seen in an example below.
http_bind: true|false
This option enables HTTP Binding (XEP-0124 and XEP-0206) support. HTTP Bind enables access via HTTP requests to ejabberd from behind firewalls which do not allow outgoing sockets on port 5222.

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 XMPP client. Remark also that HTTP Bind can be interesting to host a web-based XMPP client such as JWChat (check the tutorials to install JWChat with ejabberd and an embedded local web server or Apache).

http_poll: true|false
This option enables HTTP Polling (XEP-0025) support. HTTP Polling enables access via HTTP requests to ejabberd from behind firewalls which do not allow outgoing sockets on port 5222.

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 XMPP client. Remark also that HTTP Polling can be interesting to host a web-based XMPP client such as JWChat.

The maximum period of time to keep a client session active without an incoming POST request can be configured with the global option http_poll_timeout. The default value is five minutes. The option can be defined in ejabberd.yml, expressing the time in seconds: {http_poll_timeout, 300}.

max_ack_queue: Size
This option specifies the maximum number of unacknowledged stanzas queued for possible retransmission if stream_management is enabled. When the limit is exceeded, the client session is terminated. This option can be specified for ejabberd_c2s listeners. The allowed values are positive integers and infinity. Default value: 500.
max_fsm_queue: Size
This option specifies the maximum number of elements in the queue of the FSM (Finite State Machine). Roughly speaking, each message in such queues represents one XML stanza queued to be sent into its relevant outgoing stream. If queue size reaches the limit (because, for example, the receiver of stanzas is too slow), the FSM and the corresponding connection (if any) will be terminated and error message will be logged. The reasonable value for this option depends on your hardware configuration. However, there is no much sense to set the size above 1000 elements. This option can be specified for ejabberd_service and ejabberd_c2s listeners, or also globally for ejabberd_s2s_out. If the option is not specified for ejabberd_service or ejabberd_c2s listeners, the globally configured value is used. The allowed values are integers and ’undefined’. Default value: ’undefined’.
max_stanza_size: Size
This option specifies an approximate maximum size in bytes of XML stanzas. Approximate, because it is calculated with the precision of one block of read data. For example {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.
request_handlers: {Path: Module}
To define one or several handlers that will serve HTTP requests. The Path is a string; so the URIs that start with that Path will be served by Module. For example, if you want mod_foo to serve the URIs that start with /a/b/, and you also want mod_http_bind to serve the URIs /http-bind/, use this option: 
request_handlers:
  /"a"/"b": mod_foo
  /"http-bind": mod_http_bind
resend_on_timeout: true|false
If stream_management is enabled and this option is set to true, any stanzas that weren’t acknowledged by the client will be resent on session timeout. This behavior might often be desired, but could have unexpected results under certain circumstances. For example, a message that was sent to two resources might get resent to one of them if the other one timed out. Therefore, the default value for this option is false, which tells ejabberd to generate an error message instead. The option can be specified for ejabberd_c2s listeners.
resume_timeout: Seconds
This option configures the number of seconds until a session times out if the connection is lost. During this period of time, a client may resume the session if stream_management is enabled. This option can be specified for ejabberd_c2s listeners. Setting it to 0 effectively disables session resumption. The default value is 300.
service_check_from: true|false
This option can be used with ejabberd_service only. XEP-0114 requires that the domain must match the hostname of the component. If this option is set to false, ejabberd will allow the component to send stanzas with any arbitrary domain in the ’from’ attribute. Only use this option if you are completely sure about it. The default value is true, to be compliant with XEP-0114.
shaper: none|ShaperName
This option defines a shaper for the port (see section 3.1.7). The default value is none.
shaper_rule: none|ShaperRule
This option defines a shaper rule for the ejabberd_service (see section 3.1.7). The recommended value is fast.
starttls: true|false
This option specifies that STARTTLS encryption is available on connections to the port. You should also set the certfile option. You can define a certificate file for a specific domain using the global option domain_certfile.
starttls_required: true|false
This option specifies that STARTTLS encryption is required on connections to the port. No unencrypted connections will be allowed. You should also set the certfile option. You can define a certificate file for a specific domain using the global option domain_certfile.
stream_management: true|false
Setting this option to false disables ejabberd’s support for . It can be specified for ejabberd_c2s listeners. The default value is true.
timeout: Integer
Timeout of the connections, expressed in milliseconds. Default: 5000
tls: true|false
This option specifies that traffic on the port will be encrypted using SSL immediately after connecting. This was the traditional encryption method in the early Jabber software, commonly on port 5223 for client-to-server communications. But this method is nowadays deprecated and not recommended. The preferable encryption method is STARTTLS on port 5222, as defined RFC 3920: XMPP Core, which can be enabled in ejabberd with the option starttls. If this option is set, you should also set the certfile option. The option tls can also be used in ejabberd_http to support HTTPS.
tls_compression: true|false
Whether to enable or disable TLS compression. The default value is true.
trusted_proxies: all | [IpString]
Specify what proxies are trusted when an HTTP request contains the header X-Forwarded-For You can specify all to allow all proxies, or specify a list of IPs in string format. The default value is: ["127.0.0.1"]
web_admin: true|false
This option enables the Web Admin for ejabberd administration which is available at 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.
zlib: true|false
This option specifies that Zlib stream compression (as defined in XEP-0138) is available on connections to the port.

There are some additional global options that can be specified in the ejabberd configuration file (outside listen):

s2s_use_starttls: false|optional|required|required_trusted
This option defines if s2s connections don’t use STARTTLS encryption; if STARTTLS can be used optionally; if STARTTLS is required to establish the connection; or if STARTTLS is required and the remote certificate must be valid and trusted. The default value is to not use STARTTLS: false.
s2s_certfile: Path
Full path to a file containing a SSL certificate.
domain_certfile: Path
Full path to the file containing the SSL certificate for a specific domain.
s2s_ciphers: Ciphers
OpenSSL ciphers list in the same format accepted by ‘openssl ciphers’ command.
s2s_protocol_options: ProtocolOpts
List of general options relating to SSL/TLS. These map to OpenSSL’s set_options(). For a full list of options available in ejabberd, see the source. The default entry is: "no_sslv2"
outgoing_s2s_families: [Family, ...]
Specify which address families to try, in what order. By default it first tries connecting with IPv4, if that fails it tries using IPv6.
outgoing_s2s_timeout: Timeout
The timeout in milliseconds for outgoing S2S connection attempts.
s2s_dns_timeout: Timeout
The timeout in seconds for DNS resolving. The default value is 10.
s2s_dns_retries: Number
DNS resolving retries in seconds. The default value is 2.
s2s_policy: Access
The policy for incoming and outgoing s2s connections to other XMPP servers. The default value is all.
s2s_max_retry_delay: Seconds
The maximum allowed delay for retry to connect after a failed connection attempt. Specified in seconds. The default value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
s2s_tls_compression: true|false
Whether to enable or disable TLS compression for s2s connections. The default value is true.
max_fsm_queue: Size
This option specifies the maximum number of elements in the queue of the FSM (Finite State Machine). Roughly speaking, each message in such queues represents one XML stanza queued to be sent into its relevant outgoing stream. If queue size reaches the limit (because, for example, the receiver of stanzas is too slow), the FSM and the corresponding connection (if any) will be terminated and error message will be logged. The reasonable value for this option depends on your hardware configuration. However, there is no much sense to set the size above 1000 elements. This option can be specified for ejabberd_service and ejabberd_c2s listeners, or also globally for ejabberd_s2s_out. If the option is not specified for ejabberd_service or ejabberd_c2s listeners, the globally configured value is used. The allowed values are integers and ’undefined’. Default value: ’undefined’.
route_subdomains: local|s2s
Defines if ejabberd must route stanzas directed to subdomains locally (compliant with RFC 3920: XMPP Core), or to foreign server using S2S (compliant with RFC 3920 bis).

Examples

For example, the following simple configuration defines: 

hosts:
  - "example.com"
  - "example.org"
  - "example.net"

listen:
  - 
    port: 5222
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    access: c2s
    shaper: c2s_shaper
    starttls: true
    certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"
    max_stanza_size: 65536
  - 
    port: 5223
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    access: c2s
    shaper: c2s_shaper
    tls: true
    certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"
    max_stanza_size: 65536
  - 
    port: 5269
    ip: "::"
    module: ejabberd_s2s_in
    shaper: s2s_shaper
    max_stanza_size: 131072
  - 
    port: 3478
    transport: udp
    module: ejabberd_stun
  - 
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    http_poll: true
  - 
    port: 5281
    ip: "127.0.0.1"
    module: ejabberd_http
    web_admin: true
    http_bind: true
    tls: true
    certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"

s2s_use_starttls: optional
s2s_certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"
host_config:
  "example.com":
    domain_certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/example_com.pem"
outgoing_s2s_families:
  - ipv4
  - ipv6
outgoing_s2s_timeout: 10000

In this example, the following configuration defines that: 

acl: 
  blocked: 
    user: "bad"
  trusted_servers: 
    server:
      - "example.com"
      - "jabber.example.org"
  xmlrpc_bot: 
    user: 
      - "xmlrpc-robot": "example.org"
shaper: 
  normal: 1000
access: 
  c2s: 
    blocked: deny
    all: allow
  c2s_shaper: 
    admin: none
    all: normal
  xmlrpc_access: 
    xmlrpc_bot: allow
  s2s:
    trusted_servers: allow
    all: deny
s2s_certfile: "/path/to/ssl.pem"
s2s_access: s2s
s2s_use_starttls: required_trusted
listen: 
  - 
    port: 5222
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    shaper: c2s_shaper
    access: c2s
  - 
    ip: "192.168.0.1"
    port: 5223
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    certfile: "/path/to/ssl.pem"
    tls: true
    access: c2s
  - 
    ip: "FDCA:8AB6:A243:75EF::1"
    port: 5223
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    certfile: "/path/to/ssl.pem"
    tls: true
    access: c2s
  - 
    port: 5269
    module: ejabberd_s2s_in
  - 
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    web_admin: true
    http_poll: true
  - 
    port: 4560
    module: ejabberd_xmlrpc
  - 
    ip: "127.0.0.1"
    port: 5233
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "aim.example.org": 
        password: "aimsecret"
  - 
    ip: "::1"
    port: 5233
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "aim.example.org": 
        password: "aimsecret"
  - 
    port: 5234
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "icq.example.org": 
        password: "jitsecret"
      "sms.example.org": 
        password: "jitsecret"
  - 
    port: 5235
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "msn.example.org": 
        password: "msnsecret"
  - 
    port: 5236
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "yahoo.example.org": 
        password: "yahoosecret"
  - 
    port: 5237
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "gg.example.org": 
        password: "ggsecret"
  - 
    port: 5238
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts: 
      "jmc.example.org": 
        password: "jmcsecret"
  - 
    port: 5239
    module: ejabberd_service
    service_check_from: false
    hosts: 
      "custom.example.org": 
        password: "customsecret"

Note, that for services based in jabberd14 or WPJabber 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 XMPP 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 jabberd14 -->
      <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>

3.1.5  Authentication

The option auth_method defines the authentication methods that are used for user authentication. The syntax is:

[Method, ...]

The following authentication methods are supported by ejabberd:

Account creation is only supported by internal, external and odbc methods.

The option resource_conflict defines the action when a client attempts to login to an account with a resource that is already connected. The option syntax is:

resource_conflict: setresource|closenew|closeold

The possible values match exactly the three possibilities described in XMPP Core: section 7.7.2.2. The default value is closeold. If the client uses old Jabber Non-SASL authentication (XEP-0078), then this option is not respected, and the action performed is closeold.

The option fqdn allows you to define the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the machine, in case it isn’t detected automatically. The FQDN is used to authenticate some clients that use the DIGEST-MD5 SASL mechanism. The option syntax is:

fqdn: undefined|FqdnString|[FqdnString]

Internal

ejabberd uses its internal Mnesia database as the default authentication method. The value internal will enable the internal authentication method.

The option auth_password_format: plain|scram defines in what format the users passwords are stored:

plain
The password is stored as plain text in the database. This is risky because the passwords can be read if your database gets compromised. This is the default value. This format allows clients to authenticate using: the old Jabber Non-SASL (XEP-0078), SASL PLAIN, SASL DIGEST-MD5, and SASL SCRAM-SHA-1.
scram
The password is not stored, only some information that allows to verify the hash provided by the client. It is impossible to obtain the original plain password from the stored information; for this reason, when this value is configured it cannot be changed to plain anymore. This format allows clients to authenticate using: SASL PLAIN and SASL SCRAM-SHA-1.

Examples:

External Script

In this authentication method, when ejabberd starts, it start a script, and calls it to perform authentication tasks.

The server administrator can write the external authentication script in any language. The details on the interface between ejabberd and the script are described in the ejabberd Developers Guide. There are also several example authentication scripts.

These are the specific options:

extauth_program: PathToScript
Indicate in this option the full path to the external authentication script. The script must be executable by ejabberd.
extauth_instances: Integer
Indicate how many instances of the script to run simultaneously to serve authentication in the virtual host. The default value is the minimum number: 1.
extauth_cache: false|CacheTimeInteger
The value false disables the caching feature, this is the default. The integer 0 (zero) enables caching for statistics, but doesn’t use that cached information to authenticate users. If another integer value is set, caching is enabled both for statistics and for authentication: the CacheTimeInteger indicates the number of seconds that ejabberd can reuse the authentication information since the user last disconnected, to verify again the user authentication without querying again the extauth script. Note: caching should not be enabled in a host if internal auth is also enabled. If caching is enabled, mod_last must be enabled also in that vhost.

This example sets external authentication, the extauth script, enables caching for 10 minutes, and starts three instances of the script for each virtual host defined in ejabberd: 

auth_method: [external]
extauth_program: "/etc/ejabberd/JabberAuth.class.php"
extauth_cache: 600
extauth_instances: 3

Anonymous Login and SASL Anonymous

The anonymous authentication method enables two modes for anonymous authentication:

Anonymous login:
This is a standard login, that use the classical login and password mechanisms, but where password is accepted or preconfigured for all anonymous users. This login is compliant with SASL authentication, password and digest non-SASL authentication, so this option will work with almost all XMPP clients
SASL Anonymous:
This is a special SASL authentication mechanism that allows to login without providing username or password (see XEP-0175). The main advantage of SASL Anonymous is that the protocol was designed to give the user a login. This is useful to avoid in some case, where the server has many users already logged or registered and when it is hard to find a free username. The main disavantage is that you need a client that specifically supports the SASL Anonymous protocol.

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 3.1.3).

allow_multiple_connections: false|true
This option is only used when the anonymous mode is enabled. Setting it to true means that the same username can be taken multiple times in anonymous login mode if different resource are used to connect. This option is only useful in very special occasions. The default value is false.
anonymous_protocol: login_anon | sasl_anon | both
login_anon means that the anonymous login method will be used. sasl_anon means that the SASL Anonymous method will be used. both means that SASL Anonymous and login anonymous are both enabled.

Those options are defined for each virtual host with the host_config parameter (see section 3.1.3).

Examples:

There are more configuration examples and XMPP client example stanzas in Anonymous users support.

PAM Authentication

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:

pam_service: Name
This option defines the PAM service name. Default is "ejabberd". Refer to the PAM documentation of your operation system for more information.
pam_userinfotype: username|jid
This option defines what type of information about the user ejabberd provides to the PAM service: only the username, or the user JID. Default is username.

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:

3.1.6  Access Rules

ACL Definition

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: ACLValue } }

ACLType: ACLValue can be one of the following:

all
Matches all JIDs. Example: 
acl:
  world: all
user: Username
Matches the user with the name Username at the first virtual host. Example: 
acl:
  admin:
    user: "yozhik"
user: {Username: Server}
Matches the user with the JID Username@Server and any resource. Example: 
acl:
  admin:
    user:
      "yozhik": "example.org"
server: Server
Matches any JID from server Server. Example: 
acl:
  exampleorg:
    server: "example.org"
resource: Resource
Matches any JID with a resource Resource. Example: 
acl:
  mucklres:
   resource: "muckl"
shared_group: Groupname
Matches any member of a Shared Roster Group with name Groupname in the virtual host. Example: 
acl:
  techgroupmembers:
    shared_group: "techteam"
shared_group: {Groupname: Server}
Matches any member of a Shared Roster Group with name Groupname in the virtual host Server. Example: 
acl:
  techgroupmembers:
    shared_group:
      "techteam": "example.org"
ip: Network
Matches any IP address from the Network. Example: 
acl:
  loopback:
    ip:
      - "127.0.0.0/8"
      - "::"
user_regexp: Regexp
Matches any local user with a name that matches Regexp on local virtual hosts. Example: 
acl:
  tests:
    user_regexp: "^test[0-9]*$"
user_regexp: {Regexp: Server}
Matches any user with a name that matches Regexp at server Server. Example: 
acl:
  tests:
    user_regexp:
      "^test": "example.org"
server_regexp: Regexp
Matches any JID from the server that matches Regexp. Example: 
acl:
  icq:
    server_regexp: "^icq\\."
resource_regexp: Regexp
Matches any JID with a resource that matches Regexp. Example: 
acl:
  icq:
    resource_regexp: "^laptop\\."
node_regexp: {UserRegexp: ServerRegexp}
Matches any user with a name that matches UserRegexp at any server that matches ServerRegexp. Example: 
acl:
  yozhik:
    node_regexp:
      "^yozhik$": "^example.(com|org)$"
user_glob: Glob}
user_glob: {Glob: Server}
server_glob: Glob
resource_glob: Glob
node_glob: {UserGlob: ServerGlob}
This is the same as above. However, it uses shell glob patterns instead of regexp. These patterns can have the following special characters:
*
matches any string including the null string.
?
matches any single character.
[...]
matches any of the enclosed characters. Character ranges are specified by a pair of characters separated by a ‘-’. If the first character after ‘[’ is a ‘!’, any character not enclosed is matched.

The following ACLName are pre-defined:

all
Matches any JID.
none
Matches no JID.

Access Rights

An entry allowing or denying access to different services. The syntax is:

access: { AccessName: { ACLName: allow|deny } }

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 first elements of the tuples in the list. If it matches, the second element of the first matched tuple is returned, otherwise the value ‘deny’ is returned.

If you define specific Access rights in a virtual host, remember that the globally defined Access rights have precedence over those. This means that, in case of conflict, the Access granted or denied in the global server is used and the Access of a virtual host doesn’t have effect.

Example: 

access:
  configure:
    admin: allow
  something
    badmans: deny
    all: allow

The following AccessName are pre-defined:

all
Always returns the value ‘allow’.
none
Always returns the value ‘deny’.

Limiting Opened Sessions with ACL

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:

{ max_user_sessions: { ACLName: MaxNumber } }

This example limits the number of sessions per user to 5 for all users, and to 10 for admins: 

access:
  max_user_sessions:
    admin: 10
    all: 5

Several connections to a remote XMPP server with ACL

The special access max_s2s_connections specifies how many simultaneous S2S connections can be established to a specific remote XMPP server. The default value is 1. There’s also available the access max_s2s_connections_per_node.

The syntax is:

{ max_s2s_connections: { ACLName: MaxNumber } }

Examples:

3.1.7  Shapers

Shapers enable you to limit connection traffic. The syntax is:

shaper: { ShaperName: Rate }

where Rate stands for the maximum allowed incoming rate in bytes per second. When a connection exceeds this limit, ejabberd stops reading from the socket until the average rate is again below the allowed maximum.

Examples:

3.1.8  Default Language

The option language defines the default language of server strings that can be seen by XMPP clients. If a XMPP client does not support xml:lang, the specified language is used.

The option syntax is:

language: Language

The default value is en. In order to take effect there must be a translation file Language.msg in ejabberd’s msgs directory.

For example, to set Russian as default language: 

language: "ru"

Appendix A provides more details about internationalization and localization.

3.1.9  CAPTCHA

Some ejabberd modules can be configured to require a CAPTCHA challenge on certain actions. If the client does not support CAPTCHA Forms (XEP-0158), a web link is provided so the user can fill the challenge in a web browser.

An example script is provided that generates the image using ImageMagick’s Convert program.

The configurable options are:

captcha_cmd: Path
Full path to a script that generates the image. The default value disables the feature: undefined
captcha_host: ProtocolHostPort
ProtocolHostPort is a string with the host, and optionally the Protocol and Port number. It must identify where ejabberd listens for CAPTCHA requests. The URL sent to the user is formed by: Protocol://Host:Port/captcha/ The default value is: protocol http, the first hostname configured, and port 80. If you specify a port number that does not match exactly an ejabberd listener (because you are using a reverse proxy or other port-forwarding tool), then you must specify the transfer protocol, as seen in the example below.

Additionally, an ejabberd_http listener must be enabled with the captcha option. See section 3.1.4.

Example configuration: 

hosts: ["example.org"]

captcha_cmd: "/lib/ejabberd/priv/bin/captcha.sh"
captcha_host: "example.org:5280"
## captcha_host: "https://example.org:443"
## captcha_host: "http://example.com"

listen:
  ...
  -
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    captcha: true
  ...

3.1.10  STUN and TURN

ejabberd is able to act as a stand-alone STUN/TURN server (RFC 5389/RFC 5766). In that role ejabberd helps clients with ICE (RFC 5245) or Jingle ICE (XEP-0176) support to discover their external addresses and ports and to relay media traffic when it is impossible to establish direct peer-to-peer connection.

You should configure ejabberd_stun listening module as described in 3.1.4 section. The specific configurable options are:

tls: true|false
If enabled, certfile option must be set, otherwise ejabberd will not be able to accept TLS connections. Obviously, this option makes sense for tcp transport only. The default is false.
certfile: Path
Path to the certificate file. Only makes sense when tls is set.
use_turn: true|false
Enables/disables TURN (media relay) functionality. The default is false.
turn_ip: String
The IPv4 address advertised by your TURN server. The address should not be NAT’ed or firewalled. There is not default, so you should set this option explicitly. Implies use_turn.
turn_min_port: Integer
Together with turn_max_port forms port range to allocate from. The default is 49152. Implies use_turn.
turn_max_port: Integer
Together with turn_min_port forms port range to allocate from. The default is 65535. Implies use_turn.
turn_max_allocations: Integer|unlimited
Maximum number of TURN allocations available from the particular IP address. The default value is 10. Implies use_turn.
turn_max_permissions: Integer|unlimited
Maximum number of TURN permissions available from the particular IP address. The default value is 10. Implies use_turn.
auth_type: user|anonymous
Which authentication type to use for TURN allocation requests. When type user is set, ejabberd authentication backend is used. For anonymous type no authentication is performed (not recommended for public services). The default is user. Implies use_turn.
auth_realm: String
When auth_type is set to user and you have several virtual hosts configured you should set this option explicitly to the virtual host you want to serve on this particular listening port. Implies use_turn.
shaper: Atom
For tcp transports defines shaper to use. The default is none.
server_name: String
Defines software version to return with every response. The default is the STUN library version.

Example configuration with disabled TURN functionality (STUN only): 

listen:
  ...
  - 
    port: 3478
    transport: udp
    module: ejabberd_stun
  - 
    port: 3478
    module: ejabberd_stun
  -
    port: 5349
    module: ejabberd_stun
    certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"
  ...

Example configuration with TURN functionality. Note that STUN is always enabled if TURN is enabled. Here, only UDP section is shown: 

listen:
  ...
  - 
    port: 3478
    transport: udp
    use_turn: true
    turn_ip: 10.20.30.1
    module: ejabberd_stun
  ...

You also need to configure DNS SRV records properly so clients can easily discover a STUN/TURN server serving your XMPP domain. Refer to section DNS Discovery of a Server of RFC 5389 and section Creating an Allocation of RFC 5766 for details.

Example DNS SRV configuration for STUN only: 

_stun._udp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 stun.example.com.
_stun._tcp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 stun.example.com.
_stuns._tcp  IN SRV  0 0 5349 stun.example.com.

And you should also add these in the case if TURN is enabled: 

_turn._udp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 turn.example.com.
_turn._tcp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 turn.example.com.
_turns._tcp  IN SRV  0 0 5349 turn.example.com.

3.1.11  SIP

ejabberd has built-in SIP support. In order to activate it you need to add listeners for it, configure DNS properly and enable mod_sip for the desired virtual host.

To add a listener you should configure ejabberd_sip listening module as described in 3.1.4 section. If option tls is specified, option certfile must be specified as well, otherwise incoming TLS connections would fail.

Example configuration with standard ports (as per RFC 3261): 

listen:
  ...
  - 
    port: 5060
    transport: udp
    module: ejabberd_sip
  - 
    port: 5060
    module: ejabberd_sip
  -
    port: 5061
    module: ejabberd_sip
    tls: true
    certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/server.pem"
  ...

Note that there is no StartTLS support in SIP and SNI support is somewhat tricky, so for TLS you have to configure different virtual hosts on different ports if you have different certificate files for them.

Next you need to configure DNS SIP records for your virtual domains. Refer to RFC 3263 for the detailed explanation. Simply put, you should add NAPTR and SRV records for your domains. Skip NAPTR configuration if your DNS provider doesn’t support this type of records. It’s not fatal, however, highly recommended.

Example configuration of NAPTR records: 

example.com IN NAPTR 10  0 "s" "SIPS+D2T" "" _sips._tcp.example.com.
example.com IN NAPTR 20  0 "s" "SIP+D2T" "" _sip._tcp.example.com.
example.com IN NAPTR 30  0 "s" "SIP+D2U" "" _sip._udp.example.com.

Example configuration of SRV records with standard ports (as per RFC 3261): 

_sip._udp   IN SRV  0 0 5060 sip.example.com.
_sip._tcp   IN SRV  0 0 5060 sip.example.com.
_sips._tcp  IN SRV  0 0 5061 sip.example.com.

3.1.12  Include Additional Configuration Files

The option include_config_file in a configuration file instructs ejabberd to include other configuration files immediately.

The basic syntax is:

include_config_file: [Filename]

It is possible to specify suboptions using the full syntax:

include_config_file: { Filename: [Suboption, ...] }

The filename can be indicated either as an absolute path, or relative to the main ejabberd configuration file. It isn’t possible to use wildcards. The file must exist and be readable.

The allowed suboptions are:

disallow: [Optionname, ...]
Disallows the usage of those options in the included configuration file. The options that match this criteria are not accepted. The default value is an empty list: []
allow_only: [Optionname, ...]
Allows only the usage of those options in the included configuration file. The options that do not match this criteria are not accepted. The default value is: all

This is a basic example: 

include_config_file: "/etc/ejabberd/additional.yml"

In this example, the included file is not allowed to contain a listen option. If such an option is present, the option will not be accepted. The file is in a subdirectory from where the main configuration file is. 

include_config_file:
  "./example.org/additional_not_listen.yml":
    disallow: [listen]

In this example, ejabberd.yml defines some ACL and Access rules, and later includes another file with additional rules: 

acl:
  admin:
    user:
      - "admin": "localhost"
access:
  announce:
    admin: allow
include_config_file:
  "/etc/ejabberd/acl_and_access.yml":
    allow_only:
      - acl
      - access

and content of the file acl_and_access.yml can be, for example: 

acl:
  admin:
    user:
      - "bob": "localhost"
      - "jan": "localhost"

3.1.13  Option Macros in Configuration File

In the ejabberd configuration file, it is possible to define a macro for a value and later use this macro when defining an option.

A macro is defined with this syntax:

define_macro: { ’MACRO’: Value }

The MACRO must be surrounded by single quotation marks, and all letters in uppercase; check the examples bellow. The value can be any valid arbitrary Erlang term.

The first definition of a macro is preserved, and additional definitions of the same macro are forgotten.

Macros are processed after additional configuration files have been included, so it is possible to use macros that are defined in configuration files included before the usage.

It isn’t possible to use a macro in the definition of another macro.

This example shows the basic usage of a macro: 

define_macro:
  'LOG_LEVEL_NUMBER': 5
loglevel: 'LOG_LEVEL_NUMBER'

The resulting option interpreted by ejabberd is: loglevel: 5.

This example shows that values can be any arbitrary Erlang term: 

define_macro:
  'USERBOB':
    user:
      - "bob": "localhost"
acl:
  admin: 'USERBOB'

The resulting option interpreted by ejabberd is: 

acl:
  admin:
    user:
      - "bob": "localhost"

This complex example: 

define_macro:
  'NUMBER_PORT_C2S': 5222
  'NUMBER_PORT_HTTP': 5280
listen:
  - 
    port: 'NUMBER_PORT_C2S'
    module: ejabberd_c2s
  - 
    port: 'NUMBER_PORT_HTTP'
    module: ejabberd_http

produces this result after being interpreted: 

listen:
  - 
    port: 5222
    module: ejabberd_c2s
  - 
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http

3.2  Database and LDAP Configuration

ejabberd uses its internal Mnesia database by default. However, it is possible to use a relational database, key-value storage 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:

Important note about virtual hosting: if you define several domains in ejabberd.yml (see section 3.1.2), you probably want that each virtual host uses a different configuration of database, authentication and storage, so that usernames do not conflict and mix between different virtual hosts. For that purpose, the options described in the next sections must be set inside a host_config for each vhost (see section 3.1.3). For example: 

host_config:
  "public.example.org":
    odbc_type: pgsql
    odbc_server: "localhost"
    odbc_database: "database-public-example-org"
    odbc_username: "ejabberd"
    odbc_password: "password"
    auth_method: [odbc]

3.2.1  ODBC

The actual database access is defined in the options with odbc_ prefix. The values are used to define if we want to use ODBC, or one of the two native interface available, PostgreSQL or MySQL.

The following paramaters are available:

odbc_type: mysql | pgsql | odbc
The type of an ODBC connection. The default is odbc.
odbc_server: String
A hostname of the ODBC server. The default is ‘‘localhost’’.
odbc_port: Port
The port where the ODBC server is accepting connections. The option is only valid for mysql and pgsql. The default is 3306 and 5432 respectively.
odbc_database: String
The database name. The default is ‘‘ejabberd’’. The option is only valid for mysql and pgsql.
odbc_username: String
The username. The default is ‘‘ejabberd’’. The option is only valid for mysql and pgsql.
odbc_password: String
The password. The default is empty string. The option is only valid for mysql and pgsql.
odbc_pool_size: N
By default ejabberd opens 10 connections to the database for each virtual host. You can change this number by using this option.
odbc_keepalive_interval: N
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_start_interval: N
If the connection to the database fails, ejabberd waits 30 seconds before retrying. You can modify this interval with this option.

Example of plain ODBC connection: 

odbc_server: "DSN=database;UID=ejabberd;PWD=password"

Example of MySQL connection: 

odbc_type: mysql
odbc_server: "server.company.com"
odbc_port: 3306 # the default
odbc_database: "mydb"
odbc_username: "user1"
odbc_password: "**********"
odbc_pool_size: 5

Storage

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 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 add the module option db_type: odbc.

3.2.2  LDAP

ejabberd has built-in LDAP support. You can authenticate users against LDAP server and use LDAP directory as vCard storage.

Usually ejabberd treats LDAP as a read-only storage: it is possible to consult data, but not possible to create accounts or edit vCard that is stored in LDAP. However, it is possible to change passwords if mod_register module is enabled and LDAP server supports RFC 3062.

Connection

Two connections are established to the LDAP server per vhost, one for authentication and other for regular calls.

Parameters:

ldap_servers: [Servers, ...]
List of IP addresses or DNS names of your LDAP servers. This option is required.
ldap_encrypt: none|tls
Type of connection encryption to the LDAP server. Allowed values are: none, tls. The value tls enables encryption by using LDAP over SSL. Note that STARTTLS encryption is not supported. The default value is: none.
ldap_tls_verify: false|soft|hard
This option specifies whether to verify LDAP server certificate or not when TLS is enabled. When hard is enabled ejabberd doesn’t proceed if a certificate is invalid. When soft is enabled ejabberd proceeds even if check fails. The default is false which means no checks are performed.
ldap_tls_cacertfile: Path
Path to file containing PEM encoded CA certificates. This option is needed (and required) when TLS verification is enabled.
ldap_tls_depth: Number
Specifies the maximum verification depth when TLS verification is enabled, i.e. how far in a chain of certificates the verification process can proceed before the verification is considered to fail. Peer certificate = 0, CA certificate = 1, higher level CA certificate = 2, etc. The value 2 thus means that a chain can at most contain peer cert, CA cert, next CA cert, and an additional CA cert. The default value is 1.
ldap_port: Number
Port to connect to your LDAP server. The default port is 389 if encryption is disabled; and 636 if encryption is enabled. If you configure a value, it is stored in ejabberd’s database. Then, if you remove that value from the configuration file, the value previously stored in the database will be used instead of the default port.
ldap_rootdn: RootDN
Bind DN. The default value is "" which means ‘anonymous connection’.
ldap_password: Password
Bind password. The default value is "".
ldap_deref_aliases: never|always|finding|searching
Whether or not to dereference aliases. The default is never.

Example: 

auth_method: [ldap]
ldap_servers:
  - "ldap1.example.org"
ldap_port: 389
ldap_rootdn: "cn=Manager,dc=domain,dc=org"
ldap_password: "**********"

Authentication

You can authenticate users against an LDAP directory. Note that current LDAP implementation does not support SASL authentication.

Available options are:

ldap_base: Base
LDAP base directory which stores users accounts. This option is required.
ldap_uids: [ ldap_uidattr | {ldap_uidattr: ldap_uidattr_format} ]
LDAP attribute which holds a list of attributes to use as alternatives for getting the JID. The default attributes are [{"uid", "%u"}]. The attributes are of the form: [{ldap_uidattr}] or [{ldap_uidattr, ldap_uidattr_format}]. You can use as many comma separated attributes as needed. The values for ldap_uidattr and ldap_uidattr_format are described as follow:
ldap_uidattr
LDAP attribute which holds the user’s part of a JID. The default value is "uid".
ldap_uidattr_format
Format of the ldap_uidattr variable. The format must contain one and only one pattern variable "%u" which will be replaced by the user’s part of a JID. For example, "%u@example.org". The default value is "%u".
ldap_filter: Filter
RFC 4515 LDAP filter. The default Filter value is: undefined. Example: "(&(objectClass=shadowAccount)(memberOf=Jabber Users))". Please, do not forget to close brackets and do not use superfluous whitespaces. Also you must not use ldap_uidattr attribute in filter because this attribute will be substituted in LDAP filter automatically.
ldap_dn_filter: { Filter: FilterAttrs }
This filter is applied on the results returned by the main filter. This filter performs additional LDAP lookup to make the complete result. This is useful when you are unable to define all filter rules in ldap_filter. You can define "%u", "%d", "%s" and "%D" pattern variables in Filter: "%u" is replaced by a user’s part of a JID, "%d" is replaced by the corresponding domain (virtual host), all "%s" variables are consecutively replaced by values of FilterAttrs attributes and "%D" is replaced by Distinguished Name. By default ldap_dn_filter is undefined. Example: 
ldap_dn_filter:
  "(&(name=%s)(owner=%D)(user=%u@%d))": ["sn"]
Since this filter makes additional LDAP lookups, use it only in the last resort: try to define all filter rules in ldap_filter if possible.
{ldap_local_filter, Filter}
If you can’t use ldap_filter due to performance reasons (the LDAP server has many users registered), you can use this local filter. The local filter checks an attribute in ejabberd, not in LDAP, so this limits the load on the LDAP directory. The default filter is: undefined. Example values: 
{ldap_local_filter, {notequal, {"accountStatus",["disabled"]}}}.
{ldap_local_filter, {equal, {"accountStatus",["enabled"]}}}.
{ldap_local_filter, undefined}.

Examples

Common example

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. The connection to the LDAP server is encrypted using TLS, and using the custom port 6123. 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"
ldap_encrypt: tls
ldap_port: 6123
## 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

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"
  ...

3.2.3  Riak

Riak is a distributed NoSQL key-value data store. The actual database access is defined in the options with riak_ prefix.

Connection

The following paramaters are available:

riak_server: String
A hostname of the Riak server. The default is ‘‘localhost’’.
riak_port: Port
The port where the Riak server is accepting connections. The defalt is 8087.
riak_pool_size: N
By default ejabberd opens 10 connections to the Riak server. You can change this number by using this option.
riak_start_interval: N
If the connection to the Riak server fails, ejabberd waits 30 seconds before retrying. You can modify this interval with this option.

Example configuration: 

riak_server: "riak.server.com"
riak_port: 9097

Storage

Several ejabberd modules can be used to store information in Riak database. Refer to the corresponding module documentation to see if it supports such ability. To enable storage to Riak database, just make sure that your database is running well (see the next section), and add the module option db_type: riak.

Riak Configuration

First, you need to configure Riak to use LevelDB as a database backend.

If you are using Riak 2.x and higher, configure storage_backend option of /etc/riak/riak.conf as follows: 

...
storage_backend = leveldb
...

If you are using Riak 1.4.x and older, configure storage_backend option of /etc/riak/app.config in the section riak_kv as follows: 

...
 {riak_kv, [
            ...
            {storage_backend, riak_kv_eleveldb_backend},
...

Second, Riak should be pointed to ejabberd Erlang binary files (*.beam). As described in 2.4.4, by default those are located in /lib/ejabberd/ebin directory. So you should add the following to /etc/riak/vm.args: 

...
## Path to ejabberd beams in order to make map/reduce
-pz /lib/ejabberd/ebin
...

Important notice: make sure Riak has at least read access to that directory. Otherwise its startup will likely fail.

3.3  Modules Configuration

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.

The syntax is:

modules: { ModuleName: ModuleOptions }

Examples:

3.3.1  Modules Overview

The following table lists all modules included in ejabberd.

ModuleFeatureDependencies
mod_adhocAd-Hoc Commands (XEP-0050) 
mod_announceManage announcementsrecommends mod_adhoc
mod_blockingSimple Communications Blocking (XEP-0191)mod_privacy
mod_capsEntity Capabilities (XEP-0115) 
mod_carboncopyMessage Carbons (XEP-0280) 
mod_configureServer configuration using Ad-Hocmod_adhoc
mod_discoService Discovery (XEP-0030) 
mod_echoEchoes XMPP stanzas 
mod_http_bindXMPP over Bosh service (HTTP Binding) 
mod_http_fileserverSmall HTTP file server 
mod_ircIRC transport 
mod_lastLast Activity (XEP-0012) 
mod_mucMulti-User Chat (XEP-0045) 
mod_muc_logMulti-User Chat room loggingmod_muc
mod_offlineOffline message storage (XEP-0160) 
mod_pingXMPP Ping and periodic keepalives (XEP-0199) 
mod_pres_counterDetect presence subscription flood 
mod_privacyBlocking Communication (XEP-0016) 
mod_privatePrivate XML Storage (XEP-0049) 
mod_proxy65SOCKS5 Bytestreams (XEP-0065) 
mod_pubsubPub-Sub (XEP-0060), PEP (XEP-0163)mod_caps
mod_pubsub_odbcPub-Sub (XEP-0060), PEP (XEP-0163)supported DB (*) and mod_caps
mod_registerIn-Band Registration (XEP-0077) 
mod_register_webWeb for Account Registrations 
mod_rosterRoster management (XMPP IM) 
mod_service_logCopy user messages to logger service 
mod_shared_rosterShared roster managementmod_roster
mod_shared_roster_ldapLDAP Shared roster managementmod_roster
mod_sicServer IP Check (XEP-0279) 
mod_sipSIP Registrar/Proxy (RFC 3261)ejabberd_sip
mod_statsStatistics Gathering (XEP-0039) 
mod_timeEntity Time (XEP-0202) 
mod_vcardvcard-temp (XEP-0054) 
mod_vcard_ldapvcard-temp (XEP-0054)LDAP server
mod_vcard_xupdatevCard-Based Avatars (XEP-0153)mod_vcard
mod_versionSoftware Version (XEP-0092) 

You can see which database backend each module needs by looking at the suffix:

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!

3.3.2  Common Options

The following options are used by many modules. Therefore, they are described in this separate section.

iqdisc

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.

The syntax is:

iqdisc: Value

Possible Value are:

no_queue
All queries of a namespace with this processing discipline are processed directly. This means that the XMPP connection that sends this IQ query gets blocked: no other packets can be processed until this one has been completely processed. Hence this discipline is not recommended if the processing of a query can take a relatively long time.
one_queue
In this case a separate queue is created for the processing of IQ queries of a namespace with this discipline. In addition, the processing of this queue is done in parallel with that of other packets. This discipline is most recommended.
N
N separate queues are created to process the queries. The queries are thus processed in parallel, but in a controlled way.
parallel
For every packet with this discipline a separate Erlang process is spawned. Consequently, all these packets are processed in parallel. Although spawning of Erlang process has a relatively low cost, this can break the server’s normal work, because the Erlang emulator has a limit on the number of processes (32000 by default).

Example: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_time:
    iqdisc: no_queue
  ...

host

This option defines the Jabber ID of a service provided by an ejabberd module.

The syntax is:

host: HostName

If you include the keyword "@HOST@" in the HostName, it 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@"
  ...

3.3.3  mod_announce

This module enables configured users to broadcast announcements and to set the message of the day (MOTD). Configured users can perform these actions with a XMPP client either using Ad-hoc commands or sending messages to specific JIDs.

The Ad-hoc commands are listed in the Server Discovery. For this feature to work, mod_adhoc must be enabled.

The specific JIDs where messages can be sent are listed bellow. The first JID in each entry will apply only to the specified virtual host example.org, while the JID between brackets will apply to all virtual hosts in ejabberd.

example.org/announce/all (example.org/announce/all-hosts/all)
The message is sent to all registered users. If the user is online and connected to several resources, only the resource with the highest priority will receive the message. If the registered user is not connected, the message will be stored offline in assumption that offline storage (see section 3.3.12) is enabled.
example.org/announce/online (example.org/announce/all-hosts/online)
The message is sent to all connected users. If the user is online and connected to several resources, all resources will receive the message.
example.org/announce/motd (example.org/announce/all-hosts/motd)
The message is set as the message of the day (MOTD) and is sent to users when they login. In addition the message is sent to all connected users (similar to announce/online).
example.org/announce/motd/update (example.org/announce/all-hosts/motd/update)
The message is set as message of the day (MOTD) and is sent to users when they login. The message is not sent to any currently connected user.
example.org/announce/motd/delete (example.org/announce/all-hosts/motd/delete)
Any message sent to this JID removes the existing message of the day (MOTD).

Options:

db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.
access: AccessName
This option specifies who is allowed to send announcements and to set the message of the day (by default, nobody is able to send such messages).

Examples:

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.

3.3.4  mod_disco

This module adds support for Service Discovery (XEP-0030). With this module enabled, services on your server can be discovered by XMPP clients. Note that ejabberd has no modules with support for the superseded Jabber Browsing (XEP-0011) and Agent Information (XEP-0094). Accordingly, XMPP clients need to have support for the newer Service Discovery protocol if you want them be able to discover the services you offer.

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Service Discovery (http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#items and http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
extra_domains: [Domain, ...]
With this option, you can specify a list of extra domains that are added to the Service Discovery item list.
server_info: [ { modules: Modules, name: Name, urls: [URL, ...] } ]
Specify additional information about the server, as described in Contact Addresses for XMPP Services (XEP-0157). Modules can be the keyword ‘all’, in which case the information is reported in all the services; or a list of ejabberd modules, in which case the information is only specified for the services provided by those modules. Any arbitrary Name and URL can be specified, not only contact addresses.

Examples:

3.3.5  mod_echo

This module simply echoes any XMPP packet back to the sender. This mirror can be of interest for ejabberd and XMPP client debugging.

Options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘echo.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name.

Example: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the most beautiful of them all? 

modules:
  ...
  mod_echo:
    host: "mirror.example.org"
  ...

3.3.6  mod_http_bind

This module implements XMPP over Bosh (formerly known as HTTP Binding) as defined in XEP-0124 and 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:
  ...
  - 
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    http_bind: true
    http_poll: true
    web_admin: true
  ...

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 XMPP 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:
  ...
  - 
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    request_handlers:
       "/http-bind": mod_http_bind
    http_poll: true
    web_admin: true
  ...

Options:

{max_inactivity, Seconds}
Define the maximum inactivity period in seconds. Default value is 30 seconds. For example, to set 50 seconds: 
modules:
  ...
  mod_http_bind:
    max_inactivity: 50
  ...

3.3.7  mod_http_fileserver

This simple module serves files from the local disk over HTTP.

Options:

docroot: Path
Directory to serve the files.
accesslog: Path
File to log accesses using an Apache-like format. No log will be recorded if this option is not specified.
directory_indices: [Index, ...]
Indicate one or more directory index files, similarly to Apache’s DirectoryIndex variable. When a web request hits a directory instead of a regular file, those directory indices are looked in order, and the first one found is returned.
custom_headers: {Name: Value}
Indicate custom HTTP headers to be included in all responses. Default value is: []
content_types: {Name: Type}
Specify mappings of extension to content type. There are several content types already defined, with this option you can add new definitions, modify or delete existing ones. To delete an existing definition, simply define it with a value: ‘undefined’.
default_content_type: Type
Specify the content type to use for unknown extensions. Default value is ‘application/octet-stream’.

This example configuration will serve the files from the local directory /var/www in the address http://example.org:5280/pub/archive/. In this example a new content type ogg is defined, png is redefined, and jpg definition is deleted. To use this module you must enable it: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_http_fileserver:
    docroot: "/var/www"
    accesslog: "/var/log/ejabberd/access.log"
    directory_indices:
      - "index.html"
      - "main.htm"
    custom_headers:
      "X-Powered-By": "Erlang/OTP"
      "X-Fry": "It's a widely-believed fact!"
    content_types:
      ".ogg": "audio/ogg"
      ".png": "image/png"
      ".jpg": undefined
    default_content_type: "text/html"
  ...

And define it as a handler in the HTTP service: 

listen:
  ...
  - 
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    request_handlers:
      ...
      "/pub/archive": mod_http_fileserver
      ...
  ...

3.3.8  mod_irc

This module is an IRC transport that can be used to join channels on IRC servers.

End user information:

Options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘irc.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name.
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.
access: AccessName
This option can be used to specify who may use the IRC transport (default value: all).
default_encoding: Encoding
Set the default IRC encoding. Default value: "iso8859-1"

Examples:

3.3.9  mod_last

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:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Last activity (jabber:iq:last) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.

3.3.10  mod_muc

This module provides a Multi-User Chat (XEP-0045) service. Users can discover existing rooms, join or create them. Occupants of a room can chat in public or have private chats.

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 XMPP client and register in 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 rooms 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.

Module options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘conference.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name.
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.
access: AccessName
You can specify who is allowed to use the Multi-User Chat service. By default everyone is allowed to use it.
access_create: AccessName
To configure who is allowed to create new rooms at the Multi-User Chat service, this option can be used. By default any account in the local ejabberd server is allowed to create rooms.
access_persistent: AccessName
To configure who is allowed to modify the ’persistent’ room option. By default any account in the local ejabberd server is allowed to modify that option.
access_admin: AccessName
This option specifies who is allowed to administrate the Multi-User Chat service. The default value is none, which means that only the room creator can administer his room. The administrators can send a normal message to the service JID, and it will be shown in all active rooms as a service message. The administrators can send a groupchat message to the JID of an active room, and the message will be shown in the room as a service message.
history_size: Size
A small history of the current discussion is sent to users when they enter the room. With this option you can define the number of history messages to keep and send to users joining the room. The value is an integer. Setting the value to 0 disables the history feature and, as a result, nothing is kept in memory. The default value is 20. This value is global and thus affects all rooms on the service.
max_users: Number
This option defines at the service level, the maximum number of users allowed per room. It can be lowered in each room configuration but cannot be increased in individual room configuration. The default value is 200.
max_users_admin_threshold: Number
This option defines the number of service admins or room owners allowed to enter the room when the maximum number of allowed occupants was reached. The default limit is 5.
max_user_conferences: Number
This option defines the maximum number of rooms that any given user can join. The default value is 10. This option is used to prevent possible abuses. Note that this is a soft limit: some users can sometimes join more conferences in cluster configurations.
max_room_id: Number
This option defines the maximum number of characters that Room ID can have when creating a new room. The default value is to not limit: infinite.
max_room_name: Number
This option defines the maximum number of characters that Room Name can have when configuring the room. The default value is to not limit: infinite.
max_room_desc: Number
This option defines the maximum number of characters that Room Description can have when configuring the room. The default value is to not limit: infinite.
min_message_interval: Number
This option defines the minimum interval between two messages send by an occupant in seconds. This option is global and valid for all rooms. A decimal value can be used. When this option is not defined, message rate is not limited. This feature can be used to protect a MUC service from occupant abuses and limit number of messages that will be broadcasted by the service. A good value for this minimum message interval is 0.4 second. If an occupant tries to send messages faster, an error is send back explaining that the message has been discarded and describing the reason why the message is not acceptable.
min_presence_interval: Number
This option defines the minimum of time between presence changes coming from a given occupant in seconds. This option is global and valid for all rooms. A decimal value can be used. When this option is not defined, no restriction is applied. This option can be used to protect a MUC service for occupants abuses. If an occupant tries to change its presence more often than the specified interval, the presence is cached by ejabberd and only the last presence is broadcasted to all occupants in the room after expiration of the interval delay. Intermediate presence packets are silently discarded. A good value for this option is 4 seconds.
default_room_options: {OptionName: OptionValue}
This module option allows to define the desired default room options. Note that the creator of a room can modify the options of his room at any time using an XMPP client with MUC capability. The available room options and the default values are:
allow_change_subj: true|false
Allow occupants to change the subject.
allow_private_messages: true|false
Occupants can send private messages to other occupants.
allow_private_messages_from_visitors: anyone|moderators|nobody
Visitors can send private messages to other occupants.
allow_query_users: true|false
Occupants can send IQ queries to other occupants.
allow_user_invites: false|true
Allow occupants to send invitations.
allow_visitor_nickchange: true|false
Allow visitors to change nickname.
allow_visitor_status: true|false
Allow visitors to send status text in presence updates. If disallowed, the status text is stripped before broadcasting the presence update to all the room occupants.
anonymous: true|false
The room is anonymous: occupants don’t see the real JIDs of other occupants. Note that the room moderators can always see the real JIDs of the occupants.
captcha_protected: false
When a user tries to join a room where he has no affiliation (not owner, admin or member), the room requires him to fill a CAPTCHA challenge (see section 3.1.9) in order to accept her join in the room.
logging: false|true
The public messages are logged using mod_muc_log.
max_users: 200
Maximum number of occupants in the room.
members_by_default: true|false
The occupants that enter the room are participants by default, so they have ’voice’.
members_only: false|true
Only members of the room can enter.
moderated: true|false
Only occupants with ’voice’ can send public messages.
password: "roompass123"
Password of the room. You may want to enable the next option too.
password_protected: false|true
The password is required to enter the room.
persistent: false|true
The room persists even if the last participant leaves.
public: true|false
The room is public in the list of the MUC service, so it can be discovered.
public_list: true|false
The list of participants is public, without requiring to enter the room.
title: "Room Title"
A human-readable title of the room.
All of those room options can be set to true or false, except password and title which are strings, and max_users that is integer.

Examples:

3.3.11  mod_muc_log

This module enables optional logging of Multi-User Chat (MUC) public conversations to HTML. Once you enable this module, users can join a room using a MUC capable XMPP client, and if they have enough privileges, they can request the configuration form in which they can set the option to enable room logging.

Features:

Options:

access_log: AccessName
This option restricts which occupants are allowed to enable or disable room logging. The default value is muc_admin. Note for this default setting you need to have an access rule for muc_admin in order to take effect.
cssfile: false|URL
With this option you can set whether the HTML files should have a custom CSS file or if they need to use the embedded CSS file. Allowed values are false and an URL to a CSS file. With the first value, HTML files will include the embedded CSS code. With the latter, you can specify the URL of the custom CSS file (for example: "http://example.com/my.css"). The default value is false.
dirname: room_jid|room_name
Allows to configure the name of the room directory. Allowed values are room_jid and room_name. With the first value, the room directory name will be the full room JID. With the latter, the room directory name will be only the room name, not including the MUC service name. The default value is room_jid.
dirtype: subdirs|plain
The type of the created directories can be specified with this option. Allowed values are subdirs and plain. With the first value, subdirectories are created for each year and month. With the latter, the names of the log files contain the full date, and there are no subdirectories. The default value is subdirs.
file_format: html|plaintext
Define the format of the log files: html stores in HTML format, plaintext stores in plain text. The default value is html.
file_permissions: {mode: Mode, group: Group}
Define the permissions that must be used when creating the log files: the number of the mode, and the numeric id of the group that will own the files. The default value is {644, 33}.
outdir: Path
This option sets the full path to the directory in which the HTML files should be stored. Make sure the ejabberd daemon user has write access on that directory. The default value is "www/muc".
spam_prevention: true|false
To prevent spam, the spam_prevention option adds a special attribute to links that prevent their indexation by search engines. The default value is true, which mean that nofollow attributes will be added to user submitted links.
timezone: local|universal
The time zone for the logs is configurable with this option. Allowed values are local and universal. With the first value, the local time, as reported to Erlang by the operating system, will be used. With the latter, GMT/UTC time will be used. The default value is local.
top_link: {URL: Text}
With this option you can customize the link on the top right corner of each log file. The default value is {"/", "Home"}.

Examples:

3.3.12  mod_offline

This module implements offline message storage (XEP-0160). This means that all messages sent to an offline user will be stored on the server until that user comes online again. Thus it is very similar to how email works. Note that ejabberdctl has a command to delete expired messages (see section 4.1).

db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.
access_max_user_messages: AccessName
This option defines which access rule will be enforced to limit the maximum number of offline messages that a user can have (quota). When a user has too many offline messages, any new messages that he receive are discarded, and a resource-constraint error is returned to the sender. The default value is max_user_offline_messages. Then you can define an access rule with a syntax similar to max_user_sessions (see 3.1.6).

This example allows power users to have as much as 5000 offline messages, administrators up to 2000, and all the other users up to 100. 

acl: 
  admin: 
    user: 
      - "admin1": "localhost"
      - "admin2": "example.org"
  poweruser: 
    user: 
      - "bob": "example.org"
      - "jane": "example.org"

access: 
  max_user_offline_messages: 
    poweruser: 5000
    admin: 2000
    all: 100

modules: 
  ...
  mod_offline: 
    access_max_user_messages: max_user_offline_messages
  ...

3.3.13  mod_ping

This module implements support for XMPP Ping (XEP-0199) and periodic keepalives. When this module is enabled ejabberd responds correctly to ping requests, as defined in the protocol.

Configuration options:

send_pings: true|false
If this option is set to true, the server sends pings to connected clients that are not active in a given interval ping_interval. This is useful to keep client connections alive or checking availability. By default this option is disabled.
ping_interval: Seconds
How often to send pings to connected clients, if the previous option is enabled. If a client connection does not send or receive any stanza in this interval, a ping request is sent to the client. The default value is 60 seconds.
timeout_action: none|kill
What to do when a client does not answer to a server ping request in less than 32 seconds. The default is to do nothing.

This example enables Ping responses, configures the module to send pings to client connections that are inactive for 4 minutes, and if a client does not answer to the ping in less than 32 seconds, its connection is closed: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_ping:
    send_pings: true
    ping_interval: 240
    timeout_action: kill
  ...

3.3.14  mod_pres_counter

This module detects flood/spam in presence subscription stanza traffic. If a user sends or receives more of those stanzas in a time interval, the exceeding stanzas are silently dropped, and warning is logged.

Configuration options:

count: StanzaNumber
The number of subscription presence stanzas (subscribe, unsubscribe, subscribed, unsubscribed) allowed for any direction (input or output) per time interval. Please note that two users subscribing to each other usually generate 4 stanzas, so the recommended value is 4 or more. The default value is: 5.
interval: Seconds
The time interval defined in seconds. The default value is 60.

This example enables the module, and allows up to 5 presence subscription stanzas to be sent or received by the users in 60 seconds: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_pres_counter:
    count: 5
    interval: 60
  ...

3.3.15  mod_privacy

This module implements Blocking Communication (also known as Privacy Rules) as defined in section 10 from XMPP IM. If end users have support for it in their XMPP client, they will be able to:

(from http://xmpp.org/rfcs/rfc3921.html#privacy)

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Blocking Communication (jabber:iq:privacy) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.

3.3.16  mod_private

This module adds support for Private XML Storage (XEP-0049):

Using this method, XMPP entities can store private data on the server and retrieve it whenever necessary. The data stored might be anything, as long as it is valid XML. One typical usage for this namespace is the server-side storage of client-specific preferences; another is Bookmark Storage (XEP-0048).

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Private XML Storage (jabber:iq:private) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.

3.3.17  mod_proxy65

This module implements SOCKS5 Bytestreams (XEP-0065). It allows ejabberd to act as a file transfer proxy between two XMPP clients.

Options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘proxy.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name.
name: Text
Defines Service Discovery name of the service. Default is "SOCKS5 Bytestreams".
ip: IP
This option specifies which network interface to listen for. Default is an IP address of the service’s DNS name, or, if fails, "127.0.0.1".
port: Number
This option defines port to listen for incoming connections. Default is 7777.
hostname: HostName
Defines a hostname advertised by the service when establishing a session with clients. This is useful when you run the service behind a NAT. The default is the value of ip option. Examples: "proxy.mydomain.org", "200.150.100.50". Note that not all clients understand domain names in stream negotiation, so you should think twice before setting domain name in this option.
auth_type: anonymous|plain
SOCKS5 authentication type. Possible values are anonymous and plain. Default is anonymous.
access: AccessName
Defines ACL for file transfer initiators. Default is all.
max_connections: Number
Maximum number of active connections per file transfer initiator. No limit by default.
shaper: none|ShaperName
This option defines shaper for the file transfer peers. Shaper with the maximum bandwidth will be selected. Default is none.

Examples:

3.3.18  mod_pubsub

This module offers a Publish-Subscribe Service (XEP-0060). The functionality in mod_pubsub can be extended using plugins. The plugin that implements PEP (Personal Eventing via Pubsub) (XEP-0163) is enabled in the default ejabberd configuration file, and it requires mod_caps.

Options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘pubsub.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name. If you use mod_pubsub_odbc, please ensure the prefix contains only one dot, for example ‘pubsub.’, or ‘publish.’,.
access_createnode: AccessName
This option restricts which users are allowed to create pubsub nodes using ACL and ACCESS. By default any account in the local ejabberd server is allowed to create pubsub nodes.
max_items_node: MaxItems
Define the maximum number of items that can be stored in a node. Default value is 10.
plugins: [ Plugin, ...]
To specify which pubsub node plugins to use. The first one in the list is used by default. If this option is not defined, the default plugins list is: ["flat"]. PubSub clients can define which plugin to use when creating a node: add type=’plugin-name’ attribute to the create stanza element.
nodetree: Nodetree
To specify which nodetree to use. If not defined, the default pubsub nodetree is used: "tree". Only one nodetree can be used per host, and is shared by all node plugins.

The "virtual" nodetree does not store nodes on database. This saves resources on systems with tons of nodes. If using the "virtual" nodetree, you can only enable those node plugins: ["flat","pep"] or ["flat"]; any other plugins configuration will not work. Also, all nodes will have the defaut configuration, and this can not be changed. Using "virtual" nodetree requires to start from a clean database, it will not work if you used the default "tree" nodetree before.

The "dag" nodetree provides experimental support for PubSub Collection Nodes (XEP-0248). In that case you should also add "dag" node plugin as default, for example: plugins: ["dag","flat","hometree","pep"]

ignore_pep_from_offline: false|true
To specify whether or not we should get last published PEP items from users in our roster which are offline when we connect. Value is true or false. If not defined, pubsub assumes true so we only get last items of online contacts.
last_item_cache: false|true
To specify whether or not pubsub should cache last items. Value is true or false. If not defined, pubsub do not cache last items. On systems with not so many nodes, caching last items speeds up pubsub and allows to raise user connection rate. The cost is memory usage, as every item is stored in memory.
pep_mapping: {Key, Value}
This allow to define a Key-Value list to choose defined node plugins on given PEP namespace. The following example will use node_tune instead of node_pep for every PEP node with tune namespace: 
modules:
  ...
  mod_pubsub:
    pep_mapping:
      "http://jabber.org/protocol/tune": "tune"
  ...

Example of configuration that uses flat nodes as default, and allows use of flat, nodetree and pep nodes: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_pubsub:
    access_createnode: pubsub_createnode
    plugins:
      - "flat"
      - "hometree"
      - "pep"
  ...

Using ODBC database requires using mod_pubsub_odbc without option changes. Only flat, hometree and pep plugins supports ODBC. The following example shows previous configuration with ODBC usage: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_pubsub_odbc:
    access_createnode: pubsub_createnode
    plugins:
      - "flat"
      - "hometree"
      - "pep"
  ...

3.3.19  mod_register

This module adds support for In-Band Registration (XEP-0077). This protocol enables end users to use a XMPP client to:

Options:

access: AccessName
Specify rules to restrict what usernames can be registered and unregistered. If a rule returns ‘deny’ on the requested username, registration and unregistration of that user name is denied. There are no restrictions by default.
access_from: AccessName
By default, ejabberd doesn’t allow to register new accounts from s2s or existing c2s sessions. You can change it by defining access rule in this option. Use with care: allowing registration from s2s leads to uncontrolled massive accounts creation by rogue users.
captcha_protected: false|true
Protect registrations with CAPTCHA (see section 3.1.9). The default is false.
ip_access: AccessName
Define rules to allow or deny account registration depending on the IP address of the XMPP client. The AccessName should be of type ip. The default value is all.
password_strength: Entropy
This option sets the minimum informational entropy for passwords. The value Entropy is a number of bits of entropy. The recommended minimum is 32 bits. The default is 0, i.e. no checks are performed.
welcome_message: {subject: Subject, body: Body}
Set a welcome message that is sent to each newly registered account. The first string is the subject, and the second string is the message body.
registration_watchers: [ JID, ...]
This option defines a list of JIDs which will be notified each time a new account is registered.
iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for In-Band Registration (jabber:iq:register) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).

This module reads also another option defined globally for the server: registration_timeout: Timeout. This option limits the frequency of registration from a given IP or username. So, a user that tries to register a new account from the same IP address or JID during this number of seconds after his previous registration will receive an error resource-constraint with the explanation: “Users are not allowed to register accounts so quickly”. The timeout is expressed in seconds, and it must be an integer. To disable this limitation, instead of an integer put a word like: infinity. Default value: 600 seconds.

Examples:

3.3.20  mod_register_web

This module provides a web page where people can:

This module supports CAPTCHA image to register a new account. To enable this feature, configure the options captcha_cmd and captcha_host.

Options:

registration_watchers: [ JID, ...]
This option defines a list of JIDs which will be notified each time a new account is registered.

This example configuration shows how to enable the module and the web handler: 

hosts: 
  - "localhost"
  - "example.org"
  - "example.com"
listen: 
  ...
  - 
    port: 5281
    module: ejabberd_http
    register: true
    certfile: "/etc/ejabberd/certificate.pem"
    tls: true
  ...

modules: 
  ...
  mod_register_web: {}
  ...

For example, the users of the host example.org can visit the page: https://example.org:5281/register/ It is important to include the last / character in the URL, otherwise the subpages URL will be incorrect.

3.3.21  mod_roster

This module implements roster management as defined in RFC 3921: XMPP IM. It also supports Roster Versioning (XEP-0237).

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Roster Management (jabber:iq:roster) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.
versioning: false|true
Enables Roster Versioning. This option is disabled by default.
store_current_id: false|true
If this option is enabled, the current version number is stored on the database. If disabled, the version number is calculated on the fly each time. Enabling this option reduces the load for both ejabberd and the database. This option does not affect the client in any way. This option is only useful if Roster Versioning is enabled. This option is disabled by default. Important: if you use mod_shared_roster or mod_shared_roster_ldap, you must disable this option.
access
This option can be configured to specify rules to restrict roster management. If a rule returns ‘deny’ on the requested user name, that user cannot modify his personal roster: not add/remove/modify contacts, or subscribe/unsubscribe presence. By default there aren’t restrictions.
managers
List of remote entities that can manage users rosters using Remote Roster Management (XEP-0321). The protocol sections implemented are: 4.2. The remote entity requests current user’s roster. 4.3. The user updates roster. 4.4. The remote entity updates the user’s roster. A remote entity cab only get or modify roster items that have the same domain as the entity. Default value is: [].

This example configuration enables Roster Versioning with storage of current id. The ICQ and MSN transports can get ICQ and MSN contacts, add them, or remove them for any local account: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_roster:
    versioning: true
    store_current_id: true
    managers:
     - "icq.example.org"
     - "msn.example.org"
  ...

With this example configuration, only admins can manage their rosters; everybody else cannot modify the roster: 

acl:
  admin:
    user:
      - "sarah": "example.org"
access:
  roster:
    admin: allow

modules:
  ...
  mod_roster:
    access: roster
  ...

3.3.22  mod_service_log

This module adds support for logging end user packets via a XMPP message auditing service such as Bandersnatch. All user packets are encapsulated in a <route/> element and sent to the specified service(s).

Options:

loggers: [Names, ...]
With this option a (list of) service(s) that will receive the packets can be specified.

Examples:

3.3.23  mod_shared_roster

This module enables you to create shared roster groups. This means that you can create groups of people that can see members from (other) groups in their rosters. The big advantages of this feature are that end users do not need to manually add all users to their rosters, and that they cannot permanently delete users from the shared roster groups. A shared roster group can have members from any XMPP server, but the presence will only be available from and to members of the same virtual host where the group is created.

Options:

db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.

Shared roster groups can be edited only via the Web Admin. Each group has a unique identification and the following parameters:

Name
The name of the group, which will be displayed in the roster.
Description
The description of the group. This parameter does not affect anything.
Members
A list of JIDs of group members, entered one per line in the Web Admin. The special member directive @all@ represents all the registered users in the virtual host; which is only recommended for a small server with just a few hundred users. The special member directive @online@ represents the online users in the virtual host.
Displayed groups
A list of groups that will be in the rosters of this group’s members. A group of other vhost can be identified with groupid@vhost

Examples:

3.3.24  mod_shared_roster_ldap

This module lets the server administrator automatically populate users’ rosters (contact lists) with entries based on users and groups defined in an LDAP-based directory.

Configuration parameters

The module accepts the following configuration parameters. Some of them, if unspecified, default to the values specified for the top level of configuration. This lets you avoid specifying, for example, the bind password, in multiple places.

Filters

These parameters specify LDAP filters used to query for shared roster information. All of them are run against the ldap_base.

ldap_rfilter
So called “Roster Filter”. Used to find names of all “shared roster” groups. See also the ldap_groupattr parameter. If unspecified, defaults to the top-level parameter of the same name. You must specify it in some place in the configuration, there is no default.
ldap_ufilter
“User Filter” – used for retrieving the human-readable name of roster entries (usually full names of people in the roster). See also the parameters ldap_userdesc and ldap_useruid. If unspecified, defaults to the top-level parameter of the same name. If that one also is unspecified, then the filter is assembled from values of other parameters as follows ([ldap_SOMETHING] is used to mean “the value of the configuration parameter ldap_SOMETHING”):
(&(&([ldap_memberattr]=[ldap_memberattr_format])([ldap_groupattr]=%g))[ldap_filter])

Subsequently %u and %g are replaced with a *. This means that given the defaults, the filter sent to the LDAP server is would be (&(memberUid=*)(cn=*)). If however the ldap_memberattr_format is something like uid=%u,ou=People,o=org, then the filter will be (&(memberUid=uid=*,ou=People,o=org)(cn=*)).

ldap_gfilter
“Group Filter” – used when retrieving human-readable name (a.k.a. “Display Name”) and the members of a group. See also the parameters ldap_groupattr, ldap_groupdesc and ldap_memberattr. If unspecified, defaults to the top-level parameter of the same name. If that one also is unspecified, then the filter is constructed exactly in the same way as User Filter.
ldap_filter
Additional filter which is AND-ed together with User Filter and Group Filter. If unspecified, defaults to the top-level parameter of the same name. If that one is also unspecified, then no additional filter is merged with the other filters.

Note that you will probably need to manually define the User and Group Filters (since the auto-assembled ones will not work) if:

An example where it is the case is OpenLDAP and (unique)MemberName attribute from the groupOf(Unique)Names objectClass. A symptom of this problem is that you will see messages such as the following in your slapd.log: 

get_filter: unknown filter type=130
filter="(&(?=undefined)(?=undefined)(something=else))"

Attributes

These parameters specify the names of the attributes which hold interesting data in the entries returned by running filters specified in section 3.3.24.

ldap_groupattr
The name of the attribute that holds the group name, and that is used to differentiate between them. Retrieved from results of the “Roster Filter” and “Group Filter”. Defaults to cn.
ldap_groupdesc
The name of the attribute which holds the human-readable group name in the objects you use to represent groups. Retrieved from results of the “Group Filter”. Defaults to whatever ldap_groupattr is set.
ldap_memberattr
The name of the attribute which holds the IDs of the members of a group. Retrieved from results of the “Group Filter”. Defaults to memberUid.

The name of the attribute differs depending on the objectClass you use for your group objects, for example:

posixGroup → memberUid
groupOfNames → member
groupOfUniqueNames → uniqueMember
ldap_userdesc
The name of the attribute which holds the human-readable user name. Retrieved from results of the “User Filter”. Defaults to cn.
ldap_useruid
The name of the attribute which holds the ID of a roster item. Value of this attribute in the roster item objects needs to match the ID retrieved from the ldap_memberattr attribute of a group object. Retrieved from results of the “User Filter”. Defaults to cn.

Control parameters

These paramters control the behaviour of the module.

ldap_memberattr_format
A globbing format for extracting user ID from the value of the attribute named by ldap_memberattr. Defaults to %u, which means that the whole value is the member ID. If you change it to something different, you may also need to specify the User and Group Filters manually — see section 3.3.24.
ldap_memberattr_format_re
A regex for extracting user ID from the value of the attribute named by ldap_memberattr.

An example value "CN=(\\w*),(OU=.*,)*DC=company,DC=com" works for user IDs such as the following:

In case:

then instead of a regular expression, a simple format specified by ldap_memberattr_format is used. Also, in the last two cases an error message is logged during the module initialization.

Also, note that in all cases ldap_memberattr_format (and not the regex version) is used for constructing the default “User/Group Filter” — see section 3.3.24.

ldap_auth_check
Whether the module should check (via the ejabberd authentication subsystem) for existence of each user in the shared LDAP roster. See section 3.3.24 form more information. Set to off if you want to disable the check. Defaults to on.
ldap_user_cache_validity
Number of seconds for which the cache for roster item full names is considered fresh after retrieval. 300 by default. See section 3.3.24 on how it is used during roster retrieval.
ldap_group_cache_validity
Number of seconds for which the cache for group membership is considered fresh after retrieval. 300 by default. See section 3.3.24 on how it is used during roster retrieval.

Connection parameters

The module also accepts the connection parameters, all of which default to the top-level parameter of the same name, if unspecified. See 3.2.2 for more information about them.

Retrieving the roster

When the module is called to retrieve the shared roster for a user, the following algorithm is used:

  1. A list of names of groups to display is created: the Roster Filter is run against the base DN, retrieving the values of the attribute named by ldap_groupattr.
  2. Unless the group cache is fresh (see the ldap_group_cache_validity option), it is refreshed:
    1. Information for all groups is retrieved using a single query: the Group Filter is run against the Base DN, retrieving the values of attributes named by ldap_groupattr (group ID), ldap_groupdesc (group “Display Name”) and ldap_memberattr (IDs of group members).
    2. group “Display Name”, read from the attribute named by ldap_groupdesc, is stored in the cache for the given group
    3. the following processing takes place for each retrieved value of attribute named by ldap_memberattr:
      1. the user ID part of it is extracted using ldap_memberattr_format(_re),
      2. then (unless ldap_auth_check is set to off) for each found user ID, the module checks (using the ejabberd authentication subsystem) whether such user exists in the given virtual host. It is skipped if the check is enabled and fails.

        This step is here for historical reasons. If you have a tidy DIT and properly defined “Roster Filter” and “Group Filter”, it is safe to disable it by setting ldap_auth_check to off — it will speed up the roster retrieval.

      3. the user ID is stored in the list of members in the cache for the given group
  3. For each item (group name) in the list of groups retrieved in step 1:
    1. the display name of a shared roster group is retrieved from the group cache
    2. for each IDs of users which belong to the group, retrieved from the group cache:
      1. the ID is skipped if it’s the same as the one for which we are retrieving the roster. This is so that the user does not have himself in the roster.
      2. the display name of a shared roster user is retrieved:
        1. first, unless the user name cache is fresh (see the ldap_user_cache_validity option), it is refreshed by running the User Filter, against the Base DN, retrieving the values of attributes named by ldap_useruid and ldap_userdesc.
        2. then, the display name for the given user ID is retrieved from the user name cache.

Configuration examples

Since there are many possible DIT layouts, it will probably be easiest to understand how to configure the module by looking at an example for a given DIT (or one resembling it).

Flat DIT

This seems to be the kind of DIT for which this module was initially designed. Basically there are just user objects, and group membership is stored in an attribute individually for each user. For example in a layout shown in figure 3.1, the group of each user is stored in its ou attribute.

msrl-dit-flat.png
Figure 3.1: Flat DIT graph

Such layout has a few downsides, including:

This however seems to be a common DIT layout, so the module keeps supporting it. You can use the following configuration…

modules:
  ...
  mod_shared_roster_ldap:
    ldap_base: "ou=flat,dc=nodomain"
    ldap_rfilter: "(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)"
    ldap_groupattr: "ou"
    ldap_memberattr: "cn"
    ldap_filter: "(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)"
    ldap_userdesc: "displayName"
  ...

…to be provided with a roster as shown in figure 3.2 upon connecting as user czesio.

msrl-roster-flat.png
Figure 3.2: Roster from flat DIT

Deep DIT

This type of DIT contains distinctly typed objects for users and groups – see figure 3.3. They are shown separated into different subtrees, but it’s not a requirement.

msrl-dit-deep.png
Figure 3.3: Example “deep” DIT graph

If you use the following example module configuration with it: 

modules: 
  ...
  mod_shared_roster_ldap: 
    ldap_base: "ou=deep,dc=nodomain"
    ldap_rfilter: "(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)"
    ldap_filter: ""
    ldap_gfilter: "(&(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)(cn=%g))"
    ldap_groupdesc: "description"
    ldap_memberattr: "uniqueMember"
    ldap_memberattr_format: "cn=%u,ou=people,ou=deep,dc=nodomain"
    ldap_ufilter: "(&(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)(cn=%u))"
    ldap_userdesc: "displayName"
  ...

…and connect as user czesio, then ejabberd will provide you with the roster shown in figure 3.4.

msrl-roster-deep.png
Figure 3.4: Example roster from “deep” DIT

3.3.25  mod_sic

This module adds support for Server IP Check (XEP-0279). This protocol enables a client to discover its external IP address.

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for urn:xmpp:sic:0 IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).

3.3.26  mod_sip

This module adds SIP proxy/registrar support for the corresponding virtual host. Note that it is not enough to just load this module only. You should also configure listeners and DNS records properly. See section 3.1.11 for the full explanation.

Example configuration: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_sip: {}
  ...

Options:

record_route: SIP_URI
When the option always_record_route is set or when SIP outbound is utilized RFC 5626, ejabberd inserts Record-Route header field with this SIP_URI into a SIP message. The default is SIP URI constructed from the virtual host.
always_record_route: true|false
Always insert Record-Route header into SIP messages. This approach allows to bypass NATs/firewalls a bit more easily. The default is true.
routes: [SIP_URI]
You can set a list of SIP URIs of routes pointing to this proxy server. The default is a list of a SIP URI constructed from the virtual host.
flow_timeout_udp: Seconds
For SIP outbound UDP connections set a keep-alive timer to Seconds. The default is 29.
flow_timeout_tcp: Seconds
For SIP outbound TCP connections set a keep-alive timer to Seconds. The default is 120.
via: [{type: Type, host: Host, port: Port}]
With this option for every Type you can specify Host and Port to set in Via header of outgoing SIP messages, where Type can be udp, tcp or tls. Host is a string and Port is a non negative integer. This is useful if you’re running your server in a non-standard network topology.

Example complex configuration: 

modules:
  ...
  mod_sip:
    always_record_route: false
    record_route: sip:example.com;lr
    routes:
      - sip:example.com;lr
      - sip:sip.example.com;lr
    flow_timeout_udp: 30
    flow_timeout_tcp: 130
    via:
      - 
        type: tls
        host: "sip-tls.example.com"
        port: 5061
      - 
        type: tcp
        host: "sip-tcp.example.com"
        port: 5060
      - 
        type: udp
        host: "sip-udp.example.com"
        port: 5060
  ...

3.3.27  mod_stats

This module adds support for Statistics Gathering (XEP-0039). This protocol allows you to retrieve next statistics from your ejabberd deployment:

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Statistics Gathering (http://jabber.org/protocol/stats) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).

As there are only a small amount of clients (for example Tkabber) and software libraries with support for this XEP, a few examples are given of the XML you need to send in order to get the statistics. Here they are:

3.3.28  mod_time

This module features support for Entity Time (XEP-0202). By using this XEP, you are able to discover the time at another entity’s location.

Options:

iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Entity Time (jabber:iq:time) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).

3.3.29  mod_vcard

This module allows end users to store and retrieve their vCard, and to retrieve other users vCards, as defined in vcard-temp (XEP-0054). The module also implements an uncomplicated Jabber User Directory based on the vCards of these users. Moreover, it enables the server to send its vCard when queried.

Options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘vjud.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name.
iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for vcard-temp IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.
search: true|false
This option specifies whether the search functionality is enabled or not If disabled, the option host will be ignored and the Jabber User Directory service will not appear in the Service Discovery item list. The default value is true.
matches: infinity|Number
With this option, the number of reported search results can be limited. If the option’s value is set to infinity, all search results are reported. The default value is 30.
allow_return_all: false|true
This option enables you to specify if search operations with empty input fields should return all users who added some information to their vCard. The default value is false.
search_all_hosts, true|false
If this option is set to true, search operations will apply to all virtual hosts. Otherwise only the current host will be searched. The default value is true. This option is available in mod_vcardwhen using Mnesia, but not when using ODBC storage.

Examples:

3.3.30  mod_vcard_ldap

ejabberd can map LDAP attributes to vCard fields. This behaviour is implemented in the mod_vcard_ldap module. This module does not depend on the authentication method (see 3.2.2).

Usually ejabberd treats LDAP as a read-only storage: it is possible to consult data, but not possible to create accounts or edit vCard that is stored in LDAP. However, it is possible to change passwords if mod_register module is enabled and LDAP server supports RFC 3062.

The mod_vcard_ldap module has its own optional parameters. The first group of parameters has the same meaning as the top-level LDAP parameters to set the authentication method: ldap_servers, ldap_port, ldap_rootdn, ldap_password, ldap_base, ldap_uids, ldap_deref_aliases and ldap_filter. See section 3.2.2 for detailed information about these options. If one of these options is not set, ejabberd will look for the top-level option with the same name.

The second group of parameters consists of the following mod_vcard_ldap-specific options:

host: HostName
This option defines the Jabber ID of the service. If the host option is not specified, the Jabber ID will be the hostname of the virtual host with the prefix ‘vjud.’. The keyword "@HOST@" is replaced at start time with the real virtual host name.
iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for vcard-temp IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).
{search, true|false}
This option specifies whether the search functionality is enabled (value: true) or disabled (value: false). If disabled, the option host will be ignored and the Jabber User Directory service will not appear in the Service Discovery item list. The default value is true.
{matches, infinity|Number}
With this option, the number of reported search results can be limited. If the option’s value is set to infinity, all search results are reported. The default value is 30.
{ldap_vcard_map, [ {Name, Pattern, LDAPattributes}, ...]}
With this option you can set the table that maps LDAP attributes to vCard fields. Name is the type name of the vCard as defined in RFC 2426. Pattern is a string which contains pattern variables "%u", "%d" or "%s". LDAPattributes is the list containing LDAP attributes. The pattern variables "%s" will be sequentially replaced with the values of LDAP attributes from List_of_LDAP_attributes, "%u" will be replaced with the user part of a JID, and "%d" will be replaced with the domain part of a JID. The default is: 
[{"NICKNAME", "%u", []},
 {"FN", "%s", ["displayName"]},
 {"LAST", "%s", ["sn"]},
 {"FIRST", "%s", ["givenName"]},
 {"MIDDLE", "%s", ["initials"]},
 {"ORGNAME", "%s", ["o"]},
 {"ORGUNIT", "%s", ["ou"]},
 {"CTRY", "%s", ["c"]},
 {"LOCALITY", "%s", ["l"]},
 {"STREET", "%s", ["street"]},
 {"REGION", "%s", ["st"]},
 {"PCODE", "%s", ["postalCode"]},
 {"TITLE", "%s", ["title"]},
 {"URL", "%s", ["labeleduri"]},
 {"DESC", "%s", ["description"]},
 {"TEL", "%s", ["telephoneNumber"]},
 {"EMAIL", "%s", ["mail"]},
 {"BDAY", "%s", ["birthDay"]},
 {"ROLE", "%s", ["employeeType"]},
 {"PHOTO", "%s", ["jpegPhoto"]}]
{ldap_search_fields, [ {Name, Attribute}, ...]}
This option defines the search form and the LDAP attributes to search within. Name is the name of a search form field which will be automatically translated by using the translation files (see msgs/*.msg for available words). Attribute is the LDAP attribute or the pattern "%u". The default is: 
[{"User", "%u"},
 {"Full Name", "displayName"},
 {"Given Name", "givenName"},
 {"Middle Name", "initials"},
 {"Family Name", "sn"},
 {"Nickname", "%u"},
 {"Birthday", "birthDay"},
 {"Country", "c"},
 {"City", "l"},
 {"Email", "mail"},
 {"Organization Name", "o"},
 {"Organization Unit", "ou"}]
{ldap_search_reported, [ {SearchField, VcardField}, ...]}
This option defines which search fields should be reported. SearchField is the name of a search form field which will be automatically translated by using the translation files (see msgs/*.msg for available words). VcardField is the vCard field name defined in the ldap_vcard_map option. The default is: 
[{"Full Name", "FN"},
 {"Given Name", "FIRST"},
 {"Middle Name", "MIDDLE"},
 {"Family Name", "LAST"},
 {"Nickname", "NICKNAME"},
 {"Birthday", "BDAY"},
 {"Country", "CTRY"},
 {"City", "LOCALITY"},
 {"Email", "EMAIL"},
 {"Organization Name", "ORGNAME"},
 {"Organization Unit", "ORGUNIT"}]

Examples:

3.3.31  mod_vcard_xupdate

The user’s client can store an avatar in the user vCard. The vCard-Based Avatars protocol (XEP-0153) provides a method for clients to inform the contacts what is the avatar hash value. However, simple or small clients may not implement that protocol.

If this module is enabled, all the outgoing client presence stanzas get automatically the avatar hash on behalf of the client. So, the contacts receive the presence stanzas with the Update Data described in XEP-0153 as if the client would had inserted it itself. If the client had already included such element in the presence stanza, it is replaced with the element generated by ejabberd.

By enabling this module, each vCard modification produces a hash recalculation, and each presence sent by a client produces hash retrieval and a presence stanza rewrite. For this reason, enabling this module will introduce a computational overhead in servers with clients that change frequently their presence.

Options:

db_type: internal|odbc
Define the type of storage where the module will create the tables and store user information. The default is to store in the internal Mnesia database. If odbc value is defined, make sure you have defined the database, see 3.2.

3.3.32  mod_version

This module implements Software Version (XEP-0092). Consequently, it answers ejabberd’s version when queried.

Options:

show_os: true|false
Should the operating system be revealed or not. The default value is true.
iqdisc: Discipline
This specifies the processing discipline for Software Version (jabber:iq:version) IQ queries (see section 3.3.2).

Chapter 4  Managing an ejabberd Server

4.1  ejabberdctl

With the ejabberdctl command line administration script you can execute ejabberdctl commands (described in the next section, 4.1.1) and also many general ejabberd commands (described in section 4.2). 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 4.1.2.

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 $?

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).

4.1.1  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 bellow and all the ejabberd commands available in that server (see 4.2.1).

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.

The ejabberdctl script can be restricted to require authentication and execute some ejabberd commands; see 4.2.2. Add the option to the file ejabberd.yml. In this example there is no restriction: 

ejabberdctl_access_commands: []

If account robot1@example.org is registered in ejabberd with password abcdef (which MD5 is E8B501798950FC58AAD83C8C14978E), and ejabberd.yml contains this setting: 

{hosts, ["example.org"]}.
{acl, bots, {user, "robot1", "example.org"}}.
{access, ctlaccess, [{allow, bots}]}.
{ejabberdctl_access_commands, [ {ctlaccess, [registered_users, register], []} ]}.

then you can do this in the shell: 

$ ejabberdctl registered_users example.org
Error: no_auth_provided
$ ejabberdctl --auth robot1 example.org abcdef registered_users example.org
robot1
testuser1
testuser2

4.1.2  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 section 5.2).
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 (section 5.2) can listen to.
-kernel inet_dist_use_interface "{ 127,0,0,1 }"
Define the IP address where this Erlang node listens for other nodes connections (see section 5.2).
-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).

4.2  ejabberd Commands

An ejabberd command is an abstract function identified by a name, with a defined number and type of calling arguments and type of result that is registered in the ejabberd_commands service. Those commands can be defined in any Erlang module and executed using any valid frontend.

ejabberd includes two frontends to execute ejabberd commands: the script ejabberdctl (4.1) and the ejabberd_xmlrpc listener (3.1.4). Other known frontends that can be installed to execute ejabberd commands in different ways are: mod_rest (HTTP POST service), mod_shcommands (ejabberd WebAdmin page).

4.2.1  List of ejabberd Commands

ejabberd includes a few ejabberd Commands by default. When more modules are installed, new commands may be available in the frontends.

The easiest way to get a list of the available commands, and get help for them is to use the ejabberdctl script: 

$ ejabberdctl help
Usage: ejabberdctl [--node nodename] [--auth user host password] command [options]

Available commands in this ejabberd node:
  backup file                  Store the database to backup file
  connected_users              List all established sessions
  connected_users_number       Get the number of established sessions
  ...

The most interesting ones are:

reopen_log
Reopen the log files after they were renamed. If the old files were not renamed before calling this command, they are automatically renamed to "*-old.log". See section 7.1.
convert_to_yaml /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd-converted.yml
Convert an old ejabberd.cfg file to the YAML syntax in a new file.
backup ejabberd.backup
Store internal Mnesia database to a binary backup file.
restore ejabberd.backup
Restore immediately from a binary backup file the internal Mnesia database. This will consume a lot of memory if you have a large database, so better use install_fallback.
install_fallback ejabberd.backup
The binary backup file is installed as fallback: it will be used to restore the database at the next ejabberd start. This means that, after running this command, you have to restart ejabberd. This command requires less memory than restore.
dump ejabberd.dump
Dump internal Mnesia database to a text file dump.
load ejabberd.dump
Restore immediately from a text file dump. This is not recommended for big databases, as it will consume much time, memory and processor. In that case it’s preferable to use backup and install_fallback.
import_piefxis, export_piefxis, export_piefxis_host
These options can be used to migrate accounts using XEP-0227 formatted XML files from/to other Jabber/XMPP servers or move users of a vhost to another ejabberd installation. See also ejabberd migration kit.
import_file, import_dir
These options can be used to migrate accounts using jabberd1.4 formatted XML files. from other Jabber/XMPP servers There exist tutorials to migrate from other software to ejabberd.
export2odbc virtualhost directory
Export virtual host information from Mnesia tables to SQL files.
delete_expired_messages
This option can be used to delete old messages in offline storage. This might be useful when the number of offline messages is very high.
delete_old_messages days
Delete offline messages older than the given days.
register user host password
Register an account in that domain with the given password.
unregister user host
Unregister the given account.

4.2.2  Restrict Execution with AccessCommands

The frontends can be configured to restrict access to certain commands. In that case, authentication information must be provided. In each frontend the AccessCommands option is defined in a different place. But in all cases the option syntax is the same: 

AccessCommands = [ {Access, CommandNames, Arguments}, ...]
Access = atom()
CommandNames = all | [CommandName]
CommandName = atom()
Arguments = [ {ArgumentName, ArgumentValue}, ...]
ArgumentName = atom()
ArgumentValue = any()

The default value is to not define any restriction: []. The authentication information is provided when executing a command, and is Username, Hostname and Password of a local XMPP account that has permission to execute the corresponding command. This means that the account must be registered in the local ejabberd, because the information will be verified.

When one or several access restrictions are defined and the authentication information is provided, each restriction is verified until one matches completely: the account matches the Access rule, the command name is listed in CommandNames, and the provided arguments do not contradict Arguments.

As an example to understand the syntax, let’s suppose those options: 

{hosts, ["example.org"]}.
{acl, bots, {user, "robot1", "example.org"}}.
{access, commaccess, [{allow, bots}]}.

This list of access restrictions allows only robot1@example.org to execute all commands: 

[{commaccess, all, []}]

See another list of restrictions (the corresponding ACL and ACCESS are not shown): 

[
 %% This bot can execute all commands:
 {bot, all, []},
 %% This bot can only execute the command 'dump'. No argument restriction:
 {bot_backups, [dump], []}
 %% This bot can execute all commands,
 %% but if a 'host' argument is provided, it must be "example.org":
 {bot_all_example, all, [{host, "example.org"}]},
 %% This bot can only execute the command 'register',
 %% and if argument 'host' is provided, it must be "example.org":
 {bot_reg_example, [register], [{host, "example.org"}]},
 %% This bot can execute the commands 'register' and 'unregister',
 %% if argument host is provided, it must be "test.org":
 {_bot_reg_test, [register, unregister], [{host, "test.org"}]}
]

4.3  Web Admin

The ejabberd Web Admin allows to administer most of ejabberd using a web browser.

This feature is enabled by default: a ejabberd_http listener with the option web_admin (see section 3.1.4) is included in the listening ports. Then you can open http://server:port/admin/ in your favourite web browser. You will be asked to enter the username (the full Jabber ID) and password of an ejabberd user with administrator rights. After authentication you will see a page similar to figure 4.1.

webadmmain.png
Figure 4.1: Top page from the Web Admin

Here you can edit access restrictions, manage users, create backups, manage the database, enable/disable ports listened for, view server statistics,…

The access rule configure determines what accounts can access the Web Admin and modify it. The access rule webadmin_view is to grant only view access: those accounts can browse the Web Admin with read-only access.

Example configurations:

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 4.1.2.

4.4  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.

4.5  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 5.4). 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: 
    ejabberdctl mnesia_change_nodename $OLDNODE $NEWNODE $OLDFILE $NEWFILE
  7. Install the backup file as a 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.

Chapter 5  Securing ejabberd

5.1  Firewall Settings

You need to take the following TCP ports in mind when configuring your firewall:

PortDescription
5222Standard port for Jabber/XMPP client connections, plain or STARTTLS.
5223Standard port for Jabber client connections using the old SSL method.
5269Standard port for Jabber/XMPP server connections.
4369EPMD (section 5.2) listens for Erlang node name requests.
port rangeUsed for connections between Erlang nodes. This range is configurable (see section 5.2).

5.2  epmd

epmd (Erlang Port Mapper Daemon) is a small name server included in Erlang/OTP and used by Erlang programs when establishing distributed Erlang communications. ejabberd needs epmd to use ejabberdctl and also when clustering ejabberd nodes. This small program is automatically started by Erlang, and is never stopped. If ejabberd is stopped, and there aren’t any other Erlang programs running in the system, you can safely stop epmd if you want.

ejabberd runs inside an Erlang node. To communicate with ejabberd, the script ejabberdctl starts a new Erlang node and connects to the Erlang node that holds ejabberd. In order for this communication to work, epmd must be running and listening for name requests in the port 4369. You should block the port 4369 in the firewall in such a way that only the programs in your machine can access it. or configure the option ERL_EPMD_ADDRESS in the file ejabberdctl.cfg.

If you build a cluster of several ejabberd instances, each ejabberd instance is called an ejabberd node. Those ejabberd nodes use a special Erlang communication method to build the cluster, and EPMD is again needed listening in the port 4369. So, if you plan to build a cluster of ejabberd nodes you must open the port 4369 for the machines involved in the cluster. Remember to block the port so Internet doesn’t have access to it.

Once an Erlang node solved the node name of another Erlang node using EPMD and port 4369, the nodes communicate directly. The ports used in this case by default are random, but can be configured in the file ejabberdctl.cfg. The Erlang command-line parameter used internally is, for example: 

erl ... -kernel inet_dist_listen_min 4370 inet_dist_listen_max 4375

It is also possible to configure in ejabberdctl.cfg the network interface where the Erlang node will listen and accept connections. The Erlang command-line parameter used internally is, for example: 

erl ... -kernel inet_dist_use_interface "{127,0,0,1}"

5.3  Erlang Cookie

The Erlang cookie is a string with numbers and letters. An Erlang node reads the cookie at startup from the command-line parameter -setcookie. If not indicated, the cookie is read from the cookie file $HOME/.erlang.cookie. If this file does not exist, it is created immediately with a random cookie. Two Erlang nodes communicate only if they have the same cookie. Setting a cookie on the Erlang node allows you to structure your Erlang network and define which nodes are allowed to connect to which.

Thanks to Erlang cookies, you can prevent access to the Erlang node by mistake, for example when there are several Erlang nodes running different programs in the same machine.

Setting a secret cookie is a simple method to difficult unauthorized access to your Erlang node. However, the cookie system is not ultimately effective to prevent unauthorized access or intrusion to an Erlang node. The communication between Erlang nodes are not encrypted, so the cookie could be read sniffing the traffic on the network. The recommended way to secure the Erlang node is to block the port 4369.

5.4  Erlang Node Name

An Erlang node may have a node name. The name can be short (if indicated with the command-line parameter -sname) or long (if indicated with the parameter -name). Starting an Erlang node with -sname limits the communication between Erlang nodes to the LAN.

Using the option -sname instead of -name is a simple method to difficult unauthorized access to your Erlang node. However, it is not ultimately effective to prevent access to the Erlang node, because it may be possible to fake the fact that you are on another network using a modified version of Erlang epmd. The recommended way to secure the Erlang node is to block the port 4369.

5.5  Securing Sensitive Files

ejabberd stores sensitive data in the file system either in plain text or binary files. The file system permissions should be set to only allow the proper user to read, write and execute those files and directories.

ejabberd configuration file: /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.yml
Contains the JID of administrators and passwords of external components. The backup files probably contain also this information, so it is preferable to secure the whole /etc/ejabberd/ directory.
ejabberd service log: /var/log/ejabberd/ejabberd.log
Contains IP addresses of clients. If the loglevel is set to 5, it contains whole conversations and passwords. If a logrotate system is used, there may be several log files with similar information, so it is preferable to secure the whole /var/log/ejabberd/ directory.
Mnesia database spool files in /var/lib/ejabberd/
The files store binary data, but some parts are still readable. The files are generated by Mnesia and their permissions cannot be set directly, so it is preferable to secure the whole /var/lib/ejabberd/ directory.
Erlang cookie file: /var/lib/ejabberd/.erlang.cookie
See section 5.3.

Chapter 6  Clustering

6.1  How it Works

A XMPP domain is served by one or more ejabberd nodes. These nodes can be run on different machines that are connected via a network. They all must have the ability to connect to port 4369 of all another nodes, and must have the same magic cookie (see Erlang/OTP documentation, in other words the file ~ejabberd/.erlang.cookie must be the same on all nodes). This is needed because all nodes exchange information about connected users, s2s connections, registered services, etc…

Each ejabberd node has the following modules:

6.1.1  Router

This module is the main router of XMPP packets on each node. It routes them based on their destination’s domains. It uses a global routing table. The domain of the packet’s destination is searched in the routing table, and if it is found, the packet is routed to the appropriate process. If not, it is sent to the s2s manager.

6.1.2  Local Router

This module routes packets which have a destination domain equal to one of this server’s host names. If the destination JID has a non-empty user part, it is routed to the session manager, otherwise it is processed depending on its content.

6.1.3  Session Manager

This module routes packets to local users. It looks up to which user resource a packet must be sent via a presence table. Then the packet is either routed to the appropriate c2s process, or stored in offline storage, or bounced back.

6.1.4  s2s Manager

This module routes packets to other XMPP servers. First, it checks if an opened s2s connection from the domain of the packet’s source to the domain of the packet’s destination exists. If that is the case, the s2s manager routes the packet to the process serving this connection, otherwise a new connection is opened.

6.2  Clustering Setup

Suppose you already configured ejabberd on one machine named (first), and you need to setup another one to make an ejabberd cluster. Then do following steps:

  1. Copy ~ejabberd/.erlang.cookie file from first to second.

    (alt) You can also add ‘-setcookie content_of_.erlang.cookie’ option to all ‘erl’ commands below.

  2. On second run the following command as the ejabberd daemon user, in the working directory of ejabberd:
    erl -sname ejabberd \
    -mnesia dir '"/var/lib/ejabberd/"' \
    -mnesia extra_db_nodes "['ejabberd@first']" \
    -s mnesia

    This will start Mnesia serving the same database as ejabberd@first. You can check this by running the command ‘mnesia:info().’. You should see a lot of remote tables and a line like the following:

    Note: the Mnesia directory may be different in your system. To know where does ejabberd expect Mnesia to be installed by default, call 4.1 without options and it will show some help, including the Mnesia database spool dir.

    running db nodes   = [ejabberd@first, ejabberd@second]
  3. Now run the following in the same ‘erl’ session:
    mnesia:change_table_copy_type(schema, node(), disc_copies).

    This will create local disc storage for the database.

    (alt) Change storage type of the scheme table to ‘RAM and disc copy’ on the second node via the Web Admin.

  4. Now you can add replicas of various tables to this node with ‘mnesia:add_table_copy’ or ‘mnesia:change_table_copy_type’ as above (just replace ‘schema’ with another table name and ‘disc_copies’ can be replaced with ‘ram_copies’ or ‘disc_only_copies’).

    Which tables to replicate is very dependant on your needs, you can get some hints from the command ‘mnesia:info().’, by looking at the size of tables and the default storage type for each table on ’first’.

    Replicating a table makes lookups in this table faster on this node. Writing, on the other hand, will be slower. And of course if machine with one of the replicas is down, other replicas will be used.

    Also section 5.3 (Table Fragmentation) of Mnesia User’s Guide can be helpful.

    (alt) Same as in previous item, but for other tables.

  5. Run ‘init:stop().’ or just ‘q().’ to exit from the Erlang shell. This probably can take some time if Mnesia has not yet transfered and processed all data it needed from first.
  6. Now run ejabberd on second with a configuration similar as on first: you probably do not need to duplicate ‘acl’ and ‘access’ options because they will be taken from first; and mod_irc should be enabled only on one machine in the cluster.

You can repeat these steps for other machines supposed to serve this domain.

6.3  Service Load-Balancing

6.3.1  Domain Load-Balancing Algorithm

ejabberd includes an algorithm to load balance the components that are plugged on an ejabberd cluster. It means that you can plug one or several instances of the same component on each ejabberd cluster and that the traffic will be automatically distributed.

The default distribution algorithm try to deliver to a local instance of a component. If several local instances are available, one instance is chosen randomly. If no instance is available locally, one instance is chosen randomly among the remote component instances.

If you need a different behaviour, you can change the load balancing behaviour with the option domain_balancing. The syntax of the option is the following:

domain_balancing: BalancingCriteria

Several balancing criteria are available:

If the value corresponding to the criteria is the same, the same component instance in the cluster will be used.

6.3.2  Load-Balancing Buckets

When there is a risk of failure for a given component, domain balancing can cause service trouble. If one component is failing the service will not work correctly unless the sessions are rebalanced.

In this case, it is best to limit the problem to the sessions handled by the failing component. This is what the domain_balancing_component_number option does, making the load balancing algorithm not dynamic, but sticky on a fix number of component instances.

The syntax is:

domain_balancing_component_number: Number

Chapter 7  Debugging

7.1  Log Files

An ejabberd node writes three log files:

ejabberd.log
is the ejabberd service log, with the messages reported by ejabberd code
error.log
is the file accumulating error messages from ejabberd.log
crash.log
is the Erlang/OTP log, with the crash messages reported by Erlang/OTP using SASL (System Architecture Support Libraries)

The option loglevel modifies the verbosity of the file ejabberd.log. The syntax:

loglevel: Level
The standard form to set a global log level.

The possible Level are:

0
No ejabberd log at all (not recommended)
1
Critical
2
Error
3
Warning
4
Info
5
Debug

For example, the default configuration is: 

loglevel: 4

Option log_rate_limit is useful if you want to protect the logging mechanism from being overloaded by excessive amount of log messages. The syntax is:

log_rate_limit: N
Where N is a maximum number of log messages per second. The default value is 100.

When the limit is reached the similar warning message is logged: 

lager_error_logger_h dropped 800 messages in the last second that exceeded the limit of 100 messages/sec

By default ejabberd rotates the log files when they get grown above a certain size. The exact value is controlled by log_rotate_size option. The syntax is:

log_rotate_size: N
Where N is the maximum size of a log file in bytes. The default value is 10485760 (10Mb).

ejabberd can also rotates the log files at given date interval. The exact value is controlled by log_rotate_date option. The syntax is:

log_rotate_date: D
Where D is a string with syntax is taken from the syntax newsyslog uses in newsyslog.conf. The default value is "" (no rotation triggered by date).

However, you can rotate the log files manually. For doing this, set log_rotate_size option to 0 and log_rotate_date to empty list, then, when you need to rotate the files, rename and then reopen them. The ejabberdctl command reopen-log (please refer to section 4.1.1) reopens the log files, and also renames the old ones if you didn’t rename them.

The option log_rotate_count defines the number of rotated files to keep by reopen-log command. Every such file has a numeric suffix. The exact format is:

log_rotate_count: N
The default value is 1, which means only ejabberd.log.0, error.log.0 and crash.log.0 will be kept.

7.2  Debug Console

The Debug Console is an Erlang shell attached to an already running ejabberd server. With this Erlang shell, an experienced administrator can perform complex tasks.

This shell gives complete control over the ejabberd server, so it is important to use it with extremely care. There are some simple and safe examples in the article Interconnecting Erlang Nodes

To exit the shell, close the window or press the keys: control+c control+c.

7.3  Watchdog Alerts

ejabberd includes a watchdog mechanism that may be useful to developers when troubleshooting a problem related to memory usage. If a process in the ejabberd server consumes more memory than the configured threshold, a message is sent to the XMPP accounts defined with the option watchdog_admins in the ejabberd configuration file.

The syntax is:

watchdog_admins: [JID, ...]

The memory consumed is measured in words: a word on 32-bit architecture is 4 bytes, and a word on 64-bit architecture is 8 bytes. The threshold by default is 1000000 words. This value can be configured with the option watchdog_large_heap, or in a conversation with the watchdog alert bot.

The syntax is:

watchdog_large_heap: Number

Example configuration: 

watchdog_admins:
  - "admin2@localhost"
  - "admin2@example.org"
watchdog_large_heap: 30000000

To remove watchdog admins, remove them in the option. To remove all watchdog admins, set the option with an empty list: 

watchdog_admins: []

Appendix A  Internationalization and Localization

The source code of ejabberd supports localization. The translators can edit the gettext .po files using any capable program (KBabel, Lokalize, Poedit...) or a simple text editor.

Then gettext is used to extract, update and export those .po files to the .msg format read by ejabberd. To perform those management tasks, in the src/ directory execute make translations. The translatable strings are extracted from source code to generate the file ejabberd.pot. This file is merged with each .po file to produce updated .po files. Finally those .po files are exported to .msg files, that have a format easily readable by ejabberd.

All built-in modules support the xml:lang attribute inside IQ queries. Figure A.1, for example, shows the reply to the following query: 

<iq id='5'
    to='example.org'
    type='get'
    xml:lang='ru'>
  <query xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#items'/>
</iq>
discorus.png
Figure A.1: Service Discovery when xml:lang=’ru’

The Web Admin also supports the Accept-Language HTTP header.

webadmmainru.png
Figure A.2: Web Admin showing a virtual host when the web browser provides the HTTP header ‘Accept-Language: ru’

Appendix B  Release Notes

Release notes are available from ejabberd Home Page

Appendix C  Acknowledgements

Thanks to all people who contributed to this guide:

Appendix D  Copyright Information

Ejabberd Installation and Operation Guide.
Copyright © 2003 — 2014 ProcessOne

This document is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this document; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.