System information

Base system update
Once you’ve rebooted your system, you need to run the yum update command to make
sure you have the latest base packages. To do this, log in using the username root and
the password you created during installation. Once logged in, run the following:
# yum update
Is this ok [y/N]: y
When prompted to install the latest packages, press y and wait for the packages to
update. If you’re asked to accept a GPG key, press y
. When complete, reboot the system
as it is likely the kernel will have been updated
‡
:
# reboot
If you’re running CentOS Server 64-bit, you’ll need to remove all the
32-bit libraries manually. Once you’ve rebooted, or just prior to reboot,
run the following command:
# yum remove *.i386 -y
This will remove all the 32-bit libraries on your 64-bit system, which
can otherwise cause conflicts and issues when compiling Asterisk and
other software.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed and updated the base CentOS system.
Enabling NTP for accurate system time
Keeping accurate time is essential on your Asterisk system, both for maintaining accu-
rate call detail records and for synchronization with your other programs. You don’t
want the times of your voicemail notifications to be off by 10 or 20 minutes, as this can
lead to confusion and panic from those who might think their voicemail notifications
are taking took too long to be delivered. The ntpd command can be used to ensure that
the time on your Asterisk server remains in sync with the rest of the world:
# yum install ntp
...
Is this ok [y/N]: y
...
# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
# chkconfig ntpd on
# service ntpd start
The defaults shipped with CentOS are sufficient to synchronize the time and keep the
machine’s time in sync with the rest of the world.
‡ This reboot step is essential prior to installing Asterisk.
38 | Chapter 3: Installing Asterisk