Tech

Hosting Vodia PBX in Google Cloud

Published on:

August 9, 2019

To set up the Vodia PBX on Google Cloud, start by creating a VM instance in Google Cloud's Compute Engine - choose a region, zone and a compatible operating system, like Debian. Once the instance is running, configure firewall rules to allow essential ports, such as 80, 443 and SIP-specific ports (5060/5061) to enable communication. Use SSH to install the Vodia PBX by downloading and executing the installation script. After installation, configure the Vodia PBX login, then adjust IP routing settings to recognize the Google Cloud NAT by specifying internal and external IPs. This setup helps you effectively run the Vodia PBX in a cloud environment with secure, remote access and full functionality.

In this blog, we will cover the basic steps for setting up the Vodia PBX with Google Cloud. If you don’t have a google account, you can sign up at https://cloud.google.com/ and get $300 to spend on Google Cloud Platform over the next 12 months!

If you don’t have a Vodia account, sign up for free and receive a free license. https://portal.vodia.com/en/register

Getting Started

Once you have access to your Google Cloud, navigate to (Compute Engine) to create a VM.

Create Virtual Machine in Google Cloud Platform

Click on create

Create Virtual Machine in Google Cloud Platform

Setting up your VM

  • Name Your instance (lower case) no spaces
  • Choose your region and zone
  • Machine configuration (choose General-Purpose)
Setup Virtual Machine in Google Cloud Platform

Building your instance

  • Choose your operating system (for this tutorial we are using Debian). You can use Windows or any other Linux flavor.
  • Service Account (Choose Compute Engine default service account)
  • Access Scope (Choose Allow default access)
  • Firewall Setting (Choose Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTPS Traffic)

When done, click create.

Create an instance in Google Cloud Platform

Running instance

Now that the VM is running, Google has provided us with internal IP and external IP addresses. These IP addresses will be assigned to the Vodia PBX to determine the audio packets.

Internal and External IPs in Google Cloud Platform

Edit the firewall

Next, we are going to set up the firewall on Google Cloud.

Click on your instance as shown below.

Setup Firewall Settings in Google Cloud Platform

Next, scroll down to (Network details) and click on (View details)

Network Instances for Firewall in Google Cloud Platform

In the right-hand panel, choose (Firewall rule).

Firewall Rules in Google Cloud Platform

Create Firewall Rules

  • Click on (default-allow-internal)
  • Change the IP source address from to 10.128.0.0/9 to 0.0.0.0/0 and save.
  • This will take care of the following ports:

80 (TCP)

443 (TCP

5060 (UDP)

5061 (TCP)

RTP Ports 49152- 64512

LDAP Ports 2345-2346

Create Firewall Rules in Google Cloud Platform

Installing the Vodia PBX Phone System

To install the Vodia PBX, we need to log in with SSH. To do this, click on the SSH drop down and choose (open in the browser window).

Install the Vodia PBX to login with SSH

This will open an SSH session on your browser.

Connect SSH Session on browser in Google Cloud Platform

Since we are using Debian, I am going to navigate to https://doc.vodia.com/install_linux for the executable script.

In the command line, copy-paste the following in order.

In Debian:

  • wget http://portal.vodia.com/downloads/pbx/install-debian.sh  
  • after the script has been downloaded, copy-paste the following cmd.
  • chmod a+rx install-debian.sh
Debian installation script for Vodia PBX
  • To execute the script, you will have to use sudo ./install-debian.sh - then sit back and relax!
Installing Debian in Vodia PBX

When the script is done installing, the Vodia PBX will automatically start up.

Logging into the Vodia PBX

To log in to the Vodia PBX, you will need to check your external IP address. This can be found in the main page of your VM.

Copy-paste the IP or click on the open browser link.

Vodia Login in VM instances

You will be presented with the Vodia log in page. The user login is admin. There’s no password configured yet, so we will have to create one.

Vodia Login Screen

You will be presented with the license terms - click Agree to continue.

Vodia License Terms

Vodia PBX license

Setting up the log in password

Navigate to settings –> Security –>General

  • Enter a username
  • Enter a password /repeat
  • Allow login only from listed address ( is optional)
  • Save the password in a safe place
Vodia PBX - Administration Login Settings

Behind NAT

Since Google Cloud is behind NAT, we need to program the Vodia PBX to use the external IP address of the VM. The (IP Routing list) in the Vodia PBX is used to override the operating system IP routing table (this setting will be consulted by the system before consulting/using the operating system).

To check your internal/external IP address, click on the three-line icon and scroll down to (Compute Engine).

NAT in Google Cloud Platform

In this example, my internal IP is 10.150.0.2 and my external IP is 35.236.234.40

IP Routing list value is as follows:

Example: :10.150.0.0/255.255.255.0/10.150.0.2 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0/35.236.234.40

To add your IP routing list on the Vodia PBX, navigate to Settings –>SIP –>Setting as shown below, then add your value and save.

IP routing List in the Vodia PBX

To learn more about the Vodia PBX phone system, visit https://vodia.com/getting-started-with-vodia

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