Connecting FreePBX to VICIdial Over a SIP Trunk

A common setup: FreePBX handles the office phone system — extensions, voicemail, IVR, internal calls — while VICIdial runs the outbound campaigns. Both are Asterisk, but they are separate installs with separate dialplans, and VICIdial actively manages its own configuration files.

You link them with a SIP trunk between the two servers. This covers both ends.

Why Not One Box

People ask whether they can just install FreePBX modules onto a VICIdial server. Don’t. FreePBX generates its dialplan from its own database and rewrites extensions_additional.conf. VICIdial generates extensions-vicidial.conf from its database via the keepalive script. They will fight over context names, and you will spend your life untangling which system broke what.

Two servers, one trunk between them. Clean boundaries.

Plan the Numbering First

Decide the ranges before configuring anything:

• FreePBX extensions: 1000–1999
• VICIdial agent phones: 8000–8999
• VICIdial conferences: 8600000+

Overlapping ranges cause routing loops that are genuinely unpleasant to debug. Write the plan down.

For this example:

• FreePBX: 192.168.1.10
• VICIdial: 192.168.1.20

VICIdial Side

Add a carrier under Admin → Carriers → Add A New Carrier. Leave the Registration String empty — these are two static servers on a known network, so use IP trust.

[freepbx]
type=friend
host=192.168.1.10
port=5060
context=trunkinbound
insecure=port,invite
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
allow=alaw
dtmfmode=rfc2833
qualify=yes
canreinvite=no
nat=no

exten => _91XXX,1,AGI(agi://127.0.0.1:4577/call_log)
exten => _91XXX,n,Dial(SIP/freepbx/${EXTEN:1},30,tTo)
exten => _91XXX,n,Hangup()

With the standard 9 dial prefix, an agent dialling 91001 reaches FreePBX extension 1001.

Apply:

/usr/share/astguiclient/ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl
asterisk -rx "sip reload"
asterisk -rx "sip show peer freepbx"

FreePBX Side

• Trunk Name: vicidial
• Outbound CallerID: as appropriate

Under pjsip Settings → General:

• Username: leave blank
• Authentication: None
• Registration: None
• SIP Server: 192.168.1.20
• SIP Server Port: 5060
• Context: from-internal if you want VICIdial agents to reach FreePBX features, or from-pstn to treat it as an external trunk

Under Advanced:

• Match (Permit): 192.168.1.20
• Direct Media: No
• Codecs: ulaw, alaw only

Direct Media: No matters. Let it default to yes and your recordings on either system will be silent, because the media never traverses the server.

If your FreePBX is still on chan_sip, the equivalent peer details are:

type=friend
host=192.168.1.20
context=from-internal
insecure=port,invite
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
canreinvite=no
qualify=yes

Outbound Route on FreePBX

To let FreePBX extensions reach VICIdial agents:

• Route Name: to-vicidial
• Trunk Sequence: vicidial

Dial pattern:

Prepend	Prefix	Match Pattern
		8XXX

Now FreePBX extension 1001 dialling 8001 reaches VICIdial phone 8001.

Submit and Apply Config. FreePBX changes do nothing until applied.

Inbound on VICIdial

Calls arriving from FreePBX land in trunkinbound and hit the DID routing AGI. Two options.

context=default

Use trunkinbound when calls should go through DID routing and in-groups; use default when FreePBX is dialling VICIdial phones directly.

Transfers Between Systems

The reason most people build this: an agent on a campaign call needs to reach someone on the office PBX.

For a blind transfer, the agent uses VICIdial’s transfer screen with the FreePBX extension including the dial prefix — 91001.

For a warm transfer, set up a transfer preset. Admin → Campaigns → Detail → Transfer Preset, defining the extension as 91001.

Transfers fail most often because of the t and T Dial options. Both systems need them:

Dial(SIP/freepbx/${EXTEN:1},30,tTo)

t lets the called party transfer, T the caller. Miss them and transfers silently do nothing.

Caller ID Across the Trunk

VICIdial sets caller ID from the campaign or lead. FreePBX may rewrite it on its own outbound routes. If the FreePBX user needs to see the original external caller rather than the VICIdial agent’s extension, preserve it with the o option:

Dial(SIP/freepbx/${EXTEN:1},30,tTo)

The o in tTo keeps the original caller ID on the outbound leg. On FreePBX, check the trunk’s outbound CallerID is not set to override — leave it blank to pass through.

Verifying

On VICIdial:

asterisk -rx "sip show peer freepbx"

On FreePBX:

asterisk -rx "pjsip show endpoint vicidial"

Both should show reachable with a latency figure.

Test in both directions with debug running:

asterisk -rvvvvv

sip set debug peer freepbx

Common failures:

Firewall

If the two servers sit on different networks, open between them specifically:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="192.168.1.10" port port="5060" protocol="udp" accept'
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="192.168.1.10" port port="10000-20000" protocol="udp" accept'
firewall-cmd --reload

Scope to the peer address rather than opening the ports generally. A trunk between two of your own servers has no reason to accept traffic from anywhere else.