Signal Installation Steps

README.md

Signal Server Installation Guide

Author: Aqnouch Mohammed aqnouch.mohammed@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper is a quickstart for anyone aims to setup a working Signal Server.

What Is Signal

Signal is an encrypted instant messaging and voice calling application for Android. It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages, which can include images and video messages, and make one-to-one voice calls. Signal uses standard phone numbers as identifiers and end-to-end encryption to secure all communications to other Signal users.

Installation Steps

The main server source code could be found here:

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server

Before starting working let's clonned the source code:

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server.git

Inter the project folder:

cd Signal-server

Build the main server server jar

mvn install -DskipTests	

Prerequisites

To be sure to have the latest version of the programmes.

sudo apt-get update 

Install Java

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install -y oracle-java8-installer
sudo apt-get install -y oracle-java8-unlimited-jce-policy 

Install Redis

sudo apt-get install -y redis-server

Install database

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib -y

Create postgres root user:

sudo -i -u postgres
createdb accountdb
createdb messagedb 

createuser --interactive
psql
ALTER USER "Signal" WITH PASSWORD 'Signal!!';

##Remotely access to the postgresql database To open the port 5432 edit your /etc/postgresql/9.*/main/postgresql.conf and change

listen_addresses='localhost'

To

listen_addresses='*'

Edit

/etc/postgresql/9.*/main/pg_hba.conf

And add

host all all * md5

And restart or restart you DBMS

invoke-rc.d postgresql restart

The configuration files

Here a working server file filled with fake values. You have to provide your own values:

twilio: # Twilio gateway configuration
  accountId: AC0a435e5bc49AC0a435e5bc49AC0a435v
  accountToken: bdc211b8a91990988166a82a65f0aafv
  numbers: [+10133273922]
  messagingServicesId: 
  localDomain: akdev.tech

push:
  queueSize: # Size of push pending queue

turn: # TURN server configuration
  secret: test
  uris: ["turn:127.0.0.1:3478"]

cache:
  url: http://127.0.0.1:6379

directory:
  url: http://127.0.0.1:6379

messageStore: # Postgresql database configuration for message store
  driverClass: org.postgresql.Driver
  user: Signal
  password: Signal!!
  url: jdbc:postgresql://akdev.tech:5432/messagedb

attachments: # AWS S3 configuration
  accessKey: AKIAIHGXT3LQBZVVMH5A
  accessSecret: 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
  bucket: Signal

profiles: # AWS S3 configuration
  accessKey: AKIQBZVVMH5QAIHGXT3A
  accessSecret: TAA2Wy1mGRiHzOCCMlB8TVu7zOiNX2OR/JmzvWSx
  bucket: Signal
  region: eu-west-1

database: # Postgresql database configuration
  driverClass: org.postgresql.Driver
  user: Signal
  password: Signal!!
  url: jdbc:postgresql://akdev.tech:5432/accountdb

apn:
  bundleId: com.nevermynd.messenger
  pushCertificate: config/certs/Certificates.p12
  pushKey: aqnouch

gcm:
  senderId: 90077701463
  apiKey: AIzaSyAHNIwGE0yKG9QnDZQMcziNAF-0zliXOtH

server:
  applicationConnectors:
    - type: http
      port: 8080
  adminConnectors:
    - type: http
      port: 8081

Database migration

Once you have PostresSQL Up&Running with username, password, messagesdb and accountsdb (two db can be the same one) and these parameters are well coded inside TSS' yml file as seen above as jdbc string , you can now create data structures needed by the application.

java -jar ../jars/Signal-2.1.jar  messagedb migrate  ../config/Signal.yml
java -jar ../jars/Signal-2.1.jar  accountdb migrate  ../config/Signal.yml

S3 configuration

create S3 bucket an IAM user, and add it to the S3FullAccess group

Reverse proxy

sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_wstunnel

The configuration to add the the site availible section in: apache /etc/apache2/sites-available/

ServerAdmin aqnouch.mohammed@gmail.com ServerName kalam.app

    DocumentRoot /var/www/kalam/

    <Directory /var/www/tkalam>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>	

SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/kalam.app/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/kalam.app/privkey.pem
Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf

Turn server installation

sudo apt-get install -y coturn
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
sudo turnserver -a -o -v -n  --no-dtls --no-tls -u test:test -r "someRealm"

SSL Certificate

Create the ssl certificate

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot -y
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache  -y
sudo certbot --authenticator standalone --installer apache -d <yourdomain> --pre-hook "systemctl stop apache2" --post-hook "systemctl start apache2"

All feedbacks are welcome

Extra help

I do freelance work, so if you want extra help, we can discuss it over the mail: aqnouch.mohammed@gmail.com