Can the freepbx + asterisk (+dahdi and anything else necessary) be setup on an existing debian wheezy dedicated server that is being used to serve web pages, and run a horde mail system - and have all of it work together?
I need an experienced users answer to this most crucial of questions - before I continue. I’ve got it all installed on an existing wheezy server and asterisk is running, but I can’t give apache2 and www-data asterisk ownership, or the webpages and horde email system the server is running are no longer accessible.
All I want to do is have SIP phone numbers and have uses be able to call them, hear a message, leave a message, etc. No tie-in with any actual real phone lines is necessary.
Sorry I can’t help with the specific mechanics of it all, but in general, Asterisk servers can and often do coexist with other services on the same server. It’s not really recommended unless you’re sure that your load (from the PBX and from other running services) will be low enough to not degrade PBX performance. But it can and often is done, so the short answer to your question is, no, a dedicated server is usually not absolutely “required”.
It’s related to the distinction between “hard real time” and “soft real time”… with the former, any delay beyond the specified max allowed delay, even once, is a fatal error, whereas with the latter, an occasional delay or degradation is accepted, which forces you to come up with an acceptable definition of “occasional”.
In wheezy or any debian like distro the default apache2 user will be www-data you can change that in /etc/apache2/envvars if you have nothing else on that server, it is easiest to change that to asterisk, if otherwise you will need to adjust you user/group permissions.