Configuring Wowza Streaming Engine with ApsaraVideo Live
By Valerie YJ Lee, Solutions Architect
For customers who are interested in deploying a live streaming service with content acceleration, you can consider using ApsaraVideo Live. This solution uses Content Delivery Network (CDN) for content acceleration, and a third-party streaming engine on an Alibaba Cloud environment, and the ApsaraVideo Live product. With ApsaraVideo Live, the streaming service can be made faster and more reliable for customers located in both Mainland China and international users with Alibaba Cloud’s comprehensive CDN node coverage.
In this article, I will describe how to setup Wowza streaming engine with ApsaraVideo Live to accelerate live streaming service on Alibaba Cloud.
Overview of Solution
- Set up OBS for pushing video file to Wowza engine (IP:123.123.123.13)
- Enable ApsaraVideo Live
- Configure ApsaraVideo Live:
- Enable streaming service domain: live.abc.com
- You will get streaming domain’s CNAME for acceleration: live.abc.com.w.kunlunsl.com
- Transcoding part (stream channel, streaming application name as alitest)
- Set up stream target on Wowza engine with stream ingest from ApsaraVideo Live
- Streaming video on OBS tool with the streaming domain
Prerequisites
- A Wowza engine and license
- Wowza engine is available on Alibaba Cloud’s Elastic Compute Service (ECS) in the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace at: https://marketplace.alibabacloud.com/products/56712002/Wowza_Streaming_Engine_4_BYOL_Edition-cmjj012358.html?spm=a2c41.12740828.0.0.25d61400JRJctS
- You can also use your own Wowza server in your data center or office. Trial or full version license is required.
- Service domain
- Streaming domain is required for ApsaraVideo Live configuration
Live Streaming Environment Preparation
OBS (Open Broadcaster Software)
Configuration Menu
In the OBS menu, click the Settings button of bottom right side, and then click the “Stream” menu. Type the information like below. [rtmp://Wowza engine IP/Application/StreamName]
Streaming Engine Configuration
Wowza Engine
1. Check the Process Status
Check the Wowza processes are alive with “ps -ef” linux operation.
2. Access the Wowza Streaming Engine Admin Page
In order to setup Wowza streaming engine, connect to the web management console with [http://ubuntu server IP:8088] port. After clicking “Next, you will see the login page. Since there is no information of the accounts, a new account creation is required.
3. User Creation for Wowza Engine Management
Under Wowza engine folder [/usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine], you can find the “config” directory. In this directory, there is a Wowza management id/password file called “admin.password”.
After that, just type [ID] [Password] [group] like below, and save it.
4. Login the Administration Page
Now, you can log in to the Wowza Streaming engine management console with the new ID and password.
5. Update the License Key
When you receive the Wowza engine license key via email, enter the key on the “Server Setup” page.
It should take a few seconds to restart the Wowza server.
6. Update “Source Authentication”
In order to enable the RTMP streaming on the Wowza engine, it is necessary to update “Source Authentication” with the new user which you have created at the beginning.
7. Add an Application
In the Live applications list, the app named “live” is the default one. If you want to setup a new application for integrating with ApsaraVideo Live, click “Add Application” and select “Live” type.
Wowza with ApsaraVideo Live Configuration
ApsaraVideo Live
1. Add Domain
On the ApsaraVideo Live console, navigate to “Domains” and add the streaming domain on the by clicking the “Add Domain” button.
2. Domain Settings
Check the domain settings below. (CNAME will be added later.)
Navigate to “Encoding Settings” from “Template Config.
Create the “Application Name”, and select video files’ quality (multiple choice)
Navigate to “Stream Ingest Information” under Basic Settings. Review the basic settings on Domain List. The “Ingest URL” will be used on the next step for the Wowza engine configuration.
Wowza Engine
1. Wowza “Source Security”
For sending streaming files to ApsaraVideo Live, select the “Source Security” from the left menu on the Wowza management console. Then, enable “RTMP Sources” as “Open”. If you want more powerful authentication options, you may select additional options as well.
2. Stream Targets
This is a very important step to ensure the stream works correctly. In order to deliver accelerated streaming service with Alibaba Cloud ApsaraVideo Live, select “Stream Targets” on the left panel. Then, Click the “Generic RTMP” icon and “Next” button.
Type the information “Source Stream Name” as you have configured of OBS. All the other configuration is related with ApsaraVideo Live.
Domain Setting on DNS
Add CNAME Record on DNS
Change the service domain as CNAME to ApsaraVideo Live service domain.
Start Live Streaming
OBS
Click the “Start Streaming” Button
OBS will show “LIVE” status on the bottom line
Wowza Engine
Check the Incoming Streams on the Wowza Engine
On the management page, go to Applications > application name. When you click the “Incoming Streams”, you can see the active status below.
ApsaraVideo Live
Streaming Media on Alibaba Cloud ApsaraVideo Live
If the incoming streams to Wowza engine is active, the traffic delivery to needs to be delivered to ApsaraVideo Live side for media traffic acceleration. After clicking “Stream Targets”, you can see the active status on the right side.
If there is any Error status, your “Stream Targets” configuration has some problem to connect ApsaraVideo Live environment. Please review the configuration.
Video Player
Open the Live Streaming URL on the Player
Ta-da! Now you can see the live video file via the live streaming URL!
Troubleshooting Issues
When you get in trouble in any step, you can find some clues from server log file. On the Wowza management console, these “Server > Logs” tabs show real-time logs on the Wowza engine side. Good luck!
Further Reading
For more details about Wowza engine on Alibaba Cloud, this URL helps you:
https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-streaming-engine-for-linux-on-alibaba?spm=a2c41.12740828.0.0.25d61400JRJctS
