Document ID: 0005
Topic: Multimedia, Streaming
Created: 2006-12-20
Last Updated: 2007-01-24
Author: Stefan Parvu
References: Darwin Streaming Server
OS: Solaris Express. Applicable to Solaris 8, 9, 10

Solaris Streaming Server

Solaris can be used as a server platform to stream audio and video content to different clients: mobile devices, like GSM phones, or PC clients. Basically a streaming server is required in order to make accessible the video or audio files to the clients. Using Darwin Streaming Server from Apple as the main streaming server Solaris can be easily used to broadcast content in Internet.

This section will describe how to install all needed software for a streaming solution under Solaris Operating environment. For this example Solaris Express, aka Nevada, was used. Same instructions can be used on Solaris 9, 10 with minor exceptions: ZFS and Zones.

Note: Solaris Streaming Server has nothing to do with the EOLed product from Sun Microsystems called Sun Streaming Server aka SSS. This document is not written by Sun Microsystems Inc. and it is entirely used for training and education!

Installation

Solaris Installation
Storage: the ZFS pool
Solaris zones
Darwin Streaming Server
SJS Webserver
Transcoders

information about Solaris installation
introducing Solaris zones for streaming
a common shared pool for all zones: use ZFS
installation notes DSS
installing Sun Java System Webserver
utilities used to manipulate video and audio files

Configuration

DSS configuration
Solaris Startup Services

configure DSS, setup playlists
setup and configure all services startup

Tuning and performance

Solaris tuning
Darwin Streaming Server

file descriptors, TCP/IP settings
DSS

Solaris Installation

To experiment with Darwin Streaming Server from Apple, we needed to choose a operating system which can run DSS. Basically Apple is offering their streaming server for: MacOSX, Windows and Fedora RedHat. We have tried to install and configure DSS on Solaris 64 bit running under AMD X2 Dual core: a cheap hardware solution. For this we have choosed Solaris Nevada, also known as Solaris Express, Community Release.

Hardware

This is the hardware configuration used to setup Solaris as a streaming server.

System Vendor: MikroMafia
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium S939 NF4 SLI 2*GLAN
CPU: AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4800+ S939 (2 x 1024 KB L2)
Memory: 2048 MB 4KPL 512Mb Kingston PC-3200 DDRAM
Disks: 3x250 GB SATA2 16MB Cache
Video: GEFORCE 6600 256MB VGA+DVI+TV-OUT
Network: Dual Gigabit LAN: nVidia and Marvell 88E81001

Note: You can experiment using different hardware configurations: Opteron, Xeon or SPARC based systems. For ZFS it would make sense to have more than one physical disk installed on the system.

DVD Installation

You will need to download the Solaris Express CR DVD image from OpenSolaris Downloads and follow the Solaris Installation guide using DVD media. If you have more than one physical disk on the system install Solaris on the first disk and later mirror the OS using Solaris Volume Manager.

Disks: 1 disk for OS, 2 disks for ZFS
Swap: 2GB
Dumpadm: 2GB for dedicated dumpadm device
Software Packages: full installation of Solaris Express

Storage: the ZFS pool

Note: For using ZFS/Zones Solaris 10U2 is required ! Each Solaris Zone will have its own rootpath on ZFS which at this moment is not a supported configuration since the Solaris Upgrade module will fail. For this exercise we are not interesting in using Solaris Upgrade

Before starting to install all needed software for the streaming solution we should setup how and where we will install the software. What layout and how we will use the disks ? More we would like to have within Solaris several zones used for different purposes: one zone for testing and another one for production usage and all these zones should be able to use the new filesystem, ZFS. Basically we would like to have a number of Solaris Zones which should be able to have its own rootpath on ZFS and we would like that each zone to be installed on a filesystem which is created as a mirror between two physical disks, in order to protect our data.

In short: we will need to create a ZFS pool as a mirror of two disks, then create several filesystems within this pool for each zone. If needed apply certain restrictions for each filesystem: quota or compression as you might need. Below is a simple representation of the mentioned setup layout:

Next, we will try to create a ZFS pool from two disks: c1d0 and c3d0 as a mirror, RAID 1. Then define several filesystems used to host some zones for testing or production. After these we will list all pools and all filesystems and check their status.

1). List all devices:
# format
Searching for disks...done


AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 30512 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63> 
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7/ide@0/cmdk@0,0
       1. c2d0 <DEFAULT cyl 30512 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@8/ide@0/cmdk@0,0
       2. c3d0 <DEFAULT cyl 30512 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63> 
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@8/ide@1/cmdk@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number):


2). Create the ZFS pool:
# zpool create -f zones mirror c1d0 c3d0 

# zpool list
NAME                    SIZE    USED   AVAIL    CAP  HEALTH     ALTROOT
zones                   232G     89K    232G     0%  ONLINE     -


3). Create the ZFS filesystems:
# zfs create zones/zone1_streaming_prod
# zfs create zones/zone2_streaming_prod
# zfs create zones/zone3_streaming_test


# chmod 700 /zones/zone3_streaming_test
# chmod 700 /zones/zone2_streaming_prod
# chmod 700 /zones/zone1_streaming_prod


4). ZFS Filesystems Status:
# zfs list
NAME                         USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
zones                        178K   228G  28.5K  /zones
zones/zone1_streaming_prod  24.5K   228G  24.5K  /zones/zone1_streaming_prod
zones/zone2_streaming_prod  24.5K   228G  24.5K  /zones/zone2_streaming_prod
zones/zone3_streaming_test  24.5K   228G  24.5K  /zones/zone3_streaming_test


5). Apply ZFS Quota:
# zfs set quota=25g zones/zone3_streaming_test

# zfs list
NAME                         USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
zones                        178K   228G  28.5K  /zones
zones/zone1_streaming_prod  24.5K   228G  24.5K  /zones/zone1_streaming_prod
zones/zone2_streaming_prod  24.5K   228G  24.5K  /zones/zone2_streaming_prod
zones/zone3_streaming_test  24.5K  25.0G  24.5K  /zones/zone3_streaming_test


6). Verify the Kernel memory usage:
# echo ::memstat | mdb -k                                                    
Page Summary                Pages                MB  %Tot
------------     ----------------  ----------------  ----
Kernel                      58410               228   11%
Anon                        33893               132    6%
Exec and libs                8487                33    2%
Page cache                  21793                85    4%
Free (cachelist)            16084                62    3%
Free (freelist)            383459              1497   73%

Total                      522126              2039
Physical                   522125              2039

Solaris Zones

To be flexible and consolidate several loads on one server we will try to introduce and use Solaris Zones. Each Solaris zone will sit in its own filesystem and will run its own set of processes, the streaming server. In one zone we can put all software together and test it, by keeping a minimal load on the system. We can simulate as well under the testing zone a real work situation: simultaneus clients accessing the streaming server. When we are happy with the testing results we can simple push the things into the production zone.

Note: It would be better to have different hardware servers for test and production. However for this exercise and for small firms same hardware can be utilized in order to minimize the costs and take advadtadge of your hardware.

Below we will describe the process of creating all needed zones: 2 zones for production usage and one zone for testing. For this exercise we will simple install all software only under the testing zone !

1). Zone defintion
# zonecfg -z streamingTestZ3
streamingTestZ3: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3> create
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3> set zonepath=/zones/zone3_streaming_test
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3> add net
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3:net> set physical=nge0
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3:net> set address=192.168.1.10
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3:net> end
zonecfg:streamingTestZ3> exit


2). Zone Installation
# zoneadm -z streamingTestZ3 install
cannot create ZFS dataset zones/zone3_streaming_test: dataset already exists
Preparing to install zone .
Creating list of files to copy from the global zone.
Copying <28166> files to the zone.
Initializing zone product registry.
Determining zone package initialization order.
Preparing to initialize <1191> packages on the zone.
Initialized <1191> packages on zone.                                 
Zone  is initialized.
Installation of these packages generated warnings: 

The file  
contains a log of the zone installation.


3). Create the sysidcfg file
# > /zones/zone3_streaming_test/root/etc/sysidcfg
# vi /zones/zone3_streaming_test/root/etc/sysidcfg
system_locale=C
terminal=xterm
network_interface=primary {
 hostname=streamingTestZ3
}
timeserver=localhost
security_policy=NONE
name_service=NONE
timezone=Europe/Helsinki
root_password=""


4). Update the NFS4 state domain file
# > /zones/zone3_streaming_test/root/etc/.NFS4inst_state.domain


5). List all zones 
# zoneadm list -cv
  ID NAME             STATUS         PATH                           BRAND     
   0 global           running        /                              native    
   - streamingTestZ3  installed      /zones/zone3_streaming_test    native    


6). Boot the zone
# zoneadm -z streamingTestZ3 boot


7). Login to the testing zone
# zlogin -C streamingTestZ3
[Connected to zone 'streamingTestZ3' console]
 29/125

You will see a counter, simple wait until all SMF services are started.
Change the root password for the streamingTestZ3 zone.


rebooting system due to change(s) in /etc/default/init


[NOTICE: Zone rebooting]


SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_55 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Hostname: streamingTestZ3
Jan 22 15:37:30 svc.startd[7738]: svc:/system/dbus:default: Method "/lib/svc/method/svc-dbus start" failed with exit status 95.
Jan 22 15:37:30 svc.startd[7738]: system/dbus:default failed fatally: transitioned to maintenance (see 'svcs -xv' for details)
Jan 22 15:37:30 streamingTestZ3 sendmail[7921]: My unqualified host name (streamingTestZ3) unknown; sleeping for retry

streamingTestZ3 console login: 

# df -h
Filesystem             size   used  avail capacity  Mounted on
/                       25G   1.3G    24G     6%    /
/dev                     0K     0K     0K     0%    /dev
/lib                    61G    17G    43G    28%    /lib
/platform               61G    17G    43G    28%    /platform
/sbin                   61G    17G    43G    28%    /sbin
/usr                    61G    17G    43G    28%    /usr
proc                     0K     0K     0K     0%    /proc
ctfs                     0K     0K     0K     0%    /system/contract
mnttab                   0K     0K     0K     0%    /etc/mnttab
objfs                    0K     0K     0K     0%    /system/object
swap                   4.1G   232K   4.1G     1%    /etc/svc/volatile
/usr/lib/libc/libc_hwcap2.so.1
                        61G    17G    43G    28%    /lib/libc.so.1
fd                       0K     0K     0K     0%    /dev/fd
swap                   4.1G   456K   4.1G     1%    /tmp
swap                   4.1G    12K   4.1G     1%    /var/run


# uname -a
SunOS streamingTestZ3 5.11 snv_55 i86pc i386 i86pc

Darwin Streaming Server

Darwin Streaming Server, DSS, is available in source code format from Apple main site. There are binaries packgaes for Linux, MacOS and Windows but not for Solaris. We will use the latest version, at this time DSS 5.5.4

Download the source code

Start building DSS

1). Unpack the source code $ mkdir stage $ cd stage $ gtar xvf ../DarwinStreamingSrvr5.5.4-Source.tar $ cd DarwinStreamingSrvr5.5.4-Source/ 2). Compile DSS 2.1 Modifications $ vi +159 PlatformHeader.h #ifdef sparc #define BIGENDIAN 1 #else #define BIGENDIAN 0 #endif COMPILER_FLAGS="-D__solaris__ -D_REENTRANT -DFD_SETSIZE=65536 -L/opt/dss/lib -R/opt/dss/lib" $ ./Buildit install ... a DarwinStreamingSrvr5.5.4-SunOS/AdminHtml/html_en/genres 2K Installing source build of Darwin Streaming Proxy creating directory StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS copying StreamingProxy to StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/StreamingProxy copying streamingproxy.conf to StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/streamingproxy.conf copying StreamingProxy.html to StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/StreamingProxy.html Done. a StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/ 0K a StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/StreamingProxy 84K a StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/streamingproxy.conf 1K a StreamingProxy-5.5.4-SunOS/StreamingProxy.html 5K Success! $ ls -lrt DarwinStreamingSrvr5.5.4-SunOS.tar.gz 3). Install DSS # groupadd qtss # useradd -g qtss -d /opt/dss -c "Darwin Streaming Server" -m qtss 64 blocks Modify Install script to replace all /usr/local to /opt/dss After this run the installer script: # ./Install Installing Darwin Streaming Server Checking for and Killing currently running Darwin Streaming Server kill: 1678: no such process kill: 1683: no such process Removing previous versions of Darwin Streaming Server Backing up previous config files Inserting path to perl into scripts.. Creating unprivileged user to run the server = "qtss". creating /opt/dss/sbin directory creating /opt/dss/bin directory copying DarwinStreamingServer to /opt/dss/sbin/DarwinStreamingServer copying PlaylistBroadcaster to /opt/dss/bin/PlaylistBroadcaster copying MP3Broadcaster to /opt/dss/bin/MP3Broadcaster copying qtpasswd to /opt/dss/bin/qtpasswd creating /opt/dss/sbin/StreamingServerModules directory copying createuserstreamingdir to /opt/dss/bin/createuserstreamingdir creating /etc/streaming directory Generating a new prefs file at /etc/streaming/streamingserver.xml Permissions error encountered on pid 1701. WARNING: No module folder exists. INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSFileModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSReflectorModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSRelayModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSAccessLogModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSFlowControlModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSPosixFileSysModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSAdminModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSMP3StreamingModule [static] INFO: Module Loaded...QTSSAccessModule [static] WARNING: No users file found at /etc/streaming/qtusers. WARNING: No groups file found at /etc/streaming/qtgroups. copying relayconfig.xml-Sample to /etc/streaming/relayconfig.xml-Sample copying qtusers to /etc/streaming/qtusers copying qtgroups to /etc/streaming/qtgroups copying readme.txt to /var/streaming/readme.txt copying 3rdPartyAcknowledgements.rtf to /var/streaming/3rdPartyAcknowledgements.rtf creating /opt/dss/movies directory creating /var/streaming/playlists directory copying sample_100kbit.mov into /opt/dss/movies/sample_100kbit.mov copying sample_300kbit.mov into /opt/dss/movies/sample_300kbit.mov copying sample_100kbit.mp4 into /opt/dss/movies/sample_100kbit.mp4 copying sample_300kbit.mp4 into /opt/dss/movies/sample_300kbit.mp4 copying sample.mp3 into /opt/dss/movies/sample.mp3 copying sample_50kbit.3gp into /opt/dss/movies/sample_50kbit.3gp copying sample_h264_100kbit.mp4 into /opt/dss/movies/sample_h264_100kbit.mp4 copying sample_h264_300kbit.mp4 into /opt/dss/movies/sample_h264_300kbit.mp4 copying sample_h264_1mbit.mp4 into /opt/dss/movies/sample_h264_1mbit.mp4 copying StreamingLoadTool to /opt/dss/bin/StreamingLoadTool copying streamingloadtool.conf to /etc/streaming/streamingloadtool.conf copying streamingadminserver.pl into /opt/dss/sbin/streamingadminserver.pl copying Admin HTML to /var/streaming/AdminHtml directory Launching streamingadminserver.pl Installation Complete Darwin Streaming Server Setup In order to administer the Darwin Streaming Server you must create an administrator user [Note: The administrator user name cannot contain spaces, or single or double quote characters, and cannot be more than 255 characters long]. Please enter a new administrator user name: dssadmin You must also enter a password for the administrator user [Note: The administrator password cannot contain spaces, or quotes, either single or double, and cannot be more than 80 characters long]. Please enter a new administrator Password: Re-enter the new administrator password: Adding userName dssadmin Setup Complete! Modify here the administrative Perl script to replace all /usr/local into /opt/dss # pwd /opt/dss/sbin # vi streamingadminserver.pl 4). Start DSS Admin Server # /opt/dss/sbin/streamingadminserver.pl # ptree 893 /sbin/init 900 /lib/svc/bin/svc.startd 1006 /usr/lib/saf/sac -t 300 1011 /usr/lib/saf/ttymon 1609 /usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -d /dev/console -l console -m ldterm,ttcompat -h -p stre 902 /lib/svc/bin/svc.configd 941 /usr/lib/crypto/kcfd 943 /usr/sbin/nscd 977 /usr/sbin/cron 990 /usr/sbin/rpcbind 1002 /usr/lib/autofs/automountd 1008 /usr/lib/inet/inetd start 1030 /usr/sbin/syslogd 1035 /usr/lib/utmpd 1069 /usr/sadm/lib/smc/bin/smcboot 1070 /usr/sadm/lib/smc/bin/smcboot 1071 /usr/sadm/lib/smc/bin/smcboot 1078 /usr/lib/ssh/sshd 1635 /usr/lib/ssh/sshd 1642 /usr/lib/ssh/sshd 1643 -ksh 1648 ksh -o emacs 1666 sh 1767 ptree 1182 /usr/dt/bin/dtlogin -daemon -udpPort 0 1334 /usr/java/bin/java -server -Xmx128m -XX:+BackgroundCompilation -XX:PermSize=32m 1351 /usr/lib/sendmail -Ac -q15m 1352 /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q15m -C /etc/mail/local.cf 1760 /opt/dss/sbin/DarwinStreamingServer 1761 /opt/dss/sbin/DarwinStreamingServer 1764 /usr/bin/perl /opt/dss/sbin/streamingadminserver.pl

Finish the installation using the admin server

Login Page

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Configuration

Tuning

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Solaris Streaming Server

Table of Contents

Installation

Configuration

Tuning and performance

Solaris Installation

Hardware

DVD Installation

Storage: the ZFS pool

Solaris Zones

Darwin Streaming Server

Login Page

Main Page:

Configuration

Tuning