Managing the server

    Remote management tools

    To manage your Amazon Web Services account, use any of the following:

    • AWS Management Console

      When you sign in to the console, select Amazon EC2 from the drop-down list. Or, after you sign in to the console, select the Amazon EC2 tab. After you sign in, you can launch an instance of Flash Media Server.

    • Elasticfox, a Firefox browser extension that works much like the AWS Management Console.

    • Amazon Web Services API

      Amazon has several developer tools that let you call the Web Services API to manage your instances and applications. See Amazon Developer Tools.

    • Amazon EC2 API Tools

      Amazon describes these tools as, “The client interface to the Amazon EC2 web service. Use these tools to register and launch instances, manipulate security groups, and more.”

    To connect to the Flash Media Server instance from a remote computer, use any of the following:

    • SSH clients (for example, PuTTY, Terminal, and WinSCP). These SSH clients can also use SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) and SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol). See Managing content.

    • Flash Media Server Administration Console

      You can use the Administration Console to manage multiple Flash Media Server instances. Flash Media Server Administration Console is not configured to run by default.

    Flash Media Server Administration Console

    Flash Media Server Administration Console is not configured to run by default. To use it, you must enable it in the fms.ini configuration file and start it.

    For general information about the Administration Console, see Using the Administration Console.

    Configure the Administration Server

    1. In /opt/adobe/fms/conf/fms.ini, set values for the following parameters:

      • SERVER.ADMIN_USERNAME = someusername

      • SERVER.ADMIN_PASSWORD = somepassword

      • SERVER.ADMINSERVER_HOSTPORT = :1111

      The first two parameters add one user for the Administration Console. To add additional users, see the next section, “Add administrators”.

    2. Restart the server:

      ./fmsmgr server fms restart

    3. Open port 1111 in the Security Group of the instances you want to administer. Open the port only to the IP addresses that are allowed to access the Administration Server. See Modifying a Security Group.

    Start, stop, or restart the Administration Server

    1. Do one of the following to connect to the instance over SSH:

    2. Enter the following to change to the Flash Media Server root installation directory:

      cd /opt/adobe/fms

    3. To start, stop, or restart the server:

      ./fmsmgr adminserver start | stop | restart

    Add administrators

    1. To add administrators for a particular application, copy a Users.xml configuration file from opt/adobe/fms/conf to /mnt/applications/myapplication. Add a <User></User> section to the Users.xml file with the username and password of the administrator.

      See Configure an application.

    2. You can optionally specify which IP addresses and domains each administrator is allowed to connect from <Allow></Allow>, and which IP addresses and domains each administrator is not allowed to connect from <Deny></Deny>.

    3. Restart the server and the Administration Server:

      ./fmsmgr adminserver restart

      ./fmsmgr server fms restart

      Note: When you edit a configuration file, restart Flash Media Server. When you edit the Users.xml configuration file, restart Flash Media Server and Flash Media Administration Server.

    Secure the Administration Console

     To limit access to the Administration Server at a global level, edit the Server.xml configuration file. For information, see Limit access to Flash Media Administration Server.

    Connect to the Administration Console

    1. Open a web browser and enter the following into the address bar:

      http://public-dns/fms_adminConsole.htm

      For example:

      http://ec2-184-72-164-117.compute-1.amazonaws.com/fms_adminConsole.htm

      The Administration Console is located on the instance in the following directory:

      /mnt/webroot/fms_adminConsole.htm

    2. In the Server Address box, enter the Public DNS of the instance.

    3. Enter the administrator username and password.

      The username and password are stored in the /opt/adobe/fms/conf/fms.ini file.

      For security reasons, the administration console does not save your password between sessions.

    4. (Optional) Select the Automatically Connect Me option.

    5. (Optional) Click Revert to return the Administration Console to its default settings.

      Reverting deletes all saved servers, user names, and passwords from the Administration Console. All custom resizing within the Administration Console is restored to the original state. (The Revert button, however, does not affect the server.)

    6. Click Login.

      You can disconnect at any time by clicking Logoff.

    Run the Administration Console from another computer

    To run the Administration Console from a computer other than the one hosting the instance, copy fms_adminConsole.htm, fms_adminConsole.swf, and AC_RunActiveContent.js from /opt/adobe/fms/tools to the other computer.

    Verify that the Allow and Deny tags in the Users.xml file allow the connection from the other computer’s IP address.

    Using the Administration API

    The Flash Media Administration Server has an API that you can use to monitor and administer the server. You can call Administration APIs over RTMP and HTTP.

    Flash Media Server 4 Administration API Reference

    To call Administration APIs, configure and start the Administration Server. See the tasks in the section Flash Media Server Administration Console. After you’ve completed those tasks, you can call Administration APIs over RTMP.

    Call Administration APIs over HTTP:

    1. Edit the /opt/adobe/fms/conf/fms.ini file as follows:

      USERS.HTTPCOMMAND_ALLOW = TRUE

    2. Edit the file opt/adobe/fms/conf/Users.xml to list the Administration APIs that can be called over HTTP (only ping is allowed, by default):

      <AdminServer> 
                <HTTPCommands> 
<!-- The <Enable> value is set in the fms.ini file. --> 
            <Enable>${USERS.HTTPCOMMAND_ALLOW}</Enable> 
<!-- List of Admin APIs that can be accessed over HTTP.--> 
<!-- Add multiple commands separated by commas.  "All" indicates --> 
<!-- every command (it's not recommended to allow all commands). --> 
            <Allow>ping</Allow> 
<!-- List of server admin commands denied access via HTTP. --> 
<!-- Add multiple commands seperated by commas.  "All" indicates --> 
<!-- every command. --> 
            <Deny>All</Deny> 
            <Order>Deny,Allow</Order> 
        </HTTPCommands> 
    </AdminServer>

    3. Restart the server and the Administration Server:

      ./fmsmgr adminserver restart

      ./fmsmgr server fms restart

      Note: When you edit a configuration file, restart Flash Media Server. When you edit the Users.xml configuration file, restart Flash Media Server and Flash Media Administration Server.

    For more information, see Working with the Administration API.

    Starting and stopping an instance

    When you launch an instance, the instance is backed by Amazon Secure Simple Storage (S3). After you launch the instance, you can create an Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volume and attach it to the instance. The major difference between S3-backed and EBS-backed instances is that EBS-backed instances can be stopped and restarted. Instances that are S3-backed can be launched and terminated, they cannot be stopped and restarted.

    Important: When you terminate an instance, any changes made to that instance (media copied to the instance and changes to configuration files) are lost. To save media and configuration files, copy them off the instance before you terminate.

    Terminate an instance

    You cannot stop an instance backed by S3, you must terminate it. To start it, you have to launch a new instance (choose an AMI, define a security group, and so on).

    1. In the AWS Management Console, select the instance.

    2. Select the Instance Actions drop-down list and choose Terminate.

    Stop an instance

    You can stop an instance backed by EBS. You cannot stop an instance backed by S3.

    1. In the AWS Management Console, select the instance.

    2. Select the Instance Actions drop-down list and choose Stop.

    Start an instance

    You can start an instance backed by EBS. You cannot start an instance backed by S3.

    1. In the AWS Management Console, select the instance.

    2. Select the Instance Actions drop-down list and choose Start.

    For more information, see Launch an instance of Flash Media Server and Using Amazon Simple Storage Solution (S3) to store content.

    Start and stop the server on Linux

    On Linux, Flash Media Server is installed as a service. Start and stop the Flash Media Server service using the fmsmgr utility. Use the fmsmgr utility to perform other tasks as well, such as configuring the service to start automatically when the system is started.

    Start, stop, or restart Flash Media Server

    1. Log in as a root user.

    2. Change directories to /opt/adobe/fms: cd /opt/adobe/fms.

    3. Open a shell and type one of the following: ./fmsmgr server fms start|stop|restart.

    Start, stop, or restart the Administration Server

    1. Log in as a root user.

    2. Change directories to /opt/adobe/fms: cd /opt/adobe/fms.

    3. Open a shell and type one of the following: ./fmsmgr adminserver start|stop|restart.

    For more information, see Managing the server on Linux.

    Installation directories

    Flash Media Server is installed to the following directory:

    /opt/adobe/fms

    The configuration files are installed to the following directory:

    /opt/adobe/fms/conf

    Flash Media Server on Amazon Web Services has a few differences from a standard Flash Media Server installation. The following directories are located in the /mnt directory:

    /mnt/applications

    /mnt/logs

    /mnt/webroot

    The applications, logs, and webroot directory are in the /mnt directory, because on Flash Media Server on Amazon Web Services, the /mnt directory contains more storage space than the / <root> directory.

    Logging

    The Flash Media Server log files are written to the following directory:

    /mnt/logs

    For more information about logging, see Monitoring and Managing Log Files in the Flash Media Server Configuration and Administration Guide.

    Configuration files

    The server configuration files are located in the following directory:

    /opt/adobe/fms/conf

    You can edit configuration files just as you would on any edition of Flash Media Server. See Working with configuration files.

    Important: When you terminate an instance, all content on the instance is permanently deleted. Before you terminate an instance, copy any content you’ve added or modified, including configuration files, off the instance.

    The following are the differences between the standard Flash Media Enterprise Server configuration files and the Flash Media Server on Amazon Web Services configuration files:

    • Adaptor.xml

      Adaptor/RTMFP/Core/HostPortList/HostPort has a public attribute to allow UDP traffic through Amazon’s firewall: 

       <HostPort public="184.72.197.33:19350-65535">:19350-65535</HostPort>

    • fms.ini

      The Administration Server is not configured or started by default. (See Flash Media Server Administration Console.) To connect to the Administration Server, configure a port: 

      SERVER.ADMINSERVER_HOSTPORT = :1111

      On an instance, the /mnt directory is much larger than the /opt directory. Therefore, content is configured to live in subdirectories of /mnt:

      LIVE_DIR = /mnt/applications/live 
VOD_COMMON_DIR = /mnt/webroot/vod 
VOD_DIR = /mnt/applications/vod/media 
VHOST.APPSDIR = /mnt/applications 
LOGGER.LOGDIR = /mnt/logs

    For information about configuring the server for optimum performance for your streaming use case, see Configuring performance features in the Flash Media Server Configuration and Administration Guide.

    Apache HTTP Server configuration

    The Apache HTTP Server configuration on Flash Media Server on Amazon Web Services is the same as it is on other editions of Flash Media Server. Flash Media Server listens on port 80 and proxies unknown HTTP requests to port 8134. Apache listens on port 8134.

    The Apache root directory is:

    /opt/adobe/fms/Apache2.2/

    The Apache webroot directory is:

    /mnt/webroot/

    For more information, see Configuring Apache HTTP Server.