How to Install Red5 on CentOS 7

Red5 is a popular flash-based streaming software that allows users to stream their own content on their own server, as opposed to using a service such as Twitch or YouTube. This allows for greater control over your stream and allows you to customize how your viewers interact with your streamed content. In this article, we will outline how to install Red5 on your CentOS 7 server. As this process requires use of the Linux command-line and root access, we recommend only performing this task if you are comfortable using the command-line interface.

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Building the Red5 RPM Package

Before you can install Red5, you need to build the package from the source code. To do this, you must first install the rpm-build software that allows you to build the Red5 RPM package.

  1. First, cd or change directory in to the /usr/src folder as follows:

    cd /usr/src
  2. Next, install rpm-build with the following command:

    yum -y install rpm-build
  3. Next, use the git clone command to clone the Red5 source code to your server: 

    git clone https://github.com/Red5/installer/ ./red5-installer
  4. Then, cd into the red5-installer/redhat/ folder: 

    cd red5-installer/redhat/
  5. Inside this folder, build the Red5 RPM package with the following command: 

    ./make_rpmPackage.sh <version number> 

Installing the Red5 RPM package

  1. Now that the necessary package has been built, you can install it with the following command:

    yum -y localinstall RPMS/x86_64/<filename>.rpm
    *To find the name of the .rpm file you built in the previous steps, check the RPMS/x86_64 folder
  2. To complete the installation, you will need to use the nano text editor command to edit the following files:

    nano /var/lib/red5/conf/logback.xml:

    Replace <File>log/red5.log</File> with <File>/var/lib/red5/log/red5.log</File>

    nano /etc/init.d/red5:

    Replace ‘export JAVA_HOME=’ with ‘export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre’

Managing Red5

  1. Now that Red5 has been installed and configured, you can start the service with the following command:

    service red5 start
  2. At any time, you can check the status of the Red5 server with the following command:

    service red5 status
  3. To add Red5 to the list of programs that launch automatically when the server reboots, use the following command:

    chkconfig --add red5
  4. Before you can connect to Red5, you will need to open port 5080 in your firewall. You can do this via the following command:

    sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=5080/tcp
  5. To test if Red5 was installed properly, you can visit your IP followed by :5080. For example, if your IP is 123.4.5.6, you can visit 123.4.5.6:5080 to test the installation. If the installation was successful, you should see the following page in your browser:

    Red5 Splash Page

Congratulations, you have successfully installed Red5!

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