Wowza Streaming Engine™

User Guide
Wowza Streaming Engine
User Guide

Version: 4.8

www.wowza.com

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This document is for informational purposes only and in no way shall be

interpreted or construed to create warranties of any kind, either express
or implied, regarding the information contained herein.
No Endorsement or Warranty for Third-Party Links and Software
This document contains links to third-party websites ("Linked Sites") that are not under the control of
Wowza Media Systems™, LLC ("Wowza™"). Wowza is not responsible for the content on or operation of
Linked Sites. If you access Linked Sites, you do so at your own risk and understand that Wowza accepts no
responsibility or liability for the content or operation of Linked Sites. Wowza provides these links only as a
convenience, and the inclusion of a link does not imply that Wowza endorses such Linked Sites or any
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This document also refers to third-party software that is not licensed, sold, or distributed by Wowza
(collectively, "Third-Party Software"). Wowza does not endorse, is not responsible for, and accepts no
liability related to Third-Party Software. Please ensure that any and all use of Wowza software and third-
party software is properly licensed.
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and other words and phrases, along with other logos, trade dress, and other proprietary colors and
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Except as may be permitted by law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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Document history
Version Description Date
Doc v4.8.0 Document release for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.0 02-05-2020

Note
More complete and up-to-date documentation is available online. See Wowza Streaming Engine product articles for
the latest content.

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Table of contents

What's new .................................................................................................. 7

Transcoder enhancements ..............................................................................................7
Full support for HEVC/H.265 streaming ...........................................................................7
Improvements since Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.0 ......................................................7

Streaming protocols and playback ............................................................ 9

HLS ..................................................................................................................................9
MPEG-DASH .................................................................................................................10
WebRTC ........................................................................................................................11
SRT................................................................................................................................12
HDS ...............................................................................................................................12
Smooth Streaming .........................................................................................................13
RTMP.............................................................................................................................13
RTSP/RTP .....................................................................................................................14
Supported container formats for HLS and MPEG-DASH streaming ..............................15
Supported media file formats for VOD streaming ..........................................................15
Additional protocol and format details ............................................................................16
Live stream transcoding and transrating ........................................................................16
Live stream nDVR ..........................................................................................................18
Stream encryption with DRM .........................................................................................18
AddOns ..........................................................................................................................19
Installed examples .........................................................................................................20

Server installation .................................................................................... 21

Before you start .............................................................................................................21
Installing Wowza Streaming Engine ..............................................................................22
Starting and stopping the software ................................................................................23
Uninstalling Wowza Streaming Engine ..........................................................................27
Running Wowza Streaming Engine as a named user ....................................................27
Entering a license key ....................................................................................................27
Ports used for streaming ................................................................................................30
Server configuration and tuning .....................................................................................31
Software updates ...........................................................................................................32

Application configuration ......................................................................... 33

Applications and application instances ..........................................................................34

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Playback URL formats ...................................................................................................34

Stream types..................................................................................................................36
HTTP streamers and live stream packetizers ................................................................37
Timed text providers ......................................................................................................40
Transcoder and nDVR configurations ............................................................................42
Modules .........................................................................................................................42
Properties ......................................................................................................................43
Media types ...................................................................................................................44
Content storage .............................................................................................................46

Advanced configuration ............................................................................ 48

MediaCaster, Stream files, and Startup Streams ...........................................................48
Live stream repeater (origin/edge live streaming) ..........................................................51
Live stream recording ....................................................................................................54
Virtual hosting ................................................................................................................55
Publishing with the Stream and Publisher classes .........................................................58

Using Wowza Streaming Engine Manger.................................................. 59

Starting and stopping Wowza Streaming Engine Manager ............................................59
Managing sign-in credentials .........................................................................................62
Navigating Wowza Streaming Engine Manager .............................................................64

Server administration ............................................................................... 76

Configuring SSL and RTMPS ........................................................................................76
Logging ..........................................................................................................................77

More resources ......................................................................................... 83

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1
Chapter

What's new

W owza Streaming EngineTM media server software is a robust, customizable, and highly
extensible platform that powers live and on-demand adaptive bitrate streaming to
any device, anywhere. Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.0 contains several fixes and
enhancements that improve the functionality of the media server as well as some exciting
new features.

Transcoder enhancements
Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.0 includes a variety of improvements to the Transcoder
feature. Wowza Transcoder now supports hardware accelerated decoding of HEVC/H.265 on
NVIDIA NVCUVID-based GPUs. The libvpx library was also upgraded to version 1.8.1 to
improve VP8 and VP9 transcoding.

Full support for HEVC/H.265 streaming

Previous versions of Wowza Streaming Engine supported HEVC/H.265 streaming as a
preview feature. This workflow is now fully supported. However, it’s important to note that
HEVC/H.265 video compression hasn’t been widely adopted by player vendors, which means
your options will be limited for delivering these streams to viewers. For more information,
see Stream using HEVC/H.265 with Transcoder in Wowza Streaming Engine.

Improvements since Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.0

Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.0 contains all the big features and improvements since Wowza
Streaming Engine 4.7.0. These include full support for WebRTC and Secure Reliable Transport
(SRT) streaming; the addition of the CMAF packetizer for MPEG-DASH, HLS, and Low-Latency
HLS streaming; and added support for recording MPEG-DASH live streams with the nDVR
feature.
Additionally, Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.0 is built on Java 9 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4)
and can be used with Java versions 9-12. This enables you to use your Wowza Streaming
Engine media server software with Java SE 11, which is a long-term supported version.

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However, because of changes between Java versions, if your Wowza Streaming Engine
workflow uses custom modules or plugins, we recommend that you test them in a non-
production environment prior to updating your production media server software or Java
version. For more information, see Update to Java 9.

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2
Chapter

Streaming protocols and

playback

W owza Streaming Engine supports a wide variety of streaming protocols and formats to
enable live and video-on-demand (VOD) streams to play on the desktop, mobile
devices, set-top boxes, and more. Here’s an overview of all of the protocols and
formats that Wowza Streaming Engine supports to help you understand both what the
protocols are, and which devices and players use each protocol.
For more information, see our technical article Understanding protocols and formats
supported by Wowza Streaming Engine.

HLS
Wowza Streaming Engine uses HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to deliver adaptive bitrate live and
VOD content to iOS devices (iOS 3.0 or later); Wowza Player and QuickTime Player (version
10 or later); Safari (4.0 or later); devices such as the Roku and Amino set-top boxes; and
some smart TVs. HLS is a segment-based protocol that uses HTTP for delivery.
Wowza Streaming Engine delivers HLS streams in any of three ways.
First, using the "Cupertino" packetizer (cupertinostreamingpacketizer), the original HLS
packetizer in Wowza Streaming Engine, the server software packages the content into
keyframe-aligned segments that it calls chunks. These segments use the MPEG-TS container
format. Cupertino streaming, as it's called, can be used for both live and VOD streaming.
Cupertino streaming uses HTTP/1.1 and supports the following codecs:
• Video – H.264
• Audio –AAC, AAC-LC, and HE-AAC (AAC+ or aacPlus); Dolby® Digital 5.1 Surround
Sound (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC-3 or E-AC-3); MP3

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Alternatively, you can use the newer CMAF packetizer (cmafstreamingpacketizer) to

package HLS live streams that contain keyframe-aligned media segments wrapped in the
fMP4 container format instead of the MPEG-TS format. Like Cupertino streams, CMAF-
packaged HLS streams are delivered to players over HTTP/1.1. However, in addition to using
a different container format, CMAF-packaged HLS streams support slightly different codecs:
• Video – H.264, H.265
• Audio – AAC, AAC-LC, HE-AAC (AAC+ or aacPlus), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+, aacPlus
v2); Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC-3
or E-AC-3)
Finally, Wowza Streaming Engine can also produce Low-Latency HLS live streams, which can
be played in native apps on devices running iOS 13. Wowza Streaming Engine generates Low-
Latency HLS streams using the CMAF packetizer, which, in addition to generating CMAF
segments, also generates smaller units of streaming media called chunks in the code base.
These CMAF-compliant chunks also serve as partial segments for Low-Latency HLS
streaming. As a result, you can use the CMAF packetizer to generate Low-Latency HLS
streams whose segments (and partial segments) are wrapped in the fMP4 format and
delivered to players over HTTP/2.
Wowza Streaming Engine populates the playlist file with metadata that describes each of the
available streams in an adaptive bitrate presentation. This enables supporting players to
select the appropriate streams based on hardware device capabilities.
Wowza Streaming Engine supports multiple encryption methods for protecting HLS streams
using DRM. See Secure HLS streaming using DRM encryption with Wowza Streaming Engine.
Wowza Streaming Engine can also send timed data events to the iOS player in the form of
ID3 tags. See Convert timed metadata from AMF to ID3 using the Wowza Streaming Engine
Java API.

MPEG-DASH
Wowza Streaming Engine can deliver MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP)
adaptive bitrate live and VOD content to clients that can play MPEG-DASH streams. MPEG-
DASH is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 23009-1) for streaming segment-based content over HTTP.

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Wowza Streaming Engine provides two packetizers that perform all of the segmenting and
packaging necessary to deliver MPEG-DASH streams. The first,
mpegdashstreamingpacketizer, packetizes the content into keyframe-aligned segments that
it calls chunks. These segments use the fMP4 container format. MPEG-DASH streaming can
be used for both live and VOD streaming and supports the following codecs:
• Video – H.264, H.265
• Audio – AAC, AAC-LC, HE-AAC (AAC+ or aacPlus), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+, aacPlus
v2); Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC-3
or E-AC-3); (Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.2.01 or later) MPEG-4 Audio Lossless
Coding (ALS)
The newer cmafstreamingpacketizer packetizer also segments and packages MPEG-DASH
live streams. CMAF streaming packetizes content into keyframe-aligned segments that use
the fMP4 container format. The CMAF packetizer supports the following codecs for live
streaming over MPEG-DASH:
• Video – H.264, H.265
• Audio – AAC, AAC-LC, HE-AAC (AAC+ or aacPlus), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+, aacPlus
v2); Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC-3
or E-AC-3)
Wowza Streaming Engine provides MPEG-DASH players with a list of the available media
segment URLs in a Media Presentation Description (MPD) manifest. The MPD describes
segment information such as timing, language, timed text, and media characteristics (video
resolution and bitrate). Players request media segments sequentially based on network
conditions, device capabilities, and other factors to enable uninterrupted playback of the
adaptive bitrate media presentation.
MPEG-DASH is codec-agnostic and supports multiplexed and non-multiplexed encoding.
Multiple content protection (DRM) schemes are supported; Common Encryption (CENC) can
also be used to encrypt MPEG-DASH streams once and deliver the single encrypted stream
to players that support different licensing systems. For more information see Secure MPEG-
DASH steams using Common Encryption in Wowza Streaming Engine.

WebRTC
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream live and VOD content to browser players that support
WebRTC streams. WebRTC is an open-source project designed to provide browsers and
mobile applications with real-time communication capabilities.

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Wowza Streaming Engine supports the following video and audio codecs when using this
streaming protocol:
• Video – VP8, VP9, H.264
• Audio – Opus, Vorbis, Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) types PCMU and PCMA
For more information about playing WebRTC streams, see Play WebRTC streams from
Wowza Streaming Engine.

SRT
Wowza Streaming Engine supports MPEG-TS-based Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) in Linux
and Windows server installations. A MediaCaster type enables live applications to ingest SRT
source streams and make them available to all player technologies supported by Wowza
Streaming Engine, and the generic SRT stream target enables you to deliver the SRT content
directly to SRT destinations.
Wowza Streaming Engine supports these codecs for SRT:
• Video – H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9
• Audio – AAC, AAC-LC, HE-AAC (AAC+ or aacPlus), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+, aacPlus
v2); MP3, AC-3 (Dolby® Digital); E-AC-3 (Dolby Digital Plus); ALS (LOAS); Opus; Vorbis
For more information, see Ingest and publish an SRT stream with Wowza Streaming Engine
and Use SRT to distribute live streams from Wowza Streaming Engine.

HDS
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream adaptive bitrate live and VOD content to Adobe Flash
Player 10.1 or later using the HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) protocol. Developed by
Adobe, HDS is a chunk-based streaming protocol that uses HTTP for delivery. All media-
chunking and packaging necessary to deliver a stream using this protocol is performed by
Wowza Streaming Engine. HDS is referred to as "San Jose" streaming in the Wowza
Streaming Engine configuration files.
When streaming VOD content, Wowza Streaming Engine software supports MP4 files
(QuickTime container) and MP3 files. FLV files are supported for RTMP playback. Wowza
Streaming Engine supports the following video and audio codecs when using the HDS
protocol:
• Video – H.264, On2 VP6 (live only), Screen video and Screen video 2 (live only),
Sorenson Spark (live only)
• Audio – AAC, AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC), AAC High Efficiency (HE-AAC) v1 and v2;
MP3; Speex (live only)

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Smooth Streaming
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream adaptive bitrate live and VOD H.264, AAC, and MP3
content to Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Phone devices, and other devices using the
Smooth Streaming protocol from Microsoft. Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-
platform technology. Smooth Streaming is a chunk-based streaming protocol that uses HTTP
for delivery. All media chunking and packaging necessary to deliver a stream using this
protocol is performed by Wowza Streaming Engine, so there's no need for an IIS web server.
The following media formats can be used when streaming to Smooth Streaming clients:
• Video – H.264
• Audio – AAC, AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC), AAC High Efficiency (HE-AAC) v1 and v2;
MP3

RTMP
Wowza Streaming Engine can send adaptive bitrate live and VOD streams to Adobe Flash
Player using the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). Wowza Streaming Engine supports
all video and audio formats that Flash Player supports:
• Video – H.264, On2 VP6, Sorenson Spark, Screen video and Screen video 2
• Audio – AAC, AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC), AAC High Efficiency (HE-AAC) v1 and v2,
MP3, Speex

Wowza Streaming Engine supports the following RTMP protocol variants:

• RTMP – The base protocol and the most efficient and fastest of the variants.
• RTMPE – A lightweight encryption variant that helps to secure the data being
transmitted between Wowza Streaming Engine and Flash Player.
• RTMPS – An encryption variant that transmits data over a secure SSL connection.
RTMPS uses a more robust encryption layer than RTMPE to wrap the RTMP session.
Users with Subscription and Perpetual licenses for Wowza Streaming Engine
software can use Wowza StreamLock™ AddOn to get free 256-bit SSL certificates for
use with RTMP, RTMPS, HTTP, and HTTPS.
• RTMPT – A tunneling variant that is used to tunnel through firewalls that employ
stateful packet inspection.
• RTMPTE – An encryption variant of the RTMPT protocol.
Wowza Streaming Engine includes bi-directional support for Action Message Format (AMF3
and AMF0) for data serialization.

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RTSP/RTP
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream live H.264, AAC, and MP3 content to players and
devices that support the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Real-time Transport Protocol
(RTP), and MPEG-2 Transport Stream protocol (MPEG-2 TS). This includes players and devices
such as QuickTime player (version 10 or later), VideoLAN VLC player, set-top boxes, and 3GPP
devices. Wowza Streaming Engine also accepts incoming source streams from encoding
devices that use these protocols, and supports RTP and MPEG-2 TS input and output over
UDP as well as multicast. In addition, Wowza Streaming Engine supports interleaved
RTSP/RTP (RTP over the RTSP TCP connection) and RTSP/RTP tunneling (RTSP/RTP over
HTTP), which enables RTSP/RTP to be delivered in network environments that don't allow
UDP transmission.
Wowza Streaming Engine supports the following RTSP, RTP, and MPEG specifications:
MPEG-TS ISO/IEC 13818-1
MPEG-TS over RTP rfc2038
RTP: AAC rfc3640, rfc3016, ISO/IEC 14496-3
RTP: G.711 rfc3551
RTP: H.263 rfc2429
RTP: H.264 rfc3984, QuickTime Generic RTP Payload Format
RTP: MP3 rfc2250
RTP: MPEG-2 (video) rfc2250
RTP: MPEG-4 Part 2 rfc3106
RTP: Speex rfc5574
RTSP rfc2326

Wowza Streaming Engine supports both Single Program (SPTS) and Multi Program (MPTS)
MPEG-TS streams and enables you to specify a specific program, a specific language, and a
specific audio or video track in an MPTS stream.
Query parameters are part of the udp:// URL in a .stream file. There are four options for
selecting a stream. For more information, see Specify per-stream settings in Wowza
Streaming Engine .stream files.

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Supported container formats for HLS and MPEG-DASH

streaming
A container format is a wrapper for segments of content that are delivered over HTTP-based
streaming protocols. Wowza Streaming Engine supports two container formats for HLS and
MPEG-DASH live streaming: fragmented MP4 and MPEG-TS.

Fragmented MP4
The ISO standards MPEG-DASH and CMAF use the fragmented MP4 (fMP4) container
format. The MPEG-DASH and CMAF packetizers in Wowza Streaming Engine
(mpegdashstreamingpacketizer and cmafstreamingpacketizer, respectively) wrap stream
segments in the fMP4 container format. HLS master playlists and MPEG-DASH manifests
generated by the CMAF packetizer reference these fMP4 files and make them available to
players when they request available segments for playback.

MPEG-TS
MPEG Transport Stream (MPEG-TS) is the container format defined in the MPEG-2 ISO
standard. The Cupertino packetizer (cupertinostreamingpacketizer) in Wowza Streaming
Engine wraps stream segments (what it calls chunks) in the MPEG-TS container format. The
HLS master playlist generated by the Cupertino packetizer references these MPEG-TS files
and makes them available to players when they request available segments for playback.

Supported media file formats for VOD streaming

For VOD streaming, Wowza Streaming Engine supports the MP4 (QuickTime container), FLV
(Flash Video), MP3, and SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) media file
formats. To play VOD content, the correct prefix and extensions must be appended to the
file name to create a stream name. For example, to play the MP4 file mycoolvideo.mov, use
the stream name mp4:mycoolvideo.mov.
Prefix Extension(s) Example
MP4 mp4: .mp4, .f4v, .mov, mp4:mycoolvideo.mov
.m4a, .m4v, .mp4a,
.mp4v, .3gp, .3g2
MP3 mp3: .mp3 mp3:mycoolsong.mp3
SMIL smil: .smil smil:myStream.smil
FLV flv: .flv flv:mycoolvideo.flv

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Note
MP4 (QuickTime container) is the default media type, so the file name prefix and extension can be
omitted.

The media prefix also controls the file container that stores recorded live video. If mp4: or if
no prefix is specified, the content is recorded to an MP4 (QuickTime) container. Only H.264,
AAC, and MP3 content can be recorded to an MP4 container. If flv: is specified, an FLV (Flash
Video) container is used.

Additional protocol and format details

Wowza Streaming Engine can accept live video and audio streams from sources that support
the RTMP, RTSP/RTP, native RTP, and MPEG-TS protocols. It can record any live source
stream to either the MP4 or FLV format.
Wowza Streaming Engine can read and write Action Message Format (AMF0 and AMF3) data
events to and from MP4 files. In addition, it supports MP4 multi-language caption and audio
tracks.
Wowza Streaming Engine can be used to re-stream SHOUTcast and Icecast (AAC, AAC+, and
MP3) audio streams and IP camera (AAC, G.711 (µ-law and A-law), H.264, and MP3) streams
to supported player technologies. It maintains a single connection to the original source
stream while delivering the stream to multiple players. It can also forward embedded
SHOUTcast and Icecast metadata, such as song title and artist, to Adobe Flash Player. The
SHOUTcast example that's included with the Wowza Streaming Engine installation illustrates
these capabilities.
Wowza Streaming Engine can deliver two-way video, audio, and text chat to Adobe Flash
Player.

Live stream transcoding and transrating

The Transcoder in Wowza Streaming Engine is a real-time video transcoding and transrating
solution that ingests a live stream, decodes the video and audio, and then re-encodes the
stream for delivery to desired playback devices. It can decode and re-encode audio and video
in multiple formats with keyframes that are properly aligned for adaptive bitrate delivery.
The following are some common scenarios:
• Transcode – Ingest a non-H.264/VP8/VP9 video and non-AAC/MP3/Vorbis/Opus
audio stream and convert it to a set of H.263, H.264, VP8, or VP9 video and AAC,
Vorbis, or Opus audio renditions that have aligned key frames for adaptive bitrate
streaming.

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• Transrate – Ingest an H.264 video and AAC/MP3 audio stream and create a full set of
bitrate renditions that have key frames aligned to the source stream for adaptive
bitrate streaming.
• Audio-only – Ingest an H.264 video and Speex audio stream from Adobe Flash Player
and convert the Speex audio format to AAC, Vorbis, or Opus to make the stream
compatible with additional player technologies.

Video and audio codecs supported by Transcoder

Transcoder supports the following video and audio codecs:

Video (decoding) Video (encoding)

H.264 H.263v2
MPEG-2 H.264
MPEG-4 Part 2 VP8
VP8 VP9
VP9 H.265/HEVC
Audio (decoding) Audio (encoding)
AAC AAC
G.711 (µ-law and A-law) Vorbis
MPEG-1 Layer 1/2 Opus
MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3)
Speex
Vorbis
Opus

Transcoder and hardware acceleration

Transcoder, which runs on 64-bit Windows and Linux operating systems, can be configured
to take advantage of hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is recommended but not
required. If your configuration doesn't include hardware acceleration, a built-in software
encoder is used.

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Transcoder can use the following hardware acceleration technologies:

• Intel Quick Sync Video (for both accelerated video decoding and encoding) – For
recommended workstation and server-level hardware specifications, and links to
configuration instructions, see Server specifications for Intel Quick Sync acceleration
with Wowza Streaming Engine transcoding.
• NVIDIA NVENC (for accelerated video encoding only) and NVIDIA CUDA/NVCUVID
(for accelerated video decoding only) – For a list of supported NVIDIA graphics cards
that are compatible with Transcoder and links to configuration instructions, see
Server specifications for NVIDIA NVENC and NVIDIA CUDA acceleration with Wowza
Streaming Engine transcoding.

Overlays on transcoded streams

With Transcoder, you can apply static GIF, JPEG, PNG, and BMP overlay images to streams
and customize the location, size, alignment, and opacity of the image to achieve static image
effects such as a watermark to your video. With Transcoder and the Wowza Streaming
Engine Java API, you can also apply dynamic overlay images to streams. The Java API can be
configured manually or pre-programmed based on external events, making it a powerful tool
for adding premium TV-like experiences. See Add graphic overlays to transcoded live streams
in Wowza Streaming Engine.
For more information about Transcoder, see About Wowza Streaming Engine Transcoder.

Live stream nDVR

The nDVR feature in Wowza Streaming Engine provides the ability to record a live stream
into a cache on the server. Viewers that join the live stream in-progress can access the cache
to rewind to the beginning of the live stream (or rewind within the part of the stream that
you specify) and then use DVR playback controls in their player to watch the stream from
that point forward. Configuration for client playback of recorded streams is similar to
playback of live streams from Wowza Streaming Engine.
For more information about nDVR, see About live stream nDVR.

Stream encryption with DRM

Wowza Streaming Engine integrates with third-party digital rights management (DRM) key
management service partners to enable on-the-fly encryption of premium live and VOD
content for a variety of playback devices. For live workflows, per-stream encryption is
available with the ability to rotate keys. For VOD workflows, per-asset and per-session
encryption is available with the ability to rotate keys. Both live and VOD key rotation support
is available for HLS streaming.

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Key management system integration is supported for the following providers:

• BuyDRM KeyOS – Provides Microsoft PlayReady encryption services for HLS, MPEG-
DASH, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming and playback with BuyDRM players and
Smooth Streaming clients on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices, Windows
phones, game consoles, set-top boxes, and smart TVs.
• EZDRM – Provides Microsoft PlayReady encryption services for Smooth Streaming
playback with Smooth Streaming clients on Windows, macOS, Windows phones,
game consoles, set-top boxes, and smart TVs and with Discretix SecurePlayer media
players on iOS and Android devices.
• Verimatrix – Provides Verimatrix VCAS and Microsoft PlayReady encryption services
for HLS and Smooth Streaming playback with Verimatrix ViewRight and Smooth
Streaming clients on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices, Windows phones,
game consoles, set-top boxes, and smart TVs.
For more information about DRM, see About digital rights management and Wowza
Streaming Engine.

Note
Wowza Streaming Engine APIs can encrypt live and VOD HLS streams on the fly using SAMPLE-AES
(sample-level encryption for version 5 of the HLS streaming protocol), ENVELOPE-PLAYREADY
(supported by BuyDRM player technology with PlayReady DRM), and CHUNK-PLAYREADY
(supported by INSIDE Secure player technology with PlayReady DRM). You can also use the Wowza
Streaming Engine API to encrypt live and VOD Microsoft Smooth Streaming content on the fly with
PlayReady protection for INSIDE Secure player technology. For more information, see Secure HLS
streaming using DRM encryption with Wowza Streaming Engine.

AddOns
A variety AddOn packages can be downloaded and installed to extend and enhance Wowza
Streaming Engine functionality.
• Dynamic Load Balancing – Enables you to dynamically distribute HTTP, RTMP, and
RTSP streams across multiple Wowza Streaming Engine edge servers. The edge
servers communicate with one or more Wowza Streaming Engine load balancers,
and clients connect to the load-balancing server to get the least-loaded edge server.
See Get the Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn for Wowza Streaming Engine.
• Wowza StreamLock– A security option for network encryption that provides near-
instant provisioning of free 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verified
Wowza users for use with Wowza Streaming Engine. StreamLock-provisioned SSL
certificates provide the best security when used with RTMP. The certificates can also
be used for secure HTTP streaming (HTTPS). Certificates expire after one year. See
Get SSL certificates from the Wowza Streaming Engine StreamLock service.

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• StreamNameAlias – Enables you to simplify complex URL-based stream names with

aliases, provide security to limit the valid stream names used, or map one stream
name to another. See Get the StreamNameAlias AddOn for Wowza Streaming
Engine.
• Wowza Load Test Tool – Generate load on a single Wowza Streaming Engine
instance to test configuration and performance of RTMP and HLS streaming. See Get
the Wowza Load Test Tool for Wowza Streaming Engine.

Installed examples
Wowza Streaming Engine includes the several examples that highlight various aspects of
server functionality, including how to configure and play a live stream, how to configure and
play VOD content, and how to set up live stream nDVR. You can find the examples in the
[install-dir]/examples folder. The README.html file in that folder describes the examples
and how to install them.

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3
Chapter

Server installation

W owza Streaming Engine is a powerful Java-based media server. When you install
Wowza Streaming Engine, it automatically installs the server version of Java that it
requires. In addition, an installation wizard guides you through the process, making it
easy to get Wowza Streaming Engine up and running.

Before you start

Before you install Wowza Streaming Engine be aware of these prerequisites, cautions, and
best practices.
• Wowza Streaming Engine is built on Java 9 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4) and supports
Java versions 9 - 12. Earlier versions of Java are not supported. For optimal
performance and stability, we recommend using the version of Java that installs by
default. To use Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you must use the version of Java
that installs with the server software. If you can't or don’t want to use the version of
Java that installs with Wowza Streaming Engine, see Manually install and
troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.
• If you have an earlier version of Wowza Streaming Engine installed and you want the
current version installed, run the updater, not the installer. For instructions, see
Update your Wowza Streaming Engine installation.
• As a best practice, install and run only one version and instance of Wowza Streaming
Engine on a single computer.
• To confirm that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for
running Wowza Streaming Engine, see Wowza Streaming Engine Specifications.
• If you're upgrading from Wowza Media Server™ software to Wowza Streaming
Engine, you must uninstall Wowza Media Server before installing Wowza Streaming
Engine. For instructions, see Upgrade from Wowza Media Server to Wowza
Streaming Engine.

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• A silent installation option is available for all platforms, including Red Hat Package
Manager and Debian Package Manager options for Linux. Approval is required for
silent installations. For information, contact sales@wowza.com.

Installing Wowza Streaming Engine

Wowza Streaming Engine is installed using an install wizard on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The installer creates a new, clean instance of the Wowza Streaming Engine on the computer
where it's installed.
1. If you don’t already have the Wowza Streaming Engine installer on your system, go to
the Wowza Downloads webpage and click Download for the installer for your
desired operating system.
2. When the download completes, do one of the following:
• Windows – Double-click the file WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8-windows-
installer.exe.
• macOS – Double-click the file WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8-osx-
installer.dmg, and then double-click WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8-osx-
installer package icon.
• Linux – Navigate to the folder that contains the downloaded package and
then execute the following commands:
sudo chmod +x WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8-linux-x64-
installer.run
sudo ./WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8-linux-x64-installer.run

3. In the installation wizard, accept the terms of the license agreement.

4. Enter a valid license key.
If you acquired a new license key, you'll find it in the email that you received from
Wowza Sales. If you have a previous version of Wowza Streaming Engine installed,
look for the license key in the [install-dir]/conf/Server.license file.
5. Create a user name and password for an Administrator account. You'll use these
credentials to sign in to the browser-based Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. The
user name and password are case-sensitive.
6. Confirm or change the install location.

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By default, Wowza Streaming Engine installs in the following locations:

• Windows – /Program Files (x86)/Wowza Media Systems/Wowza Streaming
Engine 4.7.8/

• macOS –
▪ /Applications/Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.8/
▪ /Library/LaunchDaemons/
▪ /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine/ (an alias)
▪ /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8/
• Linux – /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8/ (as the root user)
7. Accept the default option Start Wowza Streaming Engine automatically.

This option instructs the server software and Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to
start automatically as system services. If you don't choose this option, you must start
Wowza Streaming Engine and Wowza Streaming Engine Manager manually before
you can use the software. See Starting and stopping the software and Starting and
stopping Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.
8. Click Finish.

Starting and stopping the software

Wowza Streaming Engine and Wowza Streaming Engine Manager can run as system services
or in standalone mode.
System services start automatically when you start the computer and remain on until you
turn them off. By default, Wowza Streaming Engine and Wowza Streaming Engine Manager
install as system services, which means you're running an active instance of Wowza
Streaming Engine from the moment of install and any time the host computer is on.
Standalone mode operates independently of the operating system; you start and stop the
software on demand. As with any standalone software, if you forget or fail to quit the
program, you're prompted to do so when you turn off the computer. Standalone mode is
required for running Transcoder with accelerated hardware in Windows. It's also useful in
testing environments because you can see log output in the console immediately.
You can, however, manually start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine at any time, in either
operational mode. For example, Subscription license holders might want to turn off the
software as a service to avoid being charged for inactive instances of Wowza Streaming
Engine.
Wowza Streaming Engine can't run as a service and in standalone mode at the same time.

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Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine as a service (Windows)

To start the Wowza Streaming Engine service:
1. Press Win key + R, type services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK.
2. In the Services window, right-click Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.8 and then click
Start.
To stop the Wowza Streaming Engine service:
1. Press Win key + R, type services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK.
2. In the Services window, right-click Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.8 and then click
Stop.
Wowza Streaming Engine can be set to start automatically as a Windows service when
Windows starts. To prevent the service from starting automatically when Windows starts:
1. Press WIN key + R, type services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK.
2. In the Services window, right-click Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.8, and then click
Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, on the General tab, set Startup type to Manual.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine in standalone mode

(Windows)
To start Wowza Streaming Engine in standalone mode, make sure that the Wowza Streaming
Engine service is stopped (see above), and then do the following:
1. Press WIN key + R, type cmd in the Run dialog box, and then press Enter.
2. In the Command Prompt window, execute the following commands:
cd %WMSAPP_HOME%\bin
startup.bat

To stop the software:

1. Press WIN key + R, type cmd in the Run dialog box, and then press Enter.
2. In the Command Prompt window, execute the following commands:
cd %WMSAPP_HOME%\bin
shutdown.bat

Notes
• By default, the Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.8 service runs under the Local System account. This
can limit how Wowza Streaming Engine interacts with the underlying operating system. For
example, you may have issues streaming content from UNC paths. To address this issue, update
the service to run as a named user. To do this, right-click the service name in the Services
window, click Properties, and then on the Log On tab specify an alternate user account that the
service can use to log on under This account.

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• The hardware acceleration used by Transcoder is only available when running Wowza Streaming
Engine as a Windows standalone application. It's not available when Wowza Streaming Engine is
invoked as a service.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine as a service (macOS)

To start the service, double-click the Start Services application in
/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following command:
sudo launchctl load -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wowza.WowzaStreamingEngine.plist

To stop the service, double-click the Stop Services application in

/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following command:
sudo launchctl unload -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wowza.WowzaStreamingEngine.plist

Note
The Start Services and Stop Services applications also start and stop the Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager system service. See Starting and stopping Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine in standalone mode

(macOS)
To start the software, double-click the Start Standalone Mode application in
/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following commands:
cd /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8/bin
./startup.sh

To stop the software, double-click the Stop Standalone Mode application in

/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following commands:
cd /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8/bin
./shutdown.sh

Note
The Start Standalone Mode and Stop Standalone Mode applications also start and stop Wowza
Streaming Engine Manager in standalone mode. See Starting and stopping Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager.

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Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine as a service (Linux)

Note
The operations in this section must be performed as the root user with sudo access.

To start the service, open a Terminal window and enter one of the following commands,
depending on your Linux distribution:
sudo service WowzaStreamingEngine start

-or-
/etc/init.d/WowzaStreamingEngine start

To stop the service, enter:

sudo service WowzaStreamingEngine stop

-or-
/etc/init.d/WowzaStreamingEngine stop

Notes
• If these instructions don't apply to your Linux distribution, consult your Linux manual.
• The Linux services script subsystem doesn't use the full $PATH definition to determine the location
of Linux commands. It uses what's known as the init path. This can lead to an issue on Linux
distributions where the default installation location for Java can't be found by applying the init path.
See Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine in standalone mode

(Linux)
To start the software, open a Terminal window and enter the following commands:
cd /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/bin
./startup.sh

To stop the software, enter:

cd /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/bin
./shutdown.sh

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Uninstalling Wowza Streaming Engine

• Windows – Go to the Programs and Features Control Panel, click Wowza Streaming
Engine 4.7.8, and then click Uninstall.
• macOS – Go to /Applications/Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.8 and double-click
Wowza Streaming Engine Uninstall.
• Linux – Run the following commands:
cd usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine
sudo ./uninstall

Running Wowza Streaming Engine as a named user

On macOS and Linux, the default installation of Wowza Streaming Engine runs the server as
the root user. If you want to run the server as a different user, follow the instructions in Run
Wowza Streaming Engine as a named user (Linux and macOS) to create a new user and
configure the server to run as that user.

Note
For security reasons, the non-root user can't bind to port numbers less-than or equal to 1024 on most
Linux and Unix distributions. If you plan to run Wowza Streaming Engine on a lower-numbered port
such as 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS, RTMPS), or 554 (RTSP), Wowza Streaming Engine must run as the
root user.

Entering a license key

The license key you enter when you install Wowza Streaming Engine is displayed in the
License Keys box in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. If you switch your licensing option
for the Wowza Streaming Engine instance, you can replace the existing license key with the
new license key without reinstalling the software. For example, if you purchased license keys
to enable Transcoder, nDVR, and DRM for use with the licensed server instance, you can add
these license keys. All license key values are stored in the Server.license file located in the
Wowza Streaming Engine installation directory [install-dir]/conf/:
• Windows – %WMSCONFIG_HOME%\conf\Server.license
• macOS – /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine/conf/Server.license
• Linux – /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/conf/Server.license
To add license keys in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, do the following:
1. Click the Server tab, and then click Server Setup in the contents panel.
2. On the Server Setup page, click Edit.

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3. In the License Keys box, enter your license key for Wowza Streaming Engine. If you
need to enter multiple license keys, enter each license key on a separate line.
4. Click Save, and then click Restart Now at the top of the Server Setup page when
prompted. The new license(s) take effect after the server restarts.

Notes
• After you restart the server, Wowza Streaming Engine Manager displays the first and last five digits
of the license keys that you entered in the License Keys box to help protect this information.
• You can also open the Server.license file in a text editor, enter each new license key on a new
line, and then restart the server.

Perpetual and Subscription licenses

Perpetual and Subscription licenses for Wowza Streaming Engine provide for unlimited
connections to the server software instance and enable use of Transcoder, nDVR, and DRM
technologies that are integrated with each licensed instance.
A Perpetual license is best for stable, long-term demand. A Perpetual license key purchased
after December 22, 2015 has an EPBP4 prefix and is for use with one Wowza Streaming
Engine instance and the integrated Transcoder, nDVR, and DRM technologies.

For details, see Wowza Streaming Engine Pricing.

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A Subscription license is best for variable demand. You can install as many instances of
Wowza Streaming Engine as needed using the same license key and enable the Transcoder,
nDVR, and DRM technologies integrated with each instance. A Subscription license key has
an ENGM4 prefix.

For details, see Wowza Streaming Engine Pricing.

Notes
• If you purchased a Perpetual license for Wowza Streaming Engine before December 23, 2015,
and the license key has an EPBU4 prefix, it licenses Wowza Streaming Engine and the
Transcoder and nDVR technologies. A separate license key is provided to enable the Wowza
DRM technology integrated with the server instance (you don't have to enter the DRM license key
in the License Keys box unless you want to enable this technology in Wowza Streaming Engine).
• If you purchased a license for Wowza Streaming Engine before January 1, 2015, contact
sales@wowza.com to learn how to license the software.

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Trial licenses
A Trial license for Wowza Streaming Engine lets you try out the software for free. After it
expires and you acquire a new, paid license for the software, you must delete the Trial
license key from the License Keys box and then add the new, paid key. If you're not sure if a
license key is a Trial key, you can find it in the email that you received from Wowza when you
downloaded the trial software.

Note
You don't need to reinstall Wowza Streaming Engine or re-create its settings when you replace the Trial
license key with a paid license for the software.

Ports used for streaming

Before streaming with Wowza Streaming Engine, open the required ports on your firewall.
The following table shows the default ports that Wowza Streaming Engine uses for
streaming. All of these port numbers are configurable.
• TCP 1935 – RTMP/RTMPE/RTMPT/RTSP-interleaved streaming/WOWZ™
• TCP 8086-8088 – Administration
• UDP 6970-9999 – RTP UDP streaming
By default, Wowza Streaming Engine is configured to use only TCP port 1935 for streaming.
You may want to configure additional ports for streaming such as TCP port 80 for HTTP or
RTMPT streaming or TCP port 554 for RTSP streaming. To add an additional port, go to the
Virtual Host Setup page in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and edit the Default
Streaming host port.

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In the Edit host port dialog box, add the additional ports to the Port(s) list (this list is comma-
delimited).

Wowza Streaming Engine can't share ports with other programs or services, so make sure no
other programs or services are running on the added ports.
The following table shows some of the common ports used for streaming.
• TCP 80 – HLS, MPEG-DASH, HDS, Smooth Streaming, RTMPT
• TCP 443 – RTMPS, HTTPS
• TCP 554 – RTSP

Server configuration and tuning

Wowza Streaming Engine configuration settings are stored in a set of XML configuration and
properties files in the [install-dir]/conf folder. The settings can be changed by configuring
options and properties in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager or by editing them in a text
editor. If you choose to manage Wowza Streaming Engine configuration settings by editing
the XML files directly, be sure to review the Wowza Streaming Engine Configuration
Reference Guide, which describes the most commonly used configuration settings.

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The following configuration files are read when the server starts:

Server configuration files

• MediaCache.xml – Media Cache configuration
• Server.xml – General server configuration
• Tune.xml – Server performance tuning configuration
• VHosts.xml – Virtual hosts definition
• Log4j.properties – Logging configuration

VHost configuration files

• StartupStreams.xml – Streams started at virtual host startup
• VHost.xml – Virtual host configuration
• VHosts.xml – Virtual hosts configuration

Application configuration files

• Application.xml – Application configuration
Wowza Streaming Engine is automatically tuned to take best advantage of available
hardware resources when the server starts. The server calculates an appropriate Java heap
size, garbage collection (GC) settings, and other Java command-line options based on
available hardware, the computer and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) bitness, and other factors.
By default, Wowza Streaming Engine sets the Java heap size to a value that's suitable for
application development environments. Before you deploy the server in production
environments where it may use memory extensively when heavily loaded, you can select an
option in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager that automatically sets the heap size to a
predefined value that's appropriate for production use. You can also adjust many other
performance settings from the default values that are calculated by the server in Wowza
Streaming Engine Manager to fine-tune the server's performance. See Tune Wowza
Streaming Engine for optimal performance.

Software updates
Between production releases, development builds are periodically released in the form of
updates. Updates give you early access to new features and the opportunity to give
feedback. Information about what's included in each update is in a README.txt file in the
updater .zip file. For information about how to apply an update, see Update your Wowza
Streaming Engine installation.

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4
Chapter

Application configuration

W owza Streaming Engine controls streaming through applications. A application can be

configured to deliver either live or VOD content over multiple protocols for playback
on a variety of screens and devices.
It's easy to define an application in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. For example, to
create a new application named myapplication, do the following:
1. Click the Applications tab in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and then click Add
Application in the contents panel.
2. On the Add Application page, review the content in the Help panel to decide what
type of application you want to create.
3. Click the application type in the Add Application page.
4. In the New Application dialog box, enter the name myapplication and then click
Add.
The myapplication page is displayed, and you can configure the application settings.
A single application can be configured to deliver a live or VOD stream at the same time to
desktop browsers; iOS and Android mobile devices; Apple TV and Roku and Amino set-top
boxes; and MPEG-DASH, Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and RTSP/RTP-based players. See the
Connect live sources page of the Wowza Streaming Engine documentation website for links
to numerous articles on how to configure applications for common streaming scenarios.
Let’s explore the nitty gritty details of application configurations.

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Applications and application instances

An Application.xml file defines the configuration that you set up in Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager for a given application. An application instance is an instantiation of an application
and provides a namespace and context for streaming. An application instance is started
dynamically; a single application can have multiple named application instances running
simultaneously. If no name is specified for an application instance, then the default name
_definst_ is used. In many streaming scenarios, a single application instance is used per-
application and the name is never referenced and defaults to _definst_. It's more common
to use multiple application instances in video chat and video conferencing scenarios where
you must create multiple rooms for streaming. In this case, application instances are used to
separate streaming into rooms. Each room is a separate application instance, which provides
separation and a namespace for each room.
When an application instance loads, it looks for an Application.xml file in [install-dir]/conf/
and [install-dir]/conf/[application name]/. The first Application.xml file that's found is used.

Playback URL formats

All streaming in Wowza Streaming Engine is initiated with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
The application and application instance names are specified as part of the streaming URL.
The URL formats used for streaming, whether for desktop browsers, iOS and Android
devices, or MPEG-DASH or other players, follow a similar format:
[protocol]://[address]:[port]/[application]/[appInstance]/[str
eamName]/[post-fix]
Where:
• [protocol] is the streaming protocol (http, rtmp, rtsp, and so on)
• [address] is the address of the server running Wowza Streaming Engine
• [port] is the port number to use for streaming (1935 is the default)
• [application] is the application name
• [appInstance] is the application instance name
• [streamName] is the stream name and prefix
• [post-fix] is optional information specific to player technology

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In most streaming scenarios, if [streamName] doesn't have path elements and the default
[appInstance] name is used, the URL can be shortened to:
[protocol]://[address]:[port]/[application]/[streamName]
The following are example URLs for various streaming protocols. The examples assume that
a live video with the stream name myStream using the application name live is streamed.
HLS
http://mycompany.com:1935/live/myStream/playlist.m3u8
MPEG-DASH
http://mycompany.com:1935/live/myStream/manifest.mpd
HDS
http://mycompany.com:1935/live/myStream/manifest.f4m
Smooth Streaming
http://mycompany.com:1935/live/myStream/Manifest
RTMP
Server: rtmp://mycompany.com/live
Stream: myStream
RTSP/RTP
rtsp://mycompany.com:1935/live/myStream

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Stream types
Named stream types control different types of streaming (live, VOD, recording, origin/edge,
and so on). Stream types are automatically configured when you create an application and
configure it in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. Alternatively, you can use a text editor to
change the StreamType property in the <Streams> container element in an Application.xml.
Here are all of the stream types and their uses.

Stream type Description

default VOD
file VOD
live Deliver live streams; best for one-to-many streaming of
live events
live-lowlatency Deliver live streams over RTMP; best for one-to-one or
one-to-few video/audio chat applications
live-record Same as live but the stream is also recorded
live-record-lowlatency Same as live-lowlatency but the stream is also recorded
liverepeater-edge Deliver live streams across multiple Wowza Streaming
Engine servers in an origin/edge configuration; use to
configure the edge application(s)
liverepeater-edge-lowlatency Deliver live streams across multiple servers in an
origin/edge configuration; use to configure edge
application(s) when low latency is important
liverepeater-edge-origin Deliver live streams across multiple Wowza Streaming
Engine servers in an origin/edge/edge configuration; use
to configure a middle-edge application
record Video recording
rtp-live Re-stream RTSP/RTP, native RTP, or MPEG-TS streams
rtp-live-lowlatency Re-stream RTSP/RTP, native RTP, or MPEG-TS streams
when low latency is important
rtp-live-record Same as rtp-live but the stream is also recorded
rtp-live-record-lowlatency Same as rtp-live-lowlatency but the stream is also
recorded
shoutcast Re-stream SHOUTcast/Icecast MP3 or AAC+ audio streams
shoutcast-record Same as shoutcast but the stream is also recorded

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Each stream type exposes properties that are used for tuning the stream type. For example,
the stream type definitions for live and live-lowlatency differ only in the tuning that's
accomplished through the stream properties. Defined properties for a stream type can be
overridden on a per-application basis by defining new property values on an application's
Properties tab in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager or by editing the
<Streams>/<Properties> container element in Application.xml.

HTTP streamers and live stream packetizers

HTTP streamers define the streams in an application (live or VOD) that are available for
playback to different player technologies. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you can
select one or more of the following Playback Types options for an application. When
selecting multiple options, the corresponding HTTP streamers are added to the
<HTTPStreamers> section in Application.xml as a comma-separated list.
Playback type Description
HLS Enables the application to stream live and VOD content to
iOS devices, QuickTime player, Safari, and to other devices
that support the HLS protocol. Adds the
cupertinostreaming HTTP streamer to the
<HTTPStreamers> section in Application.xml.
MPEG-DASH Enables the application to stream live and VOD content to
players that support the DASH protocol. Adds the
mpegdashstreaming HTTP streamer to the
<HTTPStreamers> section in Application.xml.
HDS Enables the application to stream live and VOD content to
Flash Player using the HDS protocol. Adds the
sanjosestreaming HTTP streamer to the <HTTPStreamers>
section in Application.xml.
Smooth Streaming Enables the application to stream live and VOD content to
Microsoft Silverlight using the Smooth Streaming protocol.
Adds the smoothstreaming HTTP streamer to the
<HTTPStreamers> section in Application.xml.
nDVR (live streaming only) When you enable nDVR for live or live http origin
applications in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager,
enables the application to stream live content from
Wowza Streaming Engine (origin) to Wowza Streaming
Engine (edge). Adds the dvrchunkstreaming HTTP
streamer to the <HTTPStreamers> section in
Application.xml.

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Note
For CMAF streaming, which can’t be configured in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, both the
cupertinostreaming and mpegdashstreaming HTTP streamers must be specified in
Application.xml. For information on how to create a basic CMAF stream, see Stream using CMAF
with Wowza Streaming Engine.

Live streams coming into Wowza Streaming Engine must be packaged (packetized) for
delivery to players that use HTTP streaming protocols. The
<Streams>/<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml specifies the streaming
protocols that are used when packetizing live streams. There are two types of packetizers:
streaming packetizers and repeater packetizers.
Streaming packetizers are used when delivering a live stream from a single Wowza
Streaming Engine server to clients. They're also used to deliver a live stream from a Wowza
Streaming Engine origin server to an edge server when using the live repeater mechanism in
an origin/edge configuration. When you select Playback Types options in Wowza Streaming
Engine Manager to create HTTP streamers for live applications, the corresponding live
stream packetizer values (separated by commas) are added to the <LiveStreamPacketizers>
section in Application.xml.
Playback type Description
HLS Enables HLS live streaming. Adds the
cupertinostreamingpacketizer streaming packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
MPEG-DASH Enables MPEG-DASH live streaming. Adds the
mpegdashstreamingpacketizer streaming packetizer to
the <LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
HDS Enables HDS live streaming. Adds the
sanjosestreamingpacketizer streaming packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
Smooth Streaming Enables Smooth Streaming live streaming. Adds the
smoothstreaming streaming packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
nDVR Adds the dvrstreamingpacketizer streaming packetizer to
the <LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml
for nDVR support.

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Note
For CMAF streaming, which can’t be configured in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, the
cmafstreamingpacketizer live stream packetizer must be specified in Application.xml. For
information on how to create a basic CMAF stream, see Stream using CMAF with Wowza Streaming
Engine

Repeater packetizers deliver a live stream from a Wowza Streaming Engine edge server to
clients in a live stream repeater (origin/edge) configuration. When you select Playback Types
options in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to create HTTP streamers for live edge
applications, the corresponding repeater packetizer values (separated by commas) are
added to the <LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
Playback type Description
HLS Enables HLS live stream repeating. Adds the
cupertinostreamingrepeater repeater packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
MPEG-DASH Enables MPEG-DASH live stream repeating. Adds the
mpegdashstreamingrepeater repeater packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
HDS Enables HDS live stream repeating. Adds the
sanjosestreamingrepeater repeater packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
Smooth Streaming Enables Smooth Streaming live stream repeating. Adds the
smoothstreamingrepeater repeater packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml.
nDVR Adds the dvrstreamingrepeater repeater packetizer to the
<LiveStreamPacketizers> section in Application.xml for
use with nDVR.

For information about how to implement live stream repeating (origin/edge configurations)
in Wowza Streaming Engine, see Live stream repeater (origin/edge live streaming). For
information about how to configure CMAF stream repeating, see Stream using a CMAF live
stream repeater in Wowza Streaming Engine.

Note
nDVR in Wowza Streaming Engine provides the ability to record a live stream while simultaneously
allowing users to play or pause the live stream, rewind to a previously recorded point, or resume
viewing at the live point. nDVR can be extended to an edge server in an origin/edge configuration. See
Set up a Wowza Streaming Engine live stream repeater for Wowza nDVR.

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Timed text providers

Wowza Streaming Engine supports timed text (closed captioning) for live and VOD streams.
It converts caption data from a variety of instream and file-based sources to appropriate
caption formats for live and on-demand video streaming using the HDS, HLS, and RTMP
streaming protocols. This feature helps US broadcasters to comply with the Twenty-First
Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 and increasing requirements in
the European Union by providing captioning for television programs that are distributed over
the Internet.

Closed captioning for live streams

For live streams, Wowza Streaming Engine can ingest instream closed caption information
from CEA-608 data or AMF onTextData events. These ingested captions can be delivered as
CEA-608-formatted SEI data in HLS streams or as onTextData events in HDS and RTMP
streams. In addition, in-stream CEA-608 caption data can be passed through Transcoder for
delivery in HLS streams. For live and live edge applications in Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager, you can configure the following Closed Caption Sources options to enable the
application to ingest the caption data.
Live closed caption source Description
onTextData events in live Enables the application to monitor live streams for Action
streams Message Format (AMF) onTextData captions, decode the
captions, and convert them to CEA-608-formatted SEI data
in HLS streams. Adds the ModuleOnTextDataToCEA608
module to the <Modules> section in Application.xml.
Embedded CEA-608 captions in Enables the application to monitor live streams for CEA-
live streams 608 captions, decode the captions, and convert them to
onTextData events in HDS and RTMP streams. Adds the
ModuleCEA608ToOnTextData module to the <Modules>
section in Application.xml.
onCaptionInfo events in live Specified by the onCaptionInfo events in live streams
streams option. Enables the application to monitor live streams for
AMF onTextData events and pass them through in HDS
and RTMP streams. Adds the captionLiveIngest property
to the <TimedText>/<Properties> section in
Application.xml.

For more information, see Configure closed captioning for Wowza Streaming Engine live
streams.

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Closed captioning for video-on-demand streams

For VOD streams, Wowza Streaming Engine can extract caption data from 3GPP Timed Text
data embedded in MP4 files or use caption files in a variety of formats including Timed Text
Markup Language (.ttml), SubRip Text (.srt), Scenarist Closed Caption (.scc), and Web Video
Text Tracks (.vtt). Ingested captions can be delivered as CEA-608-formatted SEI data in HLS
streams or as Action Message Format (AMF) onTextData events in HDS and RTMP streams.
For VOD and VOD edge applications in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you can select
one or more of the following Closed Caption Sources options to ingest caption data. When
selecting multiple options, the corresponding timed text providers are added to the
<TimedText> section in Application.xml as a comma-separated list.
VOD closed caption source Description
Embedded 3GPP/MPEG-4 Enables the application to pull captions directly from 3GPP
Timed Text tracks tracks (codecID "tx3g") that are embedded in MP4 VOD
assets. Enabled by default. Adds the
vodcaptionprovidermp4_3gpp timed text provider to the
<TimedText> section in Application.xml.
Timed Text (TTML/DXFP) file Enables the application to pull captions from an external
TTML-formatted caption file that sits next to the VOD asset
in the application's content directory. Adds the
vodcaptionproviderttml timed text provider to the
<TimedText> section in Application.xml.
SubRip (SRT) file Enables the application to pull captions from an external
SRT-formatted caption file that sits next to the VOD asset
in the application's content directory. Adds the
vodcaptionprovidersrt timed text provider to the
<TimedText> section in Application.xml.
Web Video Text Track Enables the application to pull captions from an external
(WebVTT) file WebVTT-formatted caption file that sits next to VOD asset
in the application's content directory. Adds the
vodcaptionproviderwebvtt timed text provider to the
<TimedText> section in Application.xml.
Scenarist Closed Caption (SCC) Enables the application to pull captions from an external
file SCC-formatted caption file that sits next to VOD asset in
the application's content directory. Adds the
vodcaptionproviderscc timed text provider to the
<TimedText> section in Application.xml.

See Configure closed captioning for Wowza Streaming Engine video-on-demand streams.

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Transcoder and nDVR configurations

The <Transcoder> and <DVR> container elements in an Application.xml file serve to
configure a Wowza Streaming Engine application to use Transcoder and nDVR. See the
Wowza Streaming Engine Configuration Reference Guide and these articles:
• Set up and run Transcoder in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Set up and run Wowza nDVR in Wowza Streaming Engine

Modules
Modules are Java classes that are loaded dynamically when an application instance is loaded
and provide an application's functionality. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, the
Modules list defines an order-dependent list of modules to load for a given application.
Many AddOn packages provide additional functionality through the use of modules. See Use
Wowza Streaming Engine Java modules.
In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Modules tab on an application page to see
the list of modules that are loaded.

Each module must have a unique Name. The Description for provides a detailed description
of the module and isn't used in any operations. The Class is the fully qualified path to the
Java class that provides the module's functionality. In general, new modules are always
added to the end of the Modules list. The Java class that makes up a server-side module is
most often bound to a .jar file in the Wowza Streaming Engine installation. Wowza Streaming
Engine comes with many modules that can be added to the Modules list to provide
additional functionality. For information, see Use Wowza Streaming Engine Java modules.
You can also use the Wowza IDE to develop your own custom modules to provide additional
functionality. See Extend Wowza Streaming Engine using the Wowza IDE.

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Notes
• Access to the Modules tab is limited to administrators with advanced permissions. See Managing
sign-in credentials.
• Wowza provides an assortment of ready-to-use utility modules for Wowza Streaming Engine
applications. For a complete list, see Module examples.

Properties
Properties are name/value pairs that provide a means for tuning and modifying the default
application configuration. Properties can also be used server-side as a means to pass data to
custom modules from applications. Properties are listed in the Application.xml configuration
file and are defined using the format:
<Property>
<Name>[name]</Name>
<Value>[value]</Value>
<Type>[type]</Type>
</Property>

Where <Name> is the property name, <Value> is the property value, and <Type> is the
property type. Valid property types are Boolean, Integer, Long, and String.
In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Properties tab on an application page and
enable default properties to either add them to the application configuration or to override
existing property values. For details about the properties, see the Wowza Streaming Engine
Configuration Reference Guide.

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Many technical articles on the Wowza website explain how to use custom properties to tune
Wowza Streaming Engine and to add advanced functionality. When adding custom
properties, it's important to add them to the correct <Properties> container element in
Application.xml. Article instructions always specify the Path value to use in the Add Custom
Property dialog box, which adds the property to the correct <Properties> container.

Note
Access to the Properties tab is limited to administrators with advanced permissions. See Managing
sign-in credentials.

Media types
Media types aren't defined in application configuration files but are an important part of
streaming. Wowza Streaming Engine supports many media types. It can read the following
media or file types:
• MP4 (QuickTime container - .mp4, .f4v, .mov, .m4a, .m4v, .mp4a, .mp4v, .3gp, .3g2,
etc.)
• FLV (Flash Video - .flv)
• MP3 content (.mp3)
• SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language - .smil)
• AMLST (API-based MediaList)

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Media types are specified by a prefix to the stream name. For example, to play the MP4 file
mycoolvideo.mov, use the stream name mp4:mycoolvideo.mov, where mp4: is the media
type prefix. If no media type prefix is specified, the media type prefix defaults to mp4:. The
following table shows the supported media type prefixes.
Media type prefix Description
mp4: QuickTime container (default if no prefix specified)
flv: Flash Video
mp3: MP3 file
id3: MP3 file (returns only ID3 tag information)
smil: Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (for
adaptive bitrate delivery)
ngrp: Named Group (for adaptive bitrate delivery)
amlst: API-based MediaList (for adaptive bitrate delivery)

The media type prefix is also used to control the file container that stores recorded live
video. When publishing video, if the mp4: media type prefix is specified or if no prefix is
specified, then the content is recorded to an MP4 (QuickTime) container. Only H.264, AAC,
and MP3 content can be recorded to an MP4 container. If the flv: media type prefix is
specified, an FLV (Flash Video) container is used.
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (.smil) files provide a means to specify a
group of live streams or VOD files for adaptive bitrate switching. For stream switching to
occur correctly, key frames must be properly aligned across all of the available bitrates in a
live stream. For VOD, multiple files must be pre-encoded to the desired bitrates and have key
frames that are aligned across all of the encoded files. The smil: media type prefix is used to
playback the content that's specified in .smil files.
Transcoder uses a templating system to cluster streams into logical groups (called stream
name groups) for live adaptive bitrate delivery. Stream name groups and SMIL files serve the
same purpose and either method can be used for playback of live streams. Stream name
groups are defined in the transcoder template and are available for playback using the ngrp:
media type prefix.
The Wowza Streaming Engine Java API can be used to intercept requests for adaptive bitrate
streams and provide the stream grouping. To use this feature, you must use the amlst:
stream name prefix to use a set of Java objects that describe the adaptive bitrate stream (an
API-based MediaList). When Wowza Streaming Engine reads a SMIL file, it creates a
MediaList and passes it back to the streaming provider. The API provides a means for
intercepting the requests and creating the MediaList dynamically in a Wowza Streaming
Engine module. See Use Java API calls to resolve SMIL file requests (AMLST).

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Content storage
By default, Wowza Streaming Engine streams VOD content from (and records VOD content
to) the [install-dir]/content folder. You can specify a different storage location for a VOD
application in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager by changing the Content Directory value
for the application. For example, to configure an application to use an application-specific
content folder, select the Application-specific directory option:

Using this setting, content is streamed from the [install-dir]/content/[application] folder,

where [application] is the application's name (vod).
Files that are required for streaming live content, such as Session Description Protocol (SDP)
or .stream files, are also stored in the [install-dir]/content folder by default. You can specify
a different storage location for a live application in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager by
changing the Streaming File Directory value for the application. For example, to configure an
application to use an application-specific folder, select the Application-specific directory
option:

Using this setting, the files can be accessed from the [install-dir]/content/[application]
folder, where [application] is the application's name (live).

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You can further customize content storage for your applications by specifying the fully
qualified path to the storage location in the Use the following directory box. You can
substitute variables in place of path elements. The following variables are supported:
• ${com.wowza.wms.AppHome} – Application home directory
• ${com.wowza.wms.ConfigHome} – Configuration home directory
• ${com.wowza.wms.context.VHost} – Virtual host name
• ${com.wowza.wms.context.VHostConfigHome} – Virtual host configuration
directory
• ${com.wowza.wms.context.Application} – Application name
• ${com.wowza.wms.context.ApplicationInstance} – Application instance name

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5
Chapter

Advanced configuration

W owza Streaming Engine offers a multitude of built-in advanced configuration options.

Some advanced functionality is also provided by AddOns.

MediaCaster, Stream files, and Startup Streams

MediaCaster is a system for re-streaming live streams. MediaCaster re-streams IP camera
streams (RTSP/RTP streams), SHOUTcast/Icecast streams, streaming output from native RTP
or MPEG-TS encoders, and RTMP streams from another Wowza Streaming Engine server
(liverepeater streams). MediaCaster pulls a stream from a stream source and makes it
available for streaming to all player technologies supported by Wowza Streaming Engine.
The system works on demand: When the first request is received from a player for a given
stream, a connection is made to the source stream and the stream is then made available to
the player. When the last player stops watching the stream, MediaCaster waits for a timeout
period. If no other players request the stream, the stream is stopped and isn't available for
streaming until another request is made.
This on-demand startup functionality works great for RTMP and RTSP/RTP streaming where
advanced packetization isn't required. However, it doesn't work for the HTTP streaming
protocols (HLS, MPEG-DASH, HDS, and Smooth Streaming). HLS streams require about
30 seconds of video to be pre-packetized before playback can start, and Microsoft Silverlight
clients require three times the key frame duration. Therefore, the stream must be started
before it's ready for streaming over HTTP. Wowza Streaming Engine Manager provides
features to start receiving MediaCaster streams and to keep them running.

Stream files
An easy method for re-streaming live MediaCaster streams is to configure a Stream file (a file
with a .stream file name extension) that live applications can use to connect to the source
stream through the MediaCaster system. A Stream file just contains the URI of the source
stream. When the source stream is started, a live application can use the information in the
Stream file to connect to the stream so that it's available for playback when requested by
players.

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As an example, to create a Stream file named mycoolevent.stream, do the following:

1. Click the Server tab in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and then click Stream Files
in the contents panel.
2. On the Virtual Host Stream Files page, click Add Stream File.
3. In the Add Stream File dialog box, enter the name mycoolevent and then click Add.
The mycoolevent.stream page is displayed.
4. In Stream URI, enter the source stream URI and then click Save. For example, if
you're using an MPEG-TS encoder, the URI value might be udp://0.0.0.0:10000.
5. Click Return to Stream Files.

6. Click the Connect icon for mycoolevent.stream.

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7. In the Connect a Stream File dialog box, configure the options to enable a live
application to connect to the stream and then click OK.

Select the MediaCaster Type in the list that corresponds to the source stream type:
• rtp – For IP camera streams (RTSP/RTP streams) and for streams from native
RTP and MPEG-TS encoders
• shoutcast – For SHOUTcast/Icecast streams
• liverepeater – For RTMP streams pulled from another Wowza Streaming
Engine server
8. Click OK and restart Wowza Streaming Engine.

Note
In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you can connect to live MediaCaster streams that are
referenced in Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) files. In the Incoming Streams
feature, you can connect to MediaCaster streams to record them.

Startup Streams
The second method for starting live MediaCaster streams is to use Startup Streams in
Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to create stream entries in the [install-
dir]/conf/StartupStreams.xml file. Stream entries in this file start automatically when the

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server starts (or more specifically, when a virtual host starts). The format of a single entry in
StartupStreams.xml is:

<StartupStream>
<Application>[application]</Application>
<MediaCasterType>[mediacaster-type]</MediaCasterType>
<StreamName>[stream-name]</StreamName>
</StartupStream>

Where:
• [application] is the name of live application that re-streams the source stream
• [mediacaster-type] is a valid mediacaster type: rtp, rtp-record, shoutcast, shoutcast-
record, liverepeater, and
• [stream-name] is the name of the source stream
For example, to create a stream entry in StartupStreams.xml, do the following:
1. Click the Server tab in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and then click Startup
Streams in the contents panel.
2. On the Virtual Host Startup Streams page, click Add Startup Stream.
3. In the Add to Startup Streams dialog box, configure the options to create the entry in
the StartupStreams.xml file and then click OK.
For more information, see Start streams when Wowza Streaming Engine starts.

Note
Two server-side methods can also be used to start and stop streams using the MediaCaster system:
IApplicationInstance.startMediaCasterStream(…); and
IApplicationInstance.stopMediaCasterStream(…); For more information about these methods, see
the Wowza Streaming Engine Java API reference documentation.

Live stream repeater (origin/edge live streaming)

A live stream repeater uses multiple Wowza Streaming Engine servers in an origin/edge
configuration to deliver live content across multiple servers. The encoded stream is ingested
by the Wowza Streaming Engine origin server in the same way as any other single incoming
source stream. Separately, a player requests the stream from an edge server, which
maintains a single connection per-unique stream to the origin. Origin/edge configuration
occurs at the application level. A single Wowza Streaming Engine instance can be configured
as an origin for one application and as an edge for another application.

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Here’s an example that uses a single origin server with an application named liveorigin. To
configure the origin server, do the following:
1. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Applications tab.
2. On the Add Application page, click Live.
3. In the New Application dialog box, enter the following application name: liveorigin
4. On the liveorigin application page, select the following Playback Types:
• MPEG-DASH
• Apple HLS
• Adobe HDS
• Microsoft Smooth Streaming
5. Click Save.

To configure an edge server, do the following (repeat on each edge server):

1. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Applications tab.
2. On the Add Application page, click Live Edge.
3. In the New Application dialog box, enter the following application name: liveedge
4. On the liveedge application page, select the following Playback Types:
• MPEG-DASH
• Apple HLS
• Adobe HDS
• Microsoft Smooth Streaming
5. If low latency is important, select the Low-latency stream check box (this adds extra
load to the server).
6. In Primary Origin URL, Enter the URL of the liveorigin application using the WOWZ
protocol URL prefix (wowz://). For example, if the origin server uses the domain
name origin.mycompany.com, the value would be:
wowz://origin.mycompany.com/liveorigin
7. Click Save.

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In the following examples, assume that the origin server uses the domain name
origin.mycompany.com and that there are three edge servers with the domain names
edge1.mycompany.com, edge2.mycompany.com, and edge3.mycompany.com. If the
stream name is mycoolevent, the URLs for players streaming from edge1 would be:
HLS (when Cupertino or CMAF streaming is enabled)
http://edge1.mycompany.com:1935/liveedge/mycoolevent/playlist.
m3u8
MPEG-DASH
http://edge1.mycompany.com:1935/liveedge/mycoolevent/manifest.
mpd
HDS
http://edge1.mycompany.com:1935/liveedge/mycoolevent/manifest.
f4m
Smooth Streaming
http://edge1.mycompany.com:1935/liveedge/mycoolevent/Manifest
You can configure more than one origin server to provide a hot backup if the primary origin
server goes offline. For example, if the failover origin server has the domain name
origin2.mycompany.com, and it's configured identically as the primary origin server, you
would specify the following Secondary Origin URL value in the liveedge application page on
each edge server:
wowz://origin2.mycompany.com/liveorigin
Edge servers try to connect to the first origin server, and if this fails, they try to connect to
the second origin server.
This example assumes that you're using an encoder in which the stream name is a simple
name and not a URL. If you're using an encoder such as an MPEG-TS encoder in which the
stream name isn't a simple stream name, you can use .stream files on the origin server to
hide the complex stream names. For example, if your complex stream name on the origin
server is udp://0.0.0.0:10000, use Stream files in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to
create a file named mycoolevent.stream and set the contents to udp://0.0.0.0:10000. You
can then use mycoolevent.stream in place of mycoolevent in the example URLs above to
play the stream.

Notes
• WOWZ is a TCP-based messaging protocol in Wowza Streaming Engine and is used for server-to-
server communication. It's enabled by default. If one of the servers in the origin/edge configuration
is running a version of Wowza Streaming Engine that doesn't support WOWZ, an RTMP
connection is established instead.

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• You can secure the connection between Wowza Streaming Engine servers in and origin/edge
configuration by using a SecureToken shared secret. See Configure a live stream repeater in
Wowza Streaming Engine.
• If you use a non-push-based encoder (native RTP or MPEG-TS) and streaming players using any
of the HTTP streaming protocols, you must use Startup Streams in Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager to start the stream on the origin server and keep it running. Streams don't need to be kept
running on edge servers.
• To provide load balancing between edge servers, you can use the dynamic load balancing system.
See Get the Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn for Wowza Streaming Engine.

Live stream recording

There are multiple ways to record live streams to VOD files for later playback, but using
Incoming Streams for live applications in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager gives you the
most control over the recording process. You can split in-process live stream recording
archives into multiple on demand MP4 (QuickTime container) or FLV (Flash Video container)
files automatically, with the split points based on video duration, clock time, or file size. The
user interface shows all current live source streams and enables you to control when the
recording starts and stops, the file name and locations, the container format, and other
details. You can also control the live stream recording process using HTTP URL queries and
programmatically using the LiveStreamRecordManager APIs. See Record live streams in
Wowza Streaming Engine.
For the Live and Live HTTP Origin application types in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager,
you can select the Record all incoming streams option to record all streams published to the
application by a live source. This recording option uses the live-record stream type and
creates a recording with a file name that's the same as the source stream name in the
application's streaming file directory. To stop recording all source streams to these
application types, clear the Record all incoming streams option and restart the application.
Finally, you can record IP camera streams (RTSP/RTP streams), SHOUTcast/Icecast streams,
and streaming output from native RTP or MPEG-TS encoders using the MediaCaster system.
Stream files and Startup Streams in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager use the MediaCaster
system to pull a stream from a stream source and make it available for streaming to all player
technologies supported by Wowza Streaming Engine. You can configure these features to
record the source streams instead by selecting an appropriate *-record stream type for the
MediaCaster type (such as rtp-record for IP camera streams) and the streams are recorded
to the streaming file directory for the selected application. See MediaCasters, Stream files,
and Startup Streams.

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Notes
• The *-record stream types are the easiest to use but provide the least amount of control. If you use
this method, the entire duration of the published stream is recorded to a single file in the live
application's streaming file directory. If the stream source starts and stops, the file is versioned with
a version number and a new file is started. You can control the container format used (MP4 or
FLV) by specifying a stream name prefix in the stream source. If you specify the mp4: prefix, the
stream is recorded to an MP4 (QuickTime) container. An MP4 container can only record H.264,
AAC, and MP3 media data. If you specify the flv: prefix, the stream is recorded to an FLV
container. The FLV container is the only option if you're recording with Flash Player.
• If you use one of the *-record stream types and also configure Incoming Streams for a live
application to record a live source stream, two or more copies of the recording are created in the
live application's streaming file directory by default. The *-record stream types record the stream to
a single file and the recorded file name is the same as the stream name. The Incoming Streams
feature creates one or more recordings with file names that include the stream name and other
information, depending on selected segmentation and versioning options.
• The WebcamRecording example in the Wowza Streaming Engine installation is a specialized way
to record a remote live stream when using Adobe Flash Player. It uses the record stream type and
built-in Flash Player capabilities to control the recording process.

Virtual hosting
Wowza Streaming Engine can be configured to run multiple virtual host (VHost)
environments on a single server. This lets multiple users share a server in separate
environments. Each VHost environment has its own set of configuration files, application
folders, and log files and can be configured with its own system resource and streaming
limitations. By default, Wowza Streaming Engine is configured with a single VHost named
_defaultVHost_.

Configuration files
The VHosts.xml configuration file in the Wowza Streaming Engine [install-dir]/conf folder
defines each VHost environment. The following items are required in VHosts.xml to define a
VHost:
• VHosts/VHost/Name – The name of the VHost
• VHosts/VHost/ConfigDir – The configuration directory for the VHost
• VHosts/VHost/ConnectionLimit – The maximum number of simultaneous
connections that the VHost supports. If this value is 0, the VHost can support an
unlimited number of simultaneous connections.

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Typical configuration
A typical VHosts.xml file for a VHost environment contains two VHosts. The following
example shows the default VHost (_defaultVHost_) and a new VHost (_newVHost_):
<Root>
<VHosts>
<VHost>
<Name>_defaultVHost_</Name>
<ConfigDir>${com.wowza.wms.ConfigHome}</ConfigDir>
<ConnectionLimit>0</ConnectionLimit>
</VHost>
<VHost>
<Name>_newVHost_</Name>
<ConfigDir>${com.wowza.wms.ConfigHome}/newVHost</ConfigDir>
<ConnectionLimit>0</ConnectionLimit>
</VHost>
</VHosts>
</Root>

The directory structure for the VHosts in the above example would be:
[install-dir]
[defaultVHost]
[applications]
[conf]
Application.xml
clientaccesspolicy.xml
crossdomain.xml
MediaCache.xml
StartupStreams.xml
Tune.xml
VHost.xml
admin.password
publish.password
[content]
[keys]
[logs]
[transcoder]
[newVHost]
[applications]
[conf]
Application.xml
clientaccesspolicy.xml
crossdomain.xml
MediaCache.xml
StartupStreams.xml
Tune.xml
VHost.xml
admin.password
publish.password (Optional, see Notes below)
[content]
[keys]
[logs]
[transcoder]
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Notes
• By default, all VHost environments share the publish.password file for the default VHost. You can
use source authentication in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to set up unique publishing
credentials for each VHost and the unique credentials are stored in this file.

Alternatively, you can retain the publish.password file when you copy the [install-dir]/conf folder
to your new VHost environment and then configure the securityPublishPasswordFile property
for new VHost applications to reference this file for publishing credentials. If you do this, you can't
use source authentication in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to update the file. See Configure
security using Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.
• For more information about how to configure per-VHost logging, see Logging.

VHosts are defined in the VHosts.xml file located at [install-dir]/conf/. Each VHost gets its
own configuration directory structure with its own set of configuration files and application,
conf, and logs folders. VHosts can be added, modified, and deleted through the VHosts.xml
configuration file. If you change VHosts.xml while Wowza Streaming Engine is running, the
changes take effect after restarting the server.
After adding a new VHost to VHosts.xml and creating its directory structure, select the new
VHost on the Server tab in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to manage it.

Wowza Streaming Engine only supports IP address/port-based virtual hosting. It doesn't

support domain name-based virtual hosting. In VHost.xml, each VHost must define HostPort
entries with unique IP address and port combinations that don't conflict with other VHosts
that are defined on the server. The following combinations represent valid VHost port
configurations:
defaultVHost:
<HostPort>
<IpAddress>192.168.1.2</IpAddress>
<Port>1935</Port>
<HostPort>

newVHost:
<HostPort>
<IpAddress>192.168.1.2</IpAddress>
<Port>1936</Port>
<HostPort>

-or-
defaultVHost:
<HostPort>
<IpAddress>192.168.1.2</IpAddress>

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<Port>1935</Port>
<HostPort>

newVHost:
<HostPort>
<IpAddress>192.168.1.3</IpAddress>
<Port>1935</Port>
<HostPort>

To set up the IP address and port values, click the Server tab in Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager, select a VHost in the list, and then click Virtual Host Setup in the contents panel. In
the Virtual Host Setup page, click Edit to update the IP addresses and port values for the
default host ports.

Publishing with the Stream and Publisher classes

Wowza Streaming Engine includes the Stream class and the Publisher class for doing server-
side publishing. The Stream class is a high-level server-side API for mixing live and VOD
content on the fly into a single destination stream and lets you do television-style publishing.
It also includes a package that enables creation of a server-side XML-based playlist. For more
information about the Stream class, see Schedule streaming with Wowza Streaming Engine
(StreamPublisher).
The Publisher class is a low-level publishing API that lets you inject raw compressed video
and audio frames into Wowza Streaming Engine to create a custom live stream. See the
Publisher class in the Wowza Streaming Engine Java API reference documentation for
details.

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6
Chapter

Using Wowza Streaming

Engine Manger

W owza Streaming Engine Manager lets you set up, manage, and monitor streams using
a web browser. It extends the programmatic and command line configuration and
management of Wowza Streaming Engine, enabling publishers with a diverse range of
technical abilities to have greater control and confidence when streaming video.
You can use Wowza Streaming Engine Manager with the latest versions of most modern web
browsers that support HTML5 and CSS 3. We recommend that you use the Google Chrome
browser.

Starting and stopping Wowza Streaming Engine

Manager

Notes
• Wowza Streaming Engine must be started to use Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. See
Starting and stopping the software.
• Wowza Streaming Engine Manager can't run as a service and in standalone mode at the same
time.
• After starting Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, open it in a web browser with the URL
http://[wowza-ip-address]:8088/enginemanager, where [wowza-ip-address] is the Wowza
Streaming Engine IP address or domain name.
• For more information about how to sign in to Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, see Managing
sign-in credentials.

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Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager as a service

(Windows)
To start the service:
1. Press WIN key + R, type services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK.
2. In the Services window, right-click Wowza Streaming Engine Manager 4.7.8, and
then click Start.
To stop the service:
1. Press WIN key + R, type services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK.
2. In the Services window, right-click Wowza Streaming Engine Manager 4.7.8, and
then click Stop.
You can set Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to start automatically as a Windows service
when Windows starts. To stop the service from starting automatically when Windows starts:
1. Press WIN key + R, type services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK.
2. In the Services window, right-click Wowza Streaming Engine Manager 4.7.8, and
then click Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, on the General tab, set Startup type to Manual.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager in standalone

mode (Windows)
To start Wowza Streaming Engine Manager in standalone mode, make sure that the Wowza
Streaming Engine Manager service is stopped (see above), and then do the following:
1. Press WIN key + R, type cmd in the Run dialog box, and then press Enter.
2. In the Command Prompt window, execute the following commands:
cd %WMSAPP_HOME%\manager\bin
startmgr.bat

To stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager:

1. Press WIN key + R, type cmd in the Run dialog box, and then press Enter.
2. In the Command Prompt window, execute the following commands:
cd %WMSAPP_HOME%\manager\bin
shutdownmgr.bat

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Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager as a service

(macOS)
To start the service, double-click the Start Services application in
/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following command:
sudo launchctl load -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wowza.WowzaStreamingEngineManager.plist

To stop the service, double-click the Stop Services application in

/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following command:
sudo launchctl unload -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wowza.WowzaStreamingEngineManager.plist

Note
The Start Services and Stop Services applications also start and stop the Wowza Streaming Engine
system service. See Starting and stopping the software.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager in standalone

mode (macOS)
To start Wowza Streaming Engine in standalone mode, double-click the Start Standalone
Mode application in /Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal
window and enter the following commands:
cd /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8/manager/bin
./startmgr.sh

To stop the manager, double-click the Stop Standalone Mode application in

/Applications/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8 or open a Terminal window and enter the
following commands:
cd /Library/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.7.8/manager/bin
./shutdownmgr.sh

Note
The Start Standalone Mode and Stop Standalone Mode applications also start and stop Wowza
Streaming Engine in standalone mode. See Starting and stopping the software.

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Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager as a service

(Linux)

Note
The operations in this section must be performed as the root user with sudo access.

To start the service, enter one of the following commands, depending on your Linux
distribution:
sudo service WowzaStreamingEngineManager start

-or-
/etc/init.d/WowzaStreamingEngineManager start

To stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, enter:

sudo service WowzaStreamingEngineManager stop

-or-
/etc/init.d/WowzaStreamingEngineManager stop

Note
If these instructions don't apply to your Linux distribution, consult your Linux manual.

Start and stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager in standalone

mode (Linux)
To start the manager in standalone mode, open a Terminal window and enter the following
commands:
cd /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/manager/bin
./startmgr.sh

To stop Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, enter:

cd /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/manager/bin
./shutdownmgr.sh

Managing sign-in credentials

The first time you start Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you'll be asked to sign in with the
case-sensitive user name and password that you created when you installed Wowza
Streaming Engine. This account has administrator access to enable control of the Wowza
Streaming Engine server through the web-based manager UI. However, it doesn't by default
provide access to advanced property, server listener, and module settings, which are
reserved for expert Wowza Streaming Engine users.

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After you sign in, you can enable access to the advanced settings for the default
administrator account and add accounts for other users. You can create additional user
accounts with both administrative and read-only access.

Enable access to advanced settings for the default administrator

account
1. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Server tab and then click Users in the
contents panel.
2. On the Users page, click the user name for the administrator account in the Users
list.
3. Click Edit, and then select the Allow access to advanced properties and features
check box.
4. (Optional) Enter a new password in the Password and Confirm Password fields. The
password values are case-sensitive.
5. Click Save. You'll be signed out and must sign in again.
You can also enable access to the advanced settings for the default administrator account by
updating the [install-dir]/conf/admin.password file using a text editor. For example, to
specify that the Admin user can access the advanced settings, specify the advUser group as
shown in the following example:
# Admin password file (format [username][space][password][space][group])
#username password group|group
Admin AdminPassword admin|advUser

Administrators can create accounts for other users with full administrative access to Wowza
Streaming Engine Manager or with read-only privileges.

Create user accounts

1. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Server tab and then click Users in the
contents panel.
2. On the Users page, click Add User.
3. Enter a name for the user in User Name and a password for the user in Password
and Confirm Password fields. The user name and password values are case-sensitive.
4. Specify the access level (Read-Only or Administrator) for the new user by selecting
the appropriate Access Level option.
5. To enable the new user to either manage (Administrator user) or view (Read-Only
user) advanced settings, select the Allow access to advanced properties and
features check box.
6. Click Add.

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You can also add new user accounts by updating the [install-dir]/conf/admin.password file
using a text editor. For example, to add the newAdmin and readOnly user accounts with
access to advanced settings, edit the admin.password file as follows.
# Admin password file (format [username][space][password][space][group])
#username password group|group
Admin AdminPassword admin|advUser

newAdmin newAdminPassword admin|advUser

readOnly readOnlyPassword advUser

The readOnly user can view the advanced settings but can't change them.

Navigating Wowza Streaming Engine Manager

Here’s a tour of the Wowza Streaming Engine Manager user interface. For more information,
see Find your way around Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.

Home page

1 Click the tabs on the menu bar to access features that help you manage the server and
virtual host (the Server tab) and create and manage live and video-on-demand
application types (the Applications tab). Click the Help link to access articles and
resources on the Wowza website that help you configure streaming workflows.

2 View information in the Status area about how the total number of connections (both
source and playback connections) for the server (the Connections chart) and the total
server resource consumption for CPU, Java heap, memory, and disk (the Usage chart).
You can also see if Transcoder, nDVR, and DRM are licensed and enabled, and which
applications they're enabled for.

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3 Use the information (IP address and port) shown in Application Connection Settings to
publish a stream to the server from your encoder or camera.

4 Quickly verify that the server is up and running by using built-in test players to stream
the sample.mp4 video file that's installed with the server software.

5 Use the Getting Started information to quickly jump to configuration areas in Wowza
Streaming Engine Manager and to get more information about the Support resources
that are available if you have problems.

Server configuration

1 The contents panel provides access to the following features that let you configure,
manage, and monitor the server and virtual hosts (VHosts).
Server Setup – Configure settings such as the Wowza Streaming Engine instance name,
available license keys, and enable and disable Monitoring for the server and its
applications.
Server Monitoring – Monitor server resource consumption (CPU, memory, Java heap,
and disk usage), source and playback connections, network throughput, and uptime.
See Monitor server connections, load, and application statistics in Wowza Streaming
Engine.
Virtual Host Setup – Manage virtual hosting environments. By default, Wowza
Streaming Engine ships with a single VHost environment named _defaultVHost_,
however, you can add more VHost environments and manage them separately. See
Virtual hosting.

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Virtual Host Monitoring – Monitor VHost source and playback connections, network
throughput, and uptime. See Monitor server connections, load, and application
statistics in Wowza Streaming Engine.
Transcoder – Monitor the number of concurrent live source streams ingested by the
Transcoder and add, modify, and delete Transcoder templates. See Use Wowza
Streaming Engine Transcoder.
Media Cache – Configure the read-through caching mechanism that enables scaling of
VOD streams by re-streaming VOD file sources from HTTP-based servers that support
HTTP/1.1 range requests and from network-attached file systems. See Scale video-on-
demand streaming with Wowza Streaming Engine Media Cache.
Users – Manage administrator and user accounts for Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager. See Managing sign-in credentials.
Source Authentication – Manage user names and passwords that RTMP-based and
RTSP-based encoders and cameras can use to connect and publish a live stream if the
live application requires authentication.
Performance Tuning – Adjust performance settings from the default values used when
the server starts. See Tune Wowza Streaming Engine for optimal performance.
Logs – View Wowza Streaming Engine and Wowza Streaming Engine Manager log files.
Filtering and display options let you customize what you see in the UI, and you can
download large log files to a compressed (zipped) folder for offline viewing. See View
log messages in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.
About – View information about Wowza Streaming Engine such as the installed version
number, license details, and the version of Java being used.
Startup Streams – Pull live IP camera streams (RTSP/RTP streams), SHOUTcast/Icecast
streams, and streams from native RTP or MPEG-TS encoders and start them
automatically when the VHost starts. See Startup Streams.
Stream Files – Replace (alias) complex stream names that are published to Wowza
Streaming Engine from sources such as IP camera streams (RTSP/RTP streams),
SHOUTcast/Icecast streams, and streams from native RTP or MPEG-TS encoders. See
Stream files.
SMIL Files – Create Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) files that
organize streams of various bitrates into groups for HTTP adaptive bitrate streaming.
See Stream adaptive-bitrate content in Wowza Streaming Engine.

2 When you click a feature in the contents panel, a page displays that enables you to
configure the feature’s settings. Advanced settings for fine-tuning the server
configuration are available for some server features on Properties and Server Listeners
tabs. These tabs are only available to users with advanced permissions. See Advanced
properties and settings.

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3 Some features have buttons in the upper-right corner that provide additional
functionality. Some server-level features let you restart the server and stop and restart
the VHost.

4 The Help panel provides details about how to configure the controls on the feature
page. Toggle the panel’s visibility by clicking Hide Help or Show Help.

Application types
An application is a set of configuration options in Wowza Streaming Engine that supports a
specific workflow for the delivery of streaming content. To add applications in Wowza
Streaming Engine Manager, click the Applications tab and then click Add Application.

In the Add Application page that appears, you can add applications for six streaming
scenarios.

Live VOD
Delivers live streams to players (single server) Delivers video-on-demand streams to players
or as an origin server to deliver live streams (single server).
to other servers running Wowza Streaming
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Engine to scale content delivery to a large

number of players.
Live Edge VOD Edge
Ingests live streams from a live application on Ingests video-on-demand files from a Media
an origin server that's running Wowza Cache source and streams them to players
Streaming Engine, then delivers the live (single server).
streams to players (single server).
Live HTTP Origin VOD HTTP Origin
Delivers live streams to an HTTP caching Delivers video-on0demand files to an HTTP
infrastructure using HTTP streaming caching infrastructure using HTTP streaming
protocols (HLS, MPEG-DASH, HDS, and protocols (HLS, MPEG-DASH, HDS, and
Smooth Streaming). Smooth Streaming).

To add an application, click the Application Type in the page that corresponds to your needs,
enter a name for the application in the New Application dialog box, and then click Add.
Single instances of a live application type (named live) and an on-demand application type
(named vod) are included in the default installation of Wowza Streaming Engine.

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Application configuration

1 The contents panel provides access to the following features that let you configure,
manage, and monitor application types.
Application Setup – Modify application settings such as the All application types
playback types (HTTP streamers and packetizers), default
content storage location, closed-captioning options, and
other settings. Some settings vary by application type.
Monitoring – Monitor application source and playback All application types
connections, network throughput, and uptime. See
Monitor server connections, load, and application statistics
in Wowza Streaming Engine.
Sources (Live) – Get connection information for encoders All live application types
and cameras that publish a stream to this application. If
you're viewing this page on your iOS or Android mobile
device that has the Wowza GoCoder™ encoding app
installed, you can automatically configure the GoCoder app
to publish a stream to this application. Wowza Streaming
Engine supports integrated configuration of additional live
sources provided by Works With Wowza partners. You can

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connect many other live sources to live Wowza Streaming

Engine applications, but you must configure the connection
settings manually. See Connect a live source to Wowza
Streaming Engine.
Stream Files – Replace (alias) complex stream names that Live
are published to the application from sources such as IP Live Edge
camera streams (RTSP/RTP streams), SHOUTcast/Icecast
streams, and streams from native RTP or MPEG-TS
encoders. See Stream files.
Incoming Streams – View details about live streams that All live application types
are published to this application and record them to VOD
files for later playback. See Record live streams in Wowza
Streaming Engine.
Wowza Player – Send live or on-demand HLS stream URLs Live
to Wowza Player Builder, and then use Player Builder VOD
settings to customize your player and generate player VOD Edge
embed code for your webpage or web application. See Get
started with Wowza Player.
Stream Targets – Send live streams to CDNs, streaming All live application types
servers, streaming services, and multicast networks for
distributed delivery. See Distribute live streams.
Source Security – Configure options for securing RTMP and All live application types
RTSP-based source connections to this application (for
example, from RTMP-based encoders).
Playback Security – Configure options for securing playback All application types
connections to Wowza Streaming Engine. For example,
require a secure RTMP connection, specify a security token
("shared secret"), and restrict playback to specific
IP addresses.
SMIL Files – Create Synchronized Multimedia Integration Live
Language (SMIL) files that organize streams of various Live Edge
bitrates into groups for HTTP adaptive bitrate streaming. VOD
See Stream adaptive-bitrate content with Wowza VOD Edge
Streaming Engine.
nDVR – Configure DVR playback of live streams. See nDVR. All live application types
Transcoder – Configure transcoding of live streams to suit Live
desired playback devices. See Use Wowza Streaming Live HTTP Origin
Engine Transcoder.

DRM – Integrate with Key Management Service partners to Live

enable on-the-fly DRM encryption of premium live and Live Edge
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VOD content for a variety of playback devices. See Stream VOD

encryption with DRM. VOD Edge

2 When you click an application or one of its features in the contents panel, a page
displays that enables you to configure the application or feature settings. Advanced
settings for fine-tuning the configuration are available for the application and some
application features on Properties and Modules tabs. These tabs are only available to
users with advanced permissions. See Advanced properties and settings.

3 Most application and feature pages have buttons in the upper-right corner that
provide additional functionality. You can access test players to test your streams, copy
application settings to create a new application with identical settings, restart an
application, and delete an application.

4 The Help panel provides details about how to configure the controls on the application
or feature page. Toggle the panel’s visibility by clicking Hide Help or Show Help.

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Test players
Wowza Streaming Engine Manager provides test players for all of the live and on-demand
application types so that you can test your streaming configurations. To access the test
players, click the Test Players button in the upper-right corner of the application or feature
page. Then in the Test Players dialog box, click the tab for the protocol you want to test.
The test players for live applications are preconfigured to play a stream named myStream
from the default live application on the local Wowza Streaming Engine instance. If you
configured your encoder or camera to publish a stream to the live application with a
different stream name, be sure to substitute it in place of myStream in the Stream box.

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The test players for VOD applications are preconfigured to play the [install-
dir]/content/sample.mp4 video file that installs with Wowza Streaming Engine.

To use your own VOD file, copy it to the [install-dir]/content root folder and substitute its file
name for sample.mp4 in the Media File Name field. If your custom VOD file isn't stored in
the [install-dir]/content root folder, you must add the default application instance name to
the playback URL. For example, if the sample.mp4 video file is in [install-
dir]/content/myVideos, enter vod/_definst_/ in the Application field and enter
mp4:/myVideos/sample.mp4 in the Media File Name field.

Note
The test players can’t display closed captions or play encrypted streams. DVR playback is only
supported by the HDS, HLS, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming test players. If you change the default
stream values to playback a new stream, you may need to restart the test players.

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Advanced properties and settings

Advanced settings for fine-tuning the server and application configuration are available in a
couple of locations in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. Some server features have
advanced settings on Properties and Server Listener tabs to adjust the server configuration,
while applications and some application features have Properties and Modules tabs to
adjust the application configuration. The tabs that provide access to the advanced properties
and settings aren't visible unless the signed-in user has advanced permissions.
Administrators with advanced permissions can configure the advanced properties and
settings while read-only users can't change the advanced properties and settings. See
Managing sign-in credentials.
Properties pages may have many properties that you can configure, so they're organized
into categories. Click a link in the Quick Links area at the top of the page to jump to the
associated property settings. For example, click Closed Captions:

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To jump to the Closed Captions property settings for an application:

Many technical articles on the Wowza website prescribe custom properties for tuning the
server and applications and to add advanced functionality. Each article describes how to add
the custom properties using the Custom Properties area on a Property tab:

See Properties.

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Chapter

7
Server administration

W owza Streaming Engine can run standalone from a command shell or as a system
service. Running standalone is best for developing custom applications because the
server can be started and stopped quickly, and server log messages can be viewed
immediately in the console window. Running as a system service is more often used for
server deployments where the server must continue to run after you log off the computer or
must be automatically started when the computer is rebooted.

Configuring SSL and RTMPS

Wowza Streaming Engine supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)—RTMPS (RTMP over SSL) and
HTTPS (HTTP over SSL)—streaming protection. SSL allows web browsers and web servers to
communicate over a secure connection, with the encrypted data being sent and received in
both directions. You can use Wowza StreamLock AddOn to get a free 256-bit SSL certificate,
you can get an SSL certificate from a certificate authority, or you can create a certificate
yourself (a self-signed SSL certificate).

Notes
• For information on getting an SSL certificate from Wowza, see Get SSL certificates from the
Wowza Streaming Engine StreamLock service.
• For information on getting an SSL certificate from a certificate authority, see Request an SSL
certificate for Wowza Streaming Engine from a certificate authority.
• For information on creating a self-signed SSL certificate, see Create a self-signed SSL certificate
for Wowza Streaming Engine.

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Logging
Wowza Streaming Engine uses the Apache log4j logging utility as its logging implementation.
The log4j logging system provides ample functionality for log formatting, log rolling, and log
retrieval for most applications. By default, Wowza Streaming Engine is configured to log basic
information to the server console and detailed information in the W3C Extended Common
Log Format (ECLF) to a log file. Java messaging is also captured in the log files to help monitor
and aid troubleshooting. The log files are written to the [install-dir]/logs folder.
For information about common log messages and suggestions for resolution, see
Troubleshoot error messages in Wowza Streaming Engine.

Logging fields
Wowza Streaming Engine can generate the following logging fields:
Field name Description
c-client-id Client ID number assigned by the server to the connection
c-ip Client connection IP address
c-proto Client connection protocol: http (HLS), http (Smooth Streaming),
rtmp, rtmpe, rtmps (HTTP-1.1), rtmpt (HTTP-1.1), rtmpte (HTTP-
1.1)
c-referrer URL of the Flash movie that initiated the connection to the server
c-user-agent Version of the Flash client that initiated the connection to the
server
cs-bytes Total number of bytes transferred from client to server
(cumulative)
cs-stream-bytes Total number of bytes transferred from client to server for
stream x-stream-id (cumulative)
cs-uri-query Query parameter for stream x-stream-id
cs-uri-stem Full connection string for stream x-stream-id (excludes query
parameters)
date Date of log event
s-ip IP address of the server that received this event
s-port Port number through which the server received this event
s-uri Full connection string on which the server received this event

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sc-bytes Total number of bytes transferred from server to client

(cumulative)
sc-stream-bytes Total number of bytes transferred from server to client for
stream x-stream-id (cumulative)
time Time of log event
tz Time zone of log event
x-app Name of the application from which the event was generated
x-appinst Name of the application instance from which the event was
generated
x-category Log event category (server, vhost, application, session, stream)
x-comment Extra comment about the log event
x-ctx Extra data about the context of the log event
x-duration Time, in seconds, that this event occurred within the lifetime of
the x-category object
x-event Log event (see Logging events)
x-file-ext File extension of stream x-stream-id
x-file-length File length, in seconds, of stream x-stream-id
x-file-name Full file path of stream x-stream-id
x-file-size File size, in bytes, of stream x-stream-id
x-severity Log event severity (DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL)
x-sname Name of stream x-stream-id
x-sname-query Query parameters of stream x-stream-id
x-spos Position, in milliseconds, within the media stream
x-status Log event status (see Logging status values)
x-stream-id Stream ID number assigned by the server to the stream object
x-suri Full connection string for stream x-stream-id (includes query
parameters)
x-suri-query Query parameter for connection string
x-suri-stem Full connection string for stream x-stream-id (excludes query
parameters)
x-vhost Name of the virtual host from which the event was generated

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Logging events
Wowza Streaming Engine can generate the following logging events:
Event name Description
announce RTSP Session Description Protocol (SDP) ANNOUNCE
app-start Application instance start
app-stop Application instance shutdown
comment Comment
connect Connection result
connect-burst Connection accepted in burst zone
connect-pending Connection pending approval by application and license manager
create Media or data stream created
decoder-audio-start Audio decoding has started for a transcoded stream
decoder-audio-stop Audio decoding has stopped for a transcoded stream
decoder-video-start Video decoding has started for a transcoded stream
decoder-video-stop Video decoding has stopped for a transcoded stream
destroy Media or data stream destroyed
disconnect Client (session) disconnected from server
encoder-audio-start Audio encoding has started for a transcoded stream
encoder-audio-stop Audio encoding has stopped for a transcoded stream
encoder-video-start Video encoding has started for a transcoded stream
encoder-video-stop Video encoding has stopped for a transcoded stream
pause Playback has paused
play Playback has started
publish Start stream publishing
record Start stream recording
recordstop Stop stream recording
seek Seek has occurred
setbuffertime Client call to NetStream.setBufferTime(secs) logged in
milliseconds

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setstreamtype Client call to netConnection.call("setStreamType", null,

"[streamtype]")
server-start Server start
server-stop Server shutdown
stop Playback has stopped
unpause Playback has resumed from pause
unpublish Stop stream publishing
vhost-start Virtual host start
vhost-stop Virtual host shutdown

Logging status values

Wowza Streaming Engine can generate the following logging status values:
Status value Description
100 Pending or waiting (for approval)
200 Success
302 Rejected by application with redirect information
400 Bad request
401 Rejected by application
413 Rejected by license manager
500 Internal error

Logging configuration
Logging is configured in the conf/log4j.properties properties file. The log4j logging system
has many logging configuration options. This section covers the basic options for enabling
and disabling different logging fields, events, and categories.
The following example shows a basic log4j.properties file for a Wowza Streaming Engine
instance:
log4j.rootCategory=INFO, stdout, serverAccess, serverError

# Console appender
log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=com.wowza.wms.logging.ECLFPatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.Fields=x-severity,x-category,x-event,x-ctx,x-
comment
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.OutputHeader=false
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.QuoteFields=false

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log4j.appender.stdout.layout.Delimeter=space

# Access appender
log4j.appender.serverAccess=org.apache.log4j.WowzaDailyRollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.serverAccess.DatePattern='.'yyyy-MM-dd
log4j.appender.serverAccess.File=${com.wowza.wms.ConfigHome}/logs/wowzastre
amingengine_access.log
log4j.appender.serverAccess.layout=com.wowza.wms.logging.ECLFPatternLayout
log4j.appender.serverAccess.layout.Fields=x-severity,x-category,x-
event;date,time,c-client-id,c-ip,c-port,cs-bytes,sc-bytes,x-duration,x-
sname,x-stream-id,sc-stream-bytes,cs-stream-bytes,x-file-size,x-file-
length,x-ctx,x-comment
log4j.appender.serverAccess.layout.OutputHeader=true
log4j.appender.serverAccess.layout.QuoteFields=false
log4j.appender.serverAccess.layout.Delimeter=tab

# Error appender
log4j.appender.serverError=org.apache.log4j.WowzaDailyRollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.serverError.DatePattern='.'yyyy-MM-dd
log4j.appender.serverError.File=${com.wowza.wms.ConfigHome}/logs/wowzastrea
mingengine_error.log
log4j.appender.serverError.layout=com.wowza.wms.logging.ECLFPatternLayout
log4j.appender.serverError.layout.Fields=x-severity,x-category,x-
event;date,time,c-client-id,c-ip,c-port,cs-bytes,sc-bytes,x-duration,x-
sname,x-stream-id,sc-stream-bytes,cs-stream-bytes,x-file-size,x-file-
length,x-ctx,x-comment
log4j.appender.serverError.layout.OutputHeader=true
log4j.appender.serverError.layout.QuoteFields=false
log4j.appender.serverError.layout.Delimeter=tab
log4j.appender.serverError.Threshold=WARN

Note
Always use forward slashes when referring to file paths, even on Windows.

The first statement in the log4j.properties file sets the logging level to INFO and defines
three appenders: stdout, serverAccess, and serverError. Setting the logging level to INFO
configures the logging mechanism such that it only logs events with a severity of INFO or
higher. The logging severity in ascending order is: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, and FATAL.
To log all events, set the logging level to DEBUG.
Appender properties allow you to control the way that log information is formatted and
filtered. The following table shows some of the important properties.
Property name Description
CategoryExclude Comma-separated list of logging categories. Only log events whose
category isn't in this list are logged.
CategoryInclude Comma-separated list of logging categories. Only log events with the
specified categories are logged.
Delimiter The delimiter character to use between field values. Valid values are

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tab, space, or the actual delimiter character.

EventExclude Comma-separated list of logging categories. Only log events whose
event name isn't in this list are logged.
EventInclude Comma-separated list of logging events. Only log events with the
specified event name are logged.
Field Comma-delimited list of fields to log.
OutputHeader Boolean value (true/false) that instructs the logging system to write
out a W3C ECLF header whenever the server is started.
QuoteFields Boolean value (true/false) that instructs the logging system to wrap
field data in double quotes.

For more information about how to configure the log4j specific properties such as log file
rolling and additional log appender types, see the Log4j website.
Wowza Streaming Engine can also be configured to generate logs on a per-application and
per-virtual host basis. These configurations are included, but commented-out, at the bottom
of the default [install-dir]/conf/log4j.properties file. The first commented-out section
includes configuration for per-application logging. The second commented-out section
includes configuration for per-virtual host logging. To enable either of these features, remove
the comments (# sign at the beginning of each of the lines) from the section.
The per-application logging generates log files using the following directory structure:
[install-dir]/logs/[vhost]/[application]/wowzastreamingengine_access.log
[install-dir]/logs/[vhost]/[application]/wowzastreamingengine_error.log
[install-dir]/logs/[vhost]/[application]/wowzastreamingengine_stats.log

The per-virtual host logging generates log files using the following directory structure:
[install-dir]/logs/[vhost]/wowzastreamingengine_access.log
[install-dir]/logs/[vhost]/wowzastreamingengine_error.log
[install-dir]/logs/[vhost]/wowzastreamingengine_stats.log

This method for generating log files can be very useful if you want to offer Wowza Streaming
Engine as a shared service to several customers.

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Chapter

8
More resources

T he Wowza website contains a trove of articles that offer step-by-step instructions for
configuring common streaming scenarios and implementing all of the features and
capabilities of Wowza Streaming Engine. Here’s a selection of useful and popular
articles, as well as a link to the Wowza Streaming Engine doc landing page.
• Set up video-on-demand streaming in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Set up live streaming using an RTMP-based encoder in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Set up live streaming using an RTSP/RTP-based encoder in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Publish and play a live stream (MPEG-TS based encoder) in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Connect a live source to Wowza Streaming Engine
• Set up and run Transcoder in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Set up and run Wowza nDVR in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Configure a live stream repeater in Wowza Streaming Engine
• Re-stream video from an IP camera (RTSP/RTP re-streaming) in Wowza Streaming
Engine
• Stream over MPEG-DASH with Wowza Streaming Engine
• All Wowza Streaming Engine articles

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