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The Flash media streaming server delivers streaming content to students. This content includes Echoes (on-demand content) and/or real-time live webcasts. You can use either the Wowza Media Server (Wowza) or the Adobe Flash Media Streaming Server (Adobe FMS).
This page provides the necessary instructions for installing and configuring an External Adobe FMS for use with EchoSystem (5.1 and above).
The first step is to determine whether Adobe FMS will be installed on the same machine as the ESS, as this will determine if there is a need to co-locate your Flash content (i.e. - to place it in a file system remote to the ESS via a network share so that the media server can access it locally).
If everything - the ESS, Adobe, and the flash content - will exist on the same physical device, OR the flash content is to be located or with the content located on a mounted SAN volume, then you can skip the following section. Simply make a note of the Flash Folder location, which will be configured in the Streaming Settings section of the ESS System Settings. See Configuring the ESS below as well as the Configure System Settings page.
In order for the Flash server to find and stream Flash content, that content needs to be stored in a drive letter-addressable location (i.e. - logically local). This location can be physically attached to the Adobe host or on the network as a SAN volume. The ESS must transfer the Flash content over the network to the location chosen for the content storage, meaning this location must be accessible via a network share.
When using a common SAN volume for all content, you can skip this section, and make sure that the Flash Folder parameter entered in the Streaming Settings section of the ESS System Settings page matches the location where you want the Flash server to be looking for its content files.
Echo360 recommends NOT storing the content on a location that is logically remote to the Flash server, such as a NAS or UNC-addressable location, since this will generate unnecessary network traffic that could be detrimental to the performance of the streaming server.
The following instructions assume that Adobe FMS is installed on a Windows server; if using a Linux distribution, please refer to the instructions specific to your network file sharing solution (e.g. - Samba) to set up a network share.
Optionally, but as a recommended verification, do the following:
Adobe Meda Server relies on virtual servers, called "applications," to serve the right kind of content based on the document root given in URL requests. Adobe is installed with a set of default applications that reside in its Program Files folder. In order for Adobe to work with content from the EchoSystem, it is necessary to create a new application based on the default Video-on-Demand (called "vod") application. This application will be referred to as "echo."
Adobe FMS is now configured to serve content from the location set up for holding Flash content.
At this point, the Adobe FMS service should be configured to launch on startup by default.
All of the infrastructure should now be in place for the external FMS. The final step involves configuring three entries in the ESS system configuration to recognize these changes. The information below is also available in the Configure System Settings page.
For the External Flash URL parameter, compose a URL consisting of the RTMP protocol, the FQDN of the Adobe server, the application name (echo), and a _definst_ pointer, as follows: rtmp://fqdn.of.fms.server/echo/_definst_
The path elements of this URL do not map to path elements on the storage volume; here, "echo" is the name of an application and not the name of the folder in which the content is stored, and "_definst_" is a virtual pointer. If the URL contains more elements than the example shown here, or the ECHO_DIR folder contains additional subfolders above the content, FMS will not be able to locate the content. |
The ESS is now configured to call the external Adobe FMS when providing content to viewers. If prompted, restart the ESS in order for the changes to take effect, checking first that no capture or processing tasks are currently running.