Installing LiveKit on Ubuntu Server

In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the installation process for LiveKit on Ubuntu Server. LiveKit is a powerful open source video conferencing platform that allows you to easily build scalable video applications.

Prerequisites:

Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• A machine running Ubuntu Server

• A non-root user with sudo privileges

• A working internet connection

Let's get started!

Step 1: Install Golang

To build and run LiveKit, we need to install Golang on our server. We'll use the official Golang PPA for Ubuntu to install it. Here are the commands:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y curl
$ curl -O https://dl.google.com/go/go1.17.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
$ sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.17.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Next, you need to add the Go installation to your PATH environment variable. Open the .profile file using your favorite text editor:

$ nano ~/.profile

And add the following line at the end:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin

Save the changes, and reload the file so that the changes take effect:

$ source ~/.profile

Finally, verify that the installation was successful by checking the version of Go:

$ go version

The output should be similar to:

go version go1.17.1 linux/amd64

Step 2: Clone LiveKit

Now that we have Go installed, we can proceed to clone the LiveKit repository to our server. Here's how:

$ git clone https://github.com/livekit/livekit-server.git

This will clone the LiveKit repository to your current directory.

Step 3: Build LiveKit

Next, we need to build the LiveKit binary. cd into the cloned repo directory:

$ cd livekit-server

Then build the binary:

$ make build

This may take a few minutes, depending on your server's performance. Once the build is complete, you'll find the livekit-server binary in the bin directory.

Step 4: Configure LiveKit

We're almost there! Now we need to configure LiveKit. To do this, we'll copy the example configuration file and modify it to suit our needs.

$ cp .env.example .env

Next, edit the .env file to reflect your requirements. You can use any text editor to do this. Here are the settings that you need to configure:

• APP_ADDRESS: The IP and port that LiveKit will bind to. Change this if you need to bind to a specific IP or port.

• TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_API_KEY_SID: If you plan to use Twilio for TURN servers, add your Twilio API credentials here.

• TURN_SERVER_SECRET: If you're setting up your own TURN server, add the secret here.

• TURN_SERVER_URL: The URL of your TURN server.

Once you're done editing, save the changes and exit the editor.

Step 5: Start LiveKit

We're ready to start LiveKit! Use the following command:

$ ./bin/livekit-server run

This will start the LiveKit server with the configuration options you specified.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to install LiveKit on Ubuntu Server. If you encounter any issues during the installation process, consult the LiveKit documentation, as it contains additional information and troubleshooting tips. Happy conferencing!

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