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Starting and stopping

Main commands to launch and check

After you activate the license, start WCS using the command:

sudo systemctl start webcallserver

Stopping the server is done with the command

sudo systemctl stop webcallserver

Here are a few ways to make sure the server has started and is ready towork:

  1. Make sure the server process is running

    pgrep -afn com.flashphoner.server.Server
    
    The console should display WCS Core process (PID 6880  on the example below):
    [root@localhost ~]# pgrep -afn com.flashphoner.server.Server
    6880 java -Xmx4g -Xms4g -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=70 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote=true -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.local.only=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=50999 -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=p13.flashphoner.com -XX:ErrorFile=/usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/error%p.log -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCDetails -Xloggc:/usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/gc-core-2021-06-25_14-44.log -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -Dsun.rmi.dgc.client.gcInterval=36000000000 -Dsun.rmi.dgc.server.gcInterval=36000000000 -Dcom.flashphoner.fms.AppHome=/usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/lib/so:/usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/lib -DWCS_NON_ROOT=true -DsessionDebugEnabled=false -Djdk.tls.client.protocols="TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2" -cp /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/lib/* com.flashphoner.server.Server
    [root@localhost ~]#
    

  2. Make sure the server process listens the main ports

    netstat -nlp | grep java
    
    [root@localhost tmp]# netstat -nlp | grep java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:1098            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:1935            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8080            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:2001          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8081            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:2002          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8082            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 192.168.1.5:3478       0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:50999           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8888            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8443            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8444            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8445            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:9091            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:45731           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6880/java
    udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:1935            0.0.0.0:*                           6880/java
    
    If you used default ports settings, you should see ports 8080, 8444 (Websockets) and 1935 (RTMP) as well as other ports you configured for the WCS server in the list.

  3. Make sure the WCS server writes the main server log

    tail -f /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/server_logs/flashphoner.log
    
    The log should display information about settings the server started with, for example:
    18:29:51,945 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting allow_outside_codecs: from true to false
    18:29:51,974 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting codecs: from null to opus,alaw,ulaw,g729,speex16,g722,mpeg4-generic,telephone-event,h264,vp8,flv,mpv
    18:29:51,975 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting media_port_from: from 31001 to 31001
    18:29:51,978 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting keep_alive.enabled: from websocket,rtmp,rtmfp to websocket,rtmfp
    18:29:51,978 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting webrtc_cc_min_bitrate: from 30000 to 3000000
    18:29:51,979 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting codecs_exclude_sip: from null to mpeg4-generic,flv,mpv,opus,ulaw,h264,g722,g729
    18:29:51,979 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting wss.port: from 8443 to 8443
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting codecs_exclude_sip_rtmp: from null to opus,g729,g722,mpeg4-generic,vp8,mpv
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting codecs_exclude_streaming: from null to telephone-event
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting webrtc_cc_max_bitrate: from 10000000 to 7000000
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting ip: from 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.1.5
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting client_log_level: from INFO to DEBUG
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting ip_local: from 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.1.5
    18:29:51,980 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting media_port_to: from 32000 to 32000
    18:29:51,981 INFO        SettingsLoader - main Override setting ws.port: from 8080 to 8080
    

Logs should react on connection of web clients. If that does not happen during testing, make sure the server process is running and the web client is configured properly to connect this particular server. See the Troubleshooting section for additional information.

If the server process is running and logs have no error, this means the WCS server is ready to work and you can start testing it.

All the ways to start WCS

Launch as service

Use the following command to launch WCS as service:

sudo systemctl start webcallserver

This is the preferrable way to start WCS. In this case, the service will start from root user, and the main WCS process will start from flashphoner or root user depending on launch mode configuration.

Since build 5.2.1537 the service type is changed from simple to forking. Also the file permissions containing the main WCS process PID are set according to systemd requirements. The service is marked as active (running), and systemd may send a signal directly to the main WCS process to stop it if necessary

Automatic service restart on failure

Since build 5.2.1562 the service unit webcallserver.service will be restarted automatically if the service becomes failed for some reason. Up to 5 relaunch tries will be done if no more than 2 minutes passed between them.

The service still may be stopped or started manually. If service is stopped manually, it will not be relaunched.

Automatic service restart may be disabled with the following command

cd /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin
sudo ./webcallserver set-service-restart disable

Launch from command line

WCS may be started from command line if necessary:

cd /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin
sudo ./webcallserver start

This way to start is useful for testing and debugging purposes.

Environment variables setup

Environment variables and parameters of the start are set in the /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin/setenv.sh script. Also, here you can set the parameter that prevent memory leaks on multi-CPU systems:

MALLOC_ARENA_MAX=4

Starting with stdout output

In some cases, for example, if the server won't start and does not produce any errors, you may need to start the server with direct logging to the 'stdout' console. Direct output to stdout cannot be used in production, because the server will be stopped if the console is closed or the SSH connection is lost. That is why we recommend using stdout output only for debug purposes.

To start the server in this mode, use the following command:

cd /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin
sudo ./webcallserver start standalone

Starting with JVM output redirection to a log file

Since build 5.2.1562 WCS may be launched with JVM output redirected to a file like direct stdout logging

cd /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin
sudo ./webcallserver start --java-log

In this case, all Java output will be redirected to the /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/java.log file. The feature should be used for debugging purposes only but not in production, because the resulting file size may be too large.

Launching with different user permissions

Launching builds 5.2.864-5.2.972

Since build 5.2.864, the permissions to launch WSC are defined as follows:

  1. The command

    sudo systemctl start webcallserver
    
    starts WCS always from flashphoner user, if the user exists in system

  2. The command

    ./webcallserver start
    
    starts WCS from root when executing from root
    sudo ./webcallserver start
    
    or from flashphoner user, when executing from other non-root user

This affects the standalone mode too

./webcallserver start standalone

Launching build 5.2.976 and newer

Since build 5.2.976, the permissions to launch WSC are defined by the following parameter in /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin/setenv.sh file only:

On this value (default)

WCS_NON_ROOT=true

WCS is starting from flashphoner user

On this value

WCS_NON_ROOT=false

WCS is starting from root user

In this case, service can be started from root, user permissions to launch Java will be changed automatically.

Switching launch mode

Since build 5.2.1255 the following command is available to switch launch mode:

  • switching to root mode

    sudo ./webcallserver set-root-mode enable
    

  • switching to flashphoner mode

    sudo ./webcallserver set-root-mode disable
    

WCS will be stopped before settings changing and will be automatically started after settings changing to apply them.

Folder permissions setting when starting from flashphoner user

Since build 5.2.976, write permissions to the server folders including custom folder are checked while starting WCS from flashphoner user. If permissions are not enough, WCS will not start with the following message in /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/startup.log file

FlashphonerWebCallServer cannot be started from user flashphoner, please fix the permissions to the folders or run 'webcallserver set-permissions'!

In this case, the following command should be executed

sudo ./webcallserver set-permissions

JVM parameters

Parameters are set in the wcs-core.properties file.

Additional launching options can be set in bin/setenv.sh file using the following varaibles:

WCS_JAVA_OPTS - the list of options for WCS Core

JVM parameters are checked for compatibility with current Java version on startup. The error messages are written to /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/startup.log file according to error message returned by Java if JVM cannot start with parameters specified.

Java version automatic detection and JVM parameters correction

Since build 5.2.972, Java version is detected automatically, and JVM parameters are corrected when WCS is starting after JDK update. JVM launch parameters may also be corrected by the following command

cd /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/bin
sudo ./webcallserver set-java-opts

In this case, the parameters are corrected in the wcs-core.properties file, the previous settings are copied to a file with .backup extension and a sequence number, for example

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/conf/wcs-core.properties.backup.*
-rw-r--r--. 1 flashphoner flashphoner 1614 Jun 23 10:15 /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/conf/wcs-core.properties.backup.0
-rw-r--r--. 1 flashphoner flashphoner 1543 Jun 23 10:17 /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/conf/wcs-core.properties.backup.1

Note that garbage collector (GC) is not changing automatically in this case, but its parameters can be changed (command line key names for example).

Automatic WCS health checking after launch

When WCS process is launched, webcallserver script cheks if it is healthy waiting for 200 OK response to a special query

GET http://localhost:8081/health-check HTTP/1.1

Since build 5.2.1084 it is possible to set a maximum number of health checking tries using the following command line key

sudo ./webcallserver start --health-timeout 10

By default, 10 tries will be done with 1 second timeout between them. The script waits 1 second for response on every try. Therefore, a maximum waiting time may reach up to 20 seconds by default (10 * (1+1)).

If WCS process is not responding to all the queries, or the response is not 200 OK, the following message will be written to launch log /usr/local/FlashphonerWebCallServer/logs/startup.log and to console

FlashphonerWebCallServer started, but is not healthy, please try to restart

This health checking may be disabled if necessary by setting a zero tries

sudo ./webcallserver start --health-timeout 0