How to install Wowza Streaming Engine on CentOS

This is a short step-by-step tutorial on how to install Wowza Streaming Engine 4.2 on a CentOS server for live or video-on-demand (VOD) streaming.

Check Java installation

Wowza runs on Wowza and actually ships with a JRE, but I strongly suggest installing a JRE separately on OS level.
First let's check if Java is installed or not:

root@main [~]# java -version
-bash: java: command not found
root@main [~]#

As you can see it's not, so let's search for the yum package.

root@main [~]# yum search java

And then install the latest available OpenJDK

root@main [~]# yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64
Installed:
  java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64 1:1.8.0.60-2.b27.el7_1

Dependency Installed:
  java-1.8.0-openjdk-headless.x86_64 1:1.8.0.60-2.b27.el7_1  javapackages-tools.noarch 0:3.4.1-6.el7_0  python-javapackages.noarch 0:3.4.1-6.el7_0
  python-lxml.x86_64 0:3.2.1-4.el7                           ttmkfdir.x86_64 0:3.0.9-41.el7             tzdata-java.noarch 0:2015f-1.el7
  xorg-x11-fonts-Type1.noarch 0:7.5-9.el7

Complete!
root@main [~]#

Let's double check our new Java installation:

root@main [~]# java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_60"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)

Install Wowza Streaming Engine

Download the Wowza installer from their website. You can look up the download link by inspecting where the download button refers to.

root@main [~/wowza-4.2-installer]# wget http://www.wowza.com/downloads/WowzaStreamingEngine-4-2-0/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.2.0-linux-x64-installer.run
--2015-10-02 05:22:22--  http://www.wowza.com/downloads/WowzaStreamingEngine-4-2-0/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.2.0-linux-x64-installer.run
Resolving www.wowza.com (www.wowza.com)... 54.86.180.31, 107.23.121.144
Connecting to www.wowza.com (www.wowza.com)|54.86.180.31|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 206904581 (197M) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘WowzaStreamingEngine-4.2.0-linux-x64-installer.run’

100%[==========================================================================================================>] 206,904,581 39.3MB/s   in 6.9s

2015-10-02 05:22:30 (28.8 MB/s) - ‘WowzaStreamingEngine-4.2.0-linux-x64-installer.run’ saved [206904581/206904581]

root@main [~/wowza-4.2-installer]#

Make the downloaded file executable

root@main [~/wowza-4.2-installer]# chmod +x WowzaStreamingEngine-4.2.0-linux-x64-installer.run

Start the installer

root@main [~/wowza-4.2-installer]# ./WowzaStreamingEngine-4.2.0-linux-x64-installer.run

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Wowza Streaming Engine Setup Wizard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please read the following License Agreement. You must accept the terms of this
agreement before continuing with the installation.

Press [Enter] to continue:

Enter your license key when prompted:

Enter License Key

Please enter your Wowza Streaming Engine License Key.

License Key: []: E****-****-****-****-****-****-***********3

Create Administrator Account

Enter a user name and password that will be used to manage Wowza Streaming Engine.

User Name: []: admin

Password: : 5KC8Dc9Q

Start Wowza Streaming Engine automatically [Y/n]: Y

Setup is now ready to begin installing Wowza Streaming Engine on your computer.

Do you want to continue? [Y/n]: Y

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please wait while Setup installs Wowza Streaming Engine on your computer.

 Installing
 0% ______________ 50% ______________ 100%
 #########################################
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Setup has finished installing Wowza Streaming Engine on your computer.

root@main [~/wowza-4.2-installer]#

Make Wowza Streaming Engine use your own Java installation, not the default one that comes bundled.
The benefit is that when you apply Java security updates regularly (of course you do, right?), you automatically keep your Wowza upgraded too.

rm -rf /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/java
ln -sf /usr/lib/jvm/jre /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/java

Open up the required ports on the firewall. We need 1935 for RTMP and 8088 for the engine manager.

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1935/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8088/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Verify Installation

Check that Wowza is up and running by opening the http://localhost:1935 URL. By default there is a HTTP listener configured to catch all requests here and respond with the server version. As we are in command line, let's just use wget and not a browser.

wget http://localhost:1935

That's it, we have successfully installed Wowza Streming Engine 4.2 on our server. To check the logs, we can use this command:

less /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/logs/wowzastreamingengine_access.log