Icecast Streaming Media Server

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to load balance the stream with multiple servers, with listeners connecting to a central server then redirected to one of a number of relays? We have limited bandwidth, but several volunteers who are willing to relay the stream. Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

bump

[karlH]

not in 2.3.1. I have a work in progress for load sharing in my branch work. The slaves authenticate with the master and register themselves as a relay that new listeners can be redirected to using http 302.

karl.

[Anonymous]

Where can I find your branch? Is it in the official SVN repository? Do you have any patches just for this feature? Thanks.

[karlH]

karl.mediacast1.com is the main place to get tarballs/exe files from. I sync up with svn frequently (svn.xiph.org/icecast/branches/kh/icecast)

karl.

[gee2803]

Hello Karl.

I´ve downloaded your latest branch to test the load balancing feature,
but it didn´t work in my case probably caused of misconfiguration.

Which one do I need to install exactly?
The one I downloaded matched the actual Icecast 2.3.1 icecast config.
Can you give a small introduction on how to get load balancing running.

I want to use Icecast on 2 servers. The 1st server is limited to a specific number of listeners for each mountpoint. The 2nd server is unlimited for each mountpoint.

Is it possible to limit each mountpoint while do load balancing, too? E.g

Config:
Server 1 limited to 50. Server 2 unlimited.

50 listeners tune in:
Server1 25 listeners. Server 2 25 listeners.

200 listeners tune in:
Server1: 50 listeners. Server 2 150 listeners.

Thank you in advance!

[karlH]

The default 2.3.1 config won't cause any load balancing you will need some extra tags. The key thing is that the slaves need to authenticate with the master as being able to participate in listener redirection, so because of this both master and slave need to be the same code for it to work.

The sample icecast.xml lists the tags to use, but only a few extra ones are involved.

on the slave
<master-relay-auth>1</master-relay-auth>
this is so that a relay can auth using the relay user/pass, it also informs the master that there is a slave just in case you want on-demand relays.

On the master
<master-redirect>1</master-redirect>
enable the mechanism to work

<max-redirect-slaves>10</max-redirect-slaves>
A limit for the number of slaves that can be used for redirection.

The mechanism is fairly simplistic currently, there's no feedback for the slave listener counts so what happens is that the master fills up first then random selection of slaves occurs. My current thinking is that the stats mechanism could be used get those details to provide better hints for redirection instead of the max-listeners/random selection approach.

As I say this is a work in progress so feedback is welcome.

karl

[gee2803]

We have some problems. I would like to show you my config files now.
Maybe you can help us out:

The servers:
home.radiostation.de is a local icecast on my computer
server2.radiostation.de is Master
server3.radiostation.de is Slave

Configuration of LOCAL ICECAST @ home (home.radiostation.de)

<icecast>
<limits>
<clients>10</clients>
<sources>2</sources>
<threadpool>5</threadpool>
<queue-size>524288</queue-size>
<client-timeout>30</client-timeout>
<header-timeout>15</header-timeout>
<source-timeout>10</source-timeout>
<burst-on-connect>1</burst-on-connect>
<burst-size>65535</burst-size>
</limits>

<authentication>
<!-- Sources log in with username 'source' -->
<source-password>sourcepassword</source-password>
<!-- Relays log in username 'relay' -->
<relay-password>relaypassword</relay-password>

<!-- Admin logs in with the username given below -->
<admin-user>admin</admin-user>
<admin-password>adminpassword</admin-password>
</authentication>

<hostname>localhost</hostname>

<listen-socket>
<port>14000</port>
</listen-socket>

<relays-on-demand>1</relays-on-demand>

<fileserve>1</fileserve>


Config of MASTER (server2.radiostation.de)

<icecast>
<limits>
<clients>10</clients>
<sources>5</sources>
<queue-size>524288</queue-size>
<client-timeout>30</client-timeout>
<header-timeout>15</header-timeout>
<source-timeout>10</source-timeout>
<burst-size>65535</burst-size>
</limits>

<authentication>
<!-- Sources log in with username 'source' -->
<source-password>sourcepassword</source-password>
<!-- Relays log in username 'relay' -->
<relay-password>relaypassword</relay-password>

<!-- Admin logs in with the username given below -->
<admin-user>admin</admin-user>
<admin-password>adminpassword</admin-password>
</authentication>

<hostname>server2.radiostation.de</hostname>

<listen-socket>
<port>14000</port>
</listen-socket>

<master-server>home.radiostation.de</master-server>
<master-server-port>14000</master-server-port>
<master-update-interval>20</master-update-interval>
<master-username>relay</master-username>
<master-password>relaypassword</master-password>

<relays-on-demand>1</relays-on-demand>
<master-redirect>1</master-redirect>
<max-redirect-slaves>10</max-redirect-slaves>

<relay>
<server>home.radiostation.de</server>
<port>14000</port>
<mount>/192</mount>
<local-mount>/192</local-mount>
<on-demand>1</on-demand>
<username>relay</username>
<password>relaypassword</password>
<relay-shoutcast-metadata>1</relay-shoutcast-metadata>
</relay>

<fileserve>1</fileserve>


Config of SLAVE (server3.radiostation.de)

<icecast>
<limits>
<clients>1000</clients>
<sources>5</sources>
<queue-size>524288</queue-size>
<client-timeout>30</client-timeout>
<header-timeout>15</header-timeout>
<source-timeout>10</source-timeout>
<burst-size>65535</burst-size>
</limits>

<authentication>
<!-- Sources log in with username 'source' -->
<source-password>sourcepassword</source-password>
<!-- Relays log in username 'relay' -->
<relay-password>relaypassword</relay-password>

<!-- Admin logs in with the username given below -->
<admin-user>admin</admin-user>
<admin-password>adminpassword</admin-password>
</authentication>

<hostname>server3.radiostation.de</hostname>

<listen-socket>
<port>14000</port>
</listen-socket>
<master-server>server2.radiostation.de</master-server>
<master-server-port>14000</master-server-port>
<master-update-interval>20</master-update-interval>
<master-username>relay</master-username>
<master-password>relaypassword</master-password>

<master-relay-auth>1</master-relay-auth>

<relays-on-demand>1</relays-on-demand>

<!--- <master-redirect>1</master-redirect>-->
<!-- <max-redirect-slaves>10</max-redirect-slaves>-->

<relay>
<server>server2.radiostation.de</server>
<port>14000</port>
<mount>/192</mount>
<local-mount>/192</local-mount>
<on-demand>0</on-demand>
<username>relay</username>
<password>relaypassword</password>
<relay-shoutcast-metadata>1</relay-shoutcast-metadata>
</relay>
<fileserve>1</fileserve>


What we found out:
If the clients are set to 10 (e.g.) the admin cannot connect to the Admin Page if too many clients are connected.

Thank you in advance.





[/code]

[karlH]

The clients setting is for specifying a limit for all connections made to icecast. This includes source, web and admin requests. Don't use the clients setting as the trigger for the redirect, use <max-listeners> in <mount> of /192 for that.

Your master config lists a master server (your local icecast), so you don't need to specify a <relay> from the same server.

karl.

[Anonymous]

is <fallback-mount> in master config the place for the mountpoint from the slave server ?

<fallback-when-full> falls back to this pointer.


thanks

[karlH]

The fallback-mount refers to a mountpoint on the same server. It's not possible to redirect/move/fallback listeners to another server after they start receiving stream data without them restarting a connection.

karl.

[gee2803]

hello again. The load balancing didn´t work out well for us so far. But first of all we need to move our listeners from one server to another.

The problem is that the older server cannot handle so many listeners at the same time. So we need to move the listeners. Is this possible somehow?

[Anonymous]

hello karlH is there a win32 version of your latest branch to test loadbalancing in win32 environement ?

[karlH]

yes, check in http://mediacast1.com/~karl

karl.

[Anonymous]

Hey karl,

I've tried to download the binaries from http://mediacast1.com/~karl, but your page seems to be off.

Is there any other page where I can download the binaries with the "Automatic Load Balance" feature?

Thanx in advance, cheers,

JonesBones.