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Overview

Ant Media Server can be deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using multiple methods: EC2 instances with manual installation, AWS Marketplace one-click deployment, or automated CloudFormation templates for auto-scaling clusters.

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Deployment Methods

The fastest way to deploy Ant Media Server on AWS is through the AWS Marketplace:

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Manual EC2 Installation

Deploy on a standard EC2 instance using the Linux installation script.

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CloudFormation Auto-Scaling

Use CloudFormation templates to deploy a complete auto-scaling cluster in minutes.

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EC2 Instance Requirements

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Instance Types

Minimum Requirements (Testing/Development):
  • Instance Type: t3.medium or t3a.medium
  • vCPUs: 2
  • Memory: 4 GB
  • Network: Moderate bandwidth
Recommended for Production:
  • Instance Type: c5.xlarge, c5.2xlarge, or c6i.xlarge
  • vCPUs: 4-8
  • Memory: 8-16 GB
  • Network: Up to 10 Gbps
  • Enhanced Networking: Enabled
High-Performance Streaming:
  • Instance Type: c5n.2xlarge, c6i.4xlarge
  • vCPUs: 8-16
  • Memory: 16-32 GB
  • Network: 25-50 Gbps
  • EBS-Optimized: Yes

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Operating System

Supported AMIs:
  • Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS (HVM)
  • Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS (HVM)
  • Amazon Linux 2
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8/9
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or 22.04 LTS is recommended for best compatibility.

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Storage

  • Root Volume: 20 GB minimum (GP3 recommended)
  • Additional Volume: 50-500 GB for recorded streams (GP3 or io2)
  • IOPS: 3000+ IOPS for production workloads

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Quick Start: AWS Marketplace Deployment

1

Access AWS Marketplace

  1. Log into your AWS Console
  2. Navigate to AWS Marketplace
  3. Search for “Ant Media Server”
  4. Select Community or Enterprise Edition
2

Configure Instance

Click Continue to Subscribe then Continue to Configuration:
  • Region: Select your preferred AWS region
  • Software Version: Latest version
  • Fulfillment Option: CloudFormation or EC2
3

Launch Instance

Configure launch parameters:
  • Instance Type: c5.xlarge (or as needed)
  • VPC and Subnet: Select or create
  • Security Group: Configure or use default
  • Key Pair: Select existing or create new
4

Access Web Panel

Once the instance is running:
  1. Get the public IP from EC2 dashboard
  2. Open browser to http://PUBLIC_IP:5080
  3. Create admin account on first access

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Manual EC2 Installation

1

Launch EC2 Instance

Create a new EC2 instance:
# Using AWS CLI
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0557a15b87f6559cf \
  --instance-type c5.xlarge \
  --key-name your-key-pair \
  --security-group-ids sg-xxxxxxxx \
  --subnet-id subnet-xxxxxxxx \
  --block-device-mappings '[{"DeviceName":"/dev/sda1","Ebs":{"VolumeSize":30,"VolumeType":"gp3"}}]' \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=AntMediaServer}]'
2

Connect to Instance

SSH into your instance:
ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@YOUR_INSTANCE_PUBLIC_IP
3

Install Ant Media Server

Download and run the installation script:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ant-media/Scripts/master/install_ant-media-server.sh
chmod +x install_ant-media-server.sh
sudo ./install_ant-media-server.sh
4

Verify Installation

Check if the service is running:
sudo systemctl status antmedia
Access the web panel at http://YOUR_INSTANCE_PUBLIC_IP:5080

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Security Group Configuration

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Required Inbound Rules

Create a security group with the following inbound rules:
TypeProtocolPort RangeSourceDescription
HTTPTCP50800.0.0.0/0Web Panel HTTP
HTTPSTCP54430.0.0.0/0Web Panel HTTPS
Custom TCPTCP19350.0.0.0/0RTMP
Custom TCPTCP84430.0.0.0/0RTMPS (if SSL enabled)
Custom UDPUDP5000-650000.0.0.0/0WebRTC Media
SSHTCP22Your IPSSH Access

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Using AWS CLI

# Create security group
aws ec2 create-security-group \
  --group-name antmedia-sg \
  --description "Ant Media Server Security Group" \
  --vpc-id vpc-xxxxxxxx

# Add rules
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-xxxxxxxx --protocol tcp --port 5080 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-xxxxxxxx --protocol tcp --port 5443 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-xxxxxxxx --protocol tcp --port 1935 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-xxxxxxxx --protocol udp --port 5000-65000 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-xxxxxxxx --protocol tcp --port 22 --cidr YOUR_IP/32
For production, restrict port 22 (SSH) to specific IP addresses only. Avoid using 0.0.0.0/0 for SSH access.

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Elastic IP Configuration

Assign an Elastic IP for a static public IP address: 
# Allocate Elastic IP
aws ec2 allocate-address --domain vpc

# Associate with instance
aws ec2 associate-address \
  --instance-id i-xxxxxxxx \
  --allocation-id eipalloc-xxxxxxxx

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Configure Server Name

Update the server configuration with your Elastic IP or domain: 
sudo nano /usr/local/antmedia/conf/red5.properties
Set: 
server.name=YOUR_ELASTIC_IP_OR_DOMAIN
Restart the service: 
sudo systemctl restart antmedia

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CloudFormation Auto-Scaling Deployment

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Quick Deploy with CloudFormation

Deploy a complete auto-scaling cluster in 5 minutes using AWS CloudFormation.
1

Access CloudFormation Template

Use the official Ant Media Server CloudFormation template:
2

Configure Parameters

Key CloudFormation parameters:
  • Instance Type: c5.xlarge or larger
  • Min/Max Instances: Auto-scaling limits (e.g., 2-10)
  • License Key: Your Enterprise license key
  • VPC and Subnets: Network configuration
  • Key Pair: SSH key for instances
  • SSL Certificate: Optional ACM certificate ARN
3

Deploy Stack

  1. Review all parameters
  2. Acknowledge IAM resource creation
  3. Click Create Stack
  4. Monitor stack creation (10-15 minutes)
4

Access Load Balancer

Once stack is complete:
  1. Get the Load Balancer DNS from Outputs tab
  2. Access dashboard: http://LOAD_BALANCER_DNS:5080

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CloudFormation Stack Components

The auto-scaling stack creates:
  • Application Load Balancer (ALB): Distributes traffic across instances
  • Auto Scaling Group: Scales instances based on CPU/memory
  • Launch Template: Defines instance configuration
  • DocumentDB or MongoDB: Cluster database (Enterprise)
  • Security Groups: Network security configuration
  • CloudWatch Alarms: Monitoring and alerts
  • Target Groups: Health checking and routing

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Storage Configuration

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EBS Volume for Recordings

Attach additional EBS volume for stream recordings: 
# Create volume
aws ec2 create-volume \
  --size 100 \
  --volume-type gp3 \
  --iops 3000 \
  --availability-zone us-east-1a

# Attach to instance
aws ec2 attach-volume \
  --volume-id vol-xxxxxxxx \
  --instance-id i-xxxxxxxx \
  --device /dev/sdf
Mount the volume: 
# Format (first time only)
sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/xvdf

# Create mount point
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/streams

# Mount
sudo mount /dev/xvdf /mnt/streams

# Add to fstab for persistence
echo '/dev/xvdf /mnt/streams ext4 defaults,nofail 0 2' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

# Change ownership
sudo chown -R antmedia:antmedia /mnt/streams

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S3 Integration

Configure S3 for stream recording storage: 
# Create S3 bucket
aws s3 mb s3://your-antmedia-recordings --region us-east-1

# Configure lifecycle policy for automatic cleanup
aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \
  --bucket your-antmedia-recordings \
  --lifecycle-configuration file://lifecycle.json
Configure in Ant Media Server application settings via web panel or API.

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Database Configuration (Enterprise)

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DocumentDB (MongoDB-compatible)

# Create DocumentDB cluster
aws docdb create-db-cluster \
  --db-cluster-identifier antmedia-cluster \
  --engine docdb \
  --master-username antmedia \
  --master-user-password YourStrongPassword \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-xxxxxxxx

# Create instance
aws docdb create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier antmedia-instance \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine docdb \
  --db-cluster-identifier antmedia-cluster

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Configure Cluster Mode

Switch to cluster mode with DocumentDB: 
sudo /usr/local/antmedia/change_server_mode.sh cluster "mongodb://antmedia:YourStrongPassword@antmedia-cluster.cluster-xxxxxxxx.us-east-1.docdb.amazonaws.com:27017/?replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=secondaryPreferred&retryWrites=false"

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SSL/TLS Configuration

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Using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)

For load balancer SSL termination:
  1. Request certificate in ACM
  2. Validate domain ownership
  3. Attach certificate to ALB listener
  4. Configure ALB to forward to instances on port 5080

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Using Let’s Encrypt on EC2

sudo /usr/local/antmedia/enable_ssl.sh -d yourdomain.com -e [email protected]

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Monitoring and CloudWatch

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Enable CloudWatch Logs

Install CloudWatch agent: 
wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/amazoncloudwatch-agent/ubuntu/amd64/latest/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.deb
sudo dpkg -i amazon-cloudwatch-agent.deb
Configure log collection: 
{
  "logs": {
    "logs_collected": {
      "files": {
        "collect_list": [
          {
            "file_path": "/var/log/antmedia/antmedia-error.log",
            "log_group_name": "/aws/ec2/antmedia",
            "log_stream_name": "{instance_id}/error.log"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

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CloudWatch Metrics

Monitor key metrics:
  • CPU Utilization
  • Network In/Out
  • Disk I/O
  • Memory Usage (with CloudWatch agent)
  • Custom metrics via API

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IAM Roles and Permissions

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Required IAM Permissions

Create an IAM role for EC2 instances with these policies: 
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:PutObject",
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:ListBucket"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:s3:::your-antmedia-recordings/*",
        "arn:aws:s3:::your-antmedia-recordings"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:PutMetricData",
        "logs:CreateLogGroup",
        "logs:CreateLogStream",
        "logs:PutLogEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

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Cost Optimization

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Use Spot Instances

For non-critical workloads, use EC2 Spot Instances: 
aws ec2 request-spot-instances \
  --spot-price "0.10" \
  --instance-count 1 \
  --type "one-time" \
  --launch-specification file://spot-spec.json

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Reserved Instances

For production workloads, purchase Reserved Instances for up to 72% savings.

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Right-Sizing

Monitor instance metrics and adjust instance type based on actual usage.

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Backup and Disaster Recovery

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Automated EBS Snapshots

aws dlm create-lifecycle-policy \
  --description "Daily AntMedia backups" \
  --state ENABLED \
  --execution-role-arn arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT:role/DLMRole \
  --policy-details file://backup-policy.json

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Multi-Region Deployment

For high availability, deploy across multiple AWS regions:
  • Primary region: us-east-1
  • Failover region: us-west-2
  • Use Route 53 for DNS failover

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Troubleshooting

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Instance Not Accessible

  1. Check security group rules
  2. Verify Elastic IP association
  3. Check instance status in EC2 console
  4. Review system logs in EC2 console

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WebRTC Connection Issues

  1. Verify UDP ports 5000-65000 are open
  2. Check public IP configuration
  3. Ensure server.name is set correctly
  4. Test with STUN/TURN servers

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Performance Issues

  1. Monitor CloudWatch metrics
  2. Check instance type is appropriate
  3. Verify EBS volume performance
  4. Review application logs

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Next Steps

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