Deployment Overview of Owncast on Server¶

Prerequisites and Basic Requirements¶

To ensure a successful deployment, the following requirements must be met:

• Operating System: Ubuntu

• Privileges: Root or sudo access is required for package installation and service management.

• Dependencies: unzip and ffmpeg must be installed on the host system.

• Ports:

• Internal Port: 8080 (Application)

• External Port: 443 (HTTPS via Proxy)

FQDN of the final panel on the hostkey.in domain¶

The application is accessible via a specific subdomain pattern based on the server ID.

File and Directory Structure¶

The deployment utilizes the following directory structure for configuration and data persistence:

• /root/nginx: Contains the Nginx Docker Compose configuration.

• /data/nginx/user_conf.d/: Stores Nginx virtual host configuration files.

• /data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env: Environment file for SSL certificate management.

• /root/owncast: The application working directory containing the binary and local data.

Application Installation Process¶

The installation of Owncast is performed through a combination of package management and an automated installation script:

1. System Preparation: The system package cache is updated, and unzip and ffmpeg are installed via apt.

2. Application Installation: An official installation script is executed using the following command:

   curl -s https://owncast.online/install.sh | bash
   

3. Service Configuration: A systemd service unit named owncast.service is created to manage the application process.

4. Service Activation: The service is enabled to start automatically on boot and is started immediately using systemctl.

Access Rights and Security¶

• Firewall: Ensure that port 443 (HTTPS) is open to allow external traffic.

• User Permissions: The Owncast service runs under the root user within its working directory /root/owncast.

• SSL/TLS: SSL certificates are managed via a dedicated Docker container and stored in an external volume named nginx_secrets.

Docker Containers and Their Deployment¶

The deployment utilizes a reverse proxy container to handle SSL termination and traffic routing.

Nginx Proxy Container¶

• Image: jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest

• Network Mode: host

• Restart Policy: unless-stopped

• Environment Variables:

• CERTBOT_EMAIL: [email protected]

• Volumes:

• nginx_secrets:/etc/letsencrypt (SSL Certificates)

• /data/nginx/user_conf.d:/etc/nginx/user_conf.d (Configuration files)

Custom Scripts and Additional Setup¶

The deployment includes several configuration steps to integrate the application with the Nginx proxy:

• Nginx Configuration Injection: The installation process automatically modifies the Nginx configuration file located in /data/nginx/user_conf.d/ to include a proxy_pass directive pointing to http://127.0.0.1:8080. This routes incoming HTTPS traffic from the proxy to the Owncast application running on the host.

• Service Management: A custom systemd unit is configured at /etc/systemd/system/owncast.service with the following parameters:

• WorkingDirectory: /root/owncast

• ExecStart: /root/owncast/owncast

Application Update Instructions¶

To update the Owncast application, you must re-run the installation script to fetch the latest version and replace the existing binary:

curl -s https://owncast.online/install.sh | bash

After updating the binary, restart the service to apply changes:

systemctl restart owncast

Location of Configuration Files and Data¶

• Application Binary: /root/owncast/owncast

• Nginx User Configs: /data/nginx/user_conf.d/

• SSL Certificates: Managed via the nginx_secrets Docker volume.

Available Ports for Connection¶

• HTTPS (External): 443

• HTTP (Internal/Localhost): 8080

Starting and Stopping the Application¶

The application is managed as a systemd service. Use the following commands to control the service:

• Start Owncast: systemctl start owncast

• Stop Owncast: systemctl stop owncast

• Restart Owncast: systemctl restart owncast

• Check Status: systemctl status owncast