Deploying LiveKit on AWS EC2

LiveKit is an open-source platform that provides a modern, end-to-end WebRTC stack for building live video and audio applications. It can handle large-scale deployments and offers built-in load balancing and automatic scaling capabilities. While LiveKit can be deployed on a virtual machine (VM), this approach requires manual scaling and management of system updates. AWS EC2 offers a more efficient solution with automated scaling and built-in security features.

Here's how to deploy LiveKit on AWS EC2:

Prerequisites:

• An AWS account

• A domain name and an SSL certificate

• A Linux VM (Ubuntu or Amazon Linux recommended) with root access

• Docker and Docker Compose installed

• Caddy or another web server

Steps:

1. Configure your domain and SSL certificate:

   • Point your domain's A record to the IP address of your EC2 instance.

   • Install and configure Caddy or your chosen web server with your SSL certificate.

2. Generate LiveKit configuration:

   • Use LiveKit's configuration generation tool to create a customized configuration for your domain. This tool generates files for Docker Compose, LiveKit server, and Redis.

   • Run the tool on your local machine:

    docker pull livekit/generate
    docker run --rm -it -v$PWD:/output livekit/generate

• This will create a folder with your domain name containing the necessary configuration files.

1. Deploy LiveKit on EC2:

   • Upload the generated files to your EC2 instance.

   • Create a Redis instance on AWS ElastiCache (recommended) or install Redis on your EC2 instance.

   • Edit the docker-compose.yaml file to configure Redis connection details and other settings.

   • Start LiveKit using Docker Compose:

    docker-compose up -d

1. Test and configure:

   • Open your website in a web browser and verify that LiveKit is functioning properly.

   • Configure additional settings like TURN server details and user management as needed.

2. Automate deployments with Cloud-Init:

   • Use Cloud-Init to automate the installation and configuration of LiveKit on your EC2 instance. This allows for easier scaling and deployment of multiple LiveKit servers.

   • Generate a Cloud-Init script using LiveKit's tool:

    docker run --rm -it -v$PWD:/output livekit/generate --cloud-init

• Upload the script to your EC2 instance and follow the instructions to configure Cloud-Init user data.

• When starting a VM, paste the contents of the file cloud-init.xxxx.yaml into the User data field.

• That's it! When the machine starts up, it'll execute the cloud-init protocol and install LiveKit.

• When the install script is finished, your instance should be set up. It will have installed:

  • docker

  • docker-compose

  • generated configuration to /opt/livekit

  • systemd service livekit-docker

To start/stop the service via systemctl:

    systemctl stop livekit-docker
    systemctl start livekit-docker

1. Firewall:

   Ensure that the following ports are open on your firewall and accessible on the instance:

   • 443 - primary HTTPS and TURN/TLS

   • 80 - TLS issuance

   • 7881 - WebRTC over TCP

   • 3478/UDP - TURN/UDP

   • 50000-60000/UDP - WebRTC over UDP

And if Ingress is desired

• 1935 - RTMP Ingress

• 7885/UDP - WebRTC for WHIP Ingress

1. Troubleshooting

   If something is not working as expected, SSH in to your server and use the following commands to investigate:

    systemctl status livekit-docker
    cd /opt/livekitsudo 
    docker-compose logs