Installation Documentation for BigBlueButton

This guide augments the official BigBlueButton installation guide which has a few errors. Note that like the official guide this is for Ubuntu 16.04 64bit. Not for anything else.

apt update
apt install -y haveged software-properties-common wget net-tools openjdk-8-jdk

export LANG=C.UTF-8; export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8

add-apt-repository ppa:bigbluebutton/support -y
add-apt-repository ppa:rmescandon/yq -y

apt update
apt dist-upgrade -y

wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-3.4.asc | apt-key add -
echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 ] http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu xenial/mongodb-org/3.4 multiverse" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.4.list
apt update
apt install -y mongodb-org curl
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs gcc g++ make

wget https://ubuntu.bigbluebutton.org/repo/bigbluebutton.asc -O- | apt-key add -
echo "deb https://ubuntu.bigbluebutton.org/xenial-220/ bigbluebutton-xenial main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list
apt update

apt install -y bigbluebutton bbb-html5
# will throw an error touch missing fine and run again:
sudo -u etherpad touch /usr/share/etherpad-lite/APIKEY.txt
apt install -y bigbluebutton bbb-html5

# configure html5 client
sed -i 's/^attendeesJoinViaHTML5Client.*=.*$/attendeesJoinViaHTML5Client=true/' /usr/share/bbb-web/WEB-INF/classes/bigbluebutton.properties
sed -i 's/^moderatorsJoinViaHTML5Client.*=.*$/moderatorsJoinViaHTML5Client=true/' /usr/share/bbb-web/WEB-INF/classes/bigbluebutton.properties

apt install -y bbb-demo

bbb-conf --restart
bbb-conf --check
bbb-conf --status

# Remove demo to remove public room
apt remove -y bbb-demo

bbb-conf --restart
bbb-conf --check
bbb-conf --status



# TLS stuff here
# https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/2.2/install.html#configure-ssl-on-your-bigbluebutton-server

# configure domain name
bbb-conf --setip bigbluebutton.example.com

mkdir /etc/nginx/ssl
# deploy certificates
openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dhp-4096.pem 4096
vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton
vim /etc/bigbluebutton/nginx/sip.nginx
sed -i 's/^bigbluebutton.web.serverURL=http:/bigbluebutton.web.serverURL=https:/' /usr/share/bbb-web/WEB-INF/classes/bigbluebutton.properties
sed -i 's/^jnlpUrl=http:/jnlpUrl=https:/' /usr/share/red5/webapps/screenshare/WEB-INF/screenshare.properties
sed -i 's/^jnlpFile=http:/jnlpFile=https:/' /usr/share/red5/webapps/screenshare/WEB-INF/screenshare.properties
sed -e 's|http://|https://|g' -i /var/www/bigbluebutton/client/conf/config.xml
sed -i 's/wsUrl: ws:/wsUrl: wss:/' /usr/share/meteor/bundle/programs/server/assets/app/config/settings.yml
sed -i 's/url: http:/url: https:/' /usr/share/meteor/bundle/programs/server/assets/app/config/settings.yml
sed -i 's/playback_protocol: http/playback_protocol: https/' /usr/local/bigbluebutton/core/scripts/bigbluebutton.yml
sed -i 's_http://_https://_' /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/demo/bbb_api_conf.jsp
bbb-conf --restart

# Firewall see https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/2.2/customize.html#restrict-access-to-specific-ports
apt install -y ufw
ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw allow "Nginx Full"
ufw allow 16384:32768/udp
ufw --force enable

Greenlight

Greenlight is an admin frontend for BBB. We do not need this if we use e.g. Stud.IP to create rooms.

This part basically following the guide at https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/greenlight/gl-install.html

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"
apt update
apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
mkdir /opt/greenlight && cd /opt/greenlight
# ... see docs
# execute docker commands

# make sure to not use docker-compose from the Ubuntu repository
# install current docker-compose
curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.25.4/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

# make sure Greenlight starts automatically
sed -i 's/restart: .*$/restart: always/g' /opt/greenlight/docker-compose.yml

# ...

# Make sure to add at the bottom of /opt/greenlight/.env
DEFAULT_REGISTRATION=approval

# create admin user
# make sure to immediately log-in and change the password
docker exec greenlight-v2 bundle exec rake admin:create

Configure Clones Server

This isn't necessary unless you clone a complete server in which case you would need to switch to another domain name.

# switch from webconf01 to webconf04
bbb-conf --setip webconf04.example.com
sed -i 's/webconf01.e/webconf04.e/g' /etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton
systemctl reload nginx.service
apt install pwgen
bbb-conf --setsecret "$(pwgen -n1 40)"
sed -i 's/webconf01/webconf04/g' /opt/greenlight/.env
sed -i "s/^BIGBLUEBUTTON_SECRET=.*$/BIGBLUEBUTTON_SECRET=$(sudo bbb-conf --secret | grep Secret: | awk '{print $2;}')/" /opt/greenlight/.env
cd /opt/greenlight
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d
sed -i "s/131.173.22.186/$(hostname -i | awk '{print $2}')/" /opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/vars.xml
sed -i "s/131.173.22.186/$(hostname -i | awk '{print $2}')/" /usr/share/red5/webapps/sip/WEB-INF/bigbluebutton-sip.properties
sed -i "s/131.173.22.186/$(hostname -i | awk '{print $2}')/" /etc/bigbluebutton/nginx/sip.nginx
sed -i "s/131.173.22.186/$(hostname -i | awk '{print $2}')/" /usr/local/bigbluebutton/bbb-webrtc-sfu/config/default.yml
bbb-conf --restart

Configure sipgate

To configure sipgate and make it possible to connect to a BBB video conference via telephone you have to add the my_provider.xml to the folder

/opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/dialplan/public/my_provider.xml

and the sipgate.xml to the folder

/opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/sip_profiles/external/sipgate.xml