Deploying OpenTera on a Linux Server

Those setup instructions suppose a pre-installed and configured Ubuntu 20.04 server installation, either in a virtual machine or on a physical machine.

Pre-requisites

This section configures the depending packages and software before installing the main OpenTera server.

Postgresql

  1. Install Postgresql package: sudo apt-get install postgresql

  2. Change default postgres user password for a more secure installation:

    sudo -u postgres psql
ALTER USER postgres PASSWORD 'TypeThePasswordHere';

  3. (Optional) Setup a local pgAdmin instance to connect to postgresql database (optionally using a SSH tunnel)

  4. Create teraagent user in database (or name of your choice, but will have to be adjusted in the config section below):

    CREATE USER teraagent WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'TypeUserPasswordHere';

  5. Create required database and assign teraagent user to them:

    CREATE DATABASE opentera WITH OWNER=teraagent;
CREATE DATABASE openterafiles WITH OWNER=teraagent;
CREATE DATABASE openteralogs WITH OWNER=teraagent;

  6. Don’t forget to quit the postgres console: \q

Redis

  1. Install redis server: sudo apt-get install redis-server

  2. (Optional, but strongly recommended) Setup a password to the redis server instance:

    `sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf`
Edit the line `requirepass` and set your password
Save, close and restart the redis server: `sudo systemctl restart redis.service`

nginx

Only basic configuration is done here - specific OpenTera configuration is done below

  1. Install nginx: sudo apt-get install nginx

Python environment (using miniconda)

  1. Follow the instructions here­ to download and install miniconda

  2. When requested, execute the conda init command

  3. Close your shell and restart it again

Build environment

  1. Install git: sudo apt-get install git

  2. Install cmake: sudo apt-get install cmake

  3. Install g++: sudo apt-get install g++

  4. Install nodejs / npm: sudo apt-get install npm

OpenTera installation

This section proceeds to the installation of the OpenTera server in itself.

Installation

  1. Fetch the OpenTera code with submodules using git: git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/introlab/opentera.git

  2. cd opentera/teraserver (or the location that you cloned the project)

  3. Initialize cmake environment: cmake .

  4. Generate python environment using make: make python-all

  5. Generate nodejs environment for VideoRehab service:

    cd opentera/teraserver/easyrtc
npm install

Configuration

Config files

There is a few config files to edit. You should edit each of them and put the correct parameters, according to your setup and the passwords you’ve set previously. Here is the list of the files:

  • teraserver/python/config/TeraServerConfig.ini: the main config file. “port” and “hostname” shouldn’t be changed.

  • teraserver/python/config/nginx.conf: nginx config file. Unless listening to a different port and setting correct ssl certificates, nothing should be changed in that file.

  • teraserver/python/services/FileTransferService/FileTransferService.json: the file transfer service configuration.

  • teraserver/python/services/LoggingService/LoggingService.json: the logging service configuration.

  • teraserver/python/services/VideoRehabService/VideoRehabService.json: make sure to set the “WebRTC - hostname” value to the external server address.

nginx configuration

  1. Create nginx configuration file: sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/opentera

  2. Copy the server section (only) from the teraserver/python/config/nginx.conf file.

  3. Edit the ssl_certificate, ssl_certificate_key, ssl_client_certificate to point to your correct SSL setup.

  4. Edit the include opentera.conf and the include external_services.conf lines with the full path to the *.conf files, for example: /home/baseuser/opentera/teraserver/python/config/opentera.conf;

  5. Enable the site by creating a symbolic link into the sites-enabled folder: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/opentera /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

  6. Remove the default nginx config (if needed) that listens to port 80 (sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default)

  7. Restart the nginx server: sudo systemctl restart nginx

Service configuration

TO ensure that OpenTera will run automatically and after a reboot, a systemd service can be created.

  1. Create the /lib/systemd/system/opentera.service file with the following content:

[Unit]
Description=OpenTeraServer
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=**PUT THE EXECUTING USER HERE**
Group=**PUT THE EXECUTING GROUP HERE**
Environment=PYTHONPATH=**(path to opentera)**/opentera/teraserver/python
ExecStart=**(path to opentera)**/opentera/teraserver/python/env/python-3.11/bin/python3 **(path to opentera)**/opentera/teraserver/python/TeraServer.py
WorkingDirectory=**(path to opentera)**/opentera/teraserver/python
StandardOutput=syslog+console
StandardError=syslog+console
Restart=always
RestartSec=10s
KillMode=process
KillSignal=SIGINT

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

  1. Enable service: sudo systemctl enable opentera.service

  2. Start service: sudo systemctl start opentera.service

Post installation

Optional post installation steps.

Local TURN/STUN server

If required and to prevent using the default Google TURN/STUN server, a local server can be set up.

A simple way to do so is the install the coturn server, setting the appropriate ports, rules and password as described in the project documentation.

Basic settings for a working setup are provided below (all other settings can be left to the default ones):

# Base encrypted listening port, adjust according to firewall rules
tls-listening-port=5349

# Base external IP of the server - replace x.x.x.x with correct value
external-ip=x.x.x.x

# Min and max ports for UDP relay, adjust according to your firewall rules
min-port=49152
max-port=65535

# Password protect the STUN/TURN server (optional but strongly recommanded)
lt-cred-mech

# Authentication to access the server (generate password with the turnadmin tool)
# Don't forget to set the realm before generating the password!!
user=opentera:(generated password)

# Realm of the server. Typically the DNS name of the server (but can also be something else)
realm=example.com

# SSL encryption certificates. The same certificate used by nginx can be used if hosted on the same server.
cert=(path to public certificate file)
key=(path to private key file)

SSL certificate with LetsEncrypt

  1. Install certbot agent: sudo apt-get install certbot

  2. Install nginx plugin: sudo apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx

  3. Run certbot: sudo certbot run -a standalone -i nginx -d (your_host_name)