Why is My Engine Server Crashing?

Common Error Messages

  • CommandInterfaceCommandShutdownServer.invoke: Shutting down server
  • java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Direct buffer memory

Tip #1:  Tune the Java Settings

  • In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, click the Server tab at the top of the page, and then click Performance Tuning in the contents panel. Click Java Settings in the contents panel.

The Performance Tuning page shows the server's OS architecture, amount of memory available to      Wowza Streaming Engine, the number of core processors on the system, and the Java version and architecture (bitness) in use.

  • The default for the Java Heap size is the Development level. To run a dedicated server in a production environment, click Edit and change the Java Heap Size setting to the Production level.

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  • Change the Java Heap Size setting to the Custom level and enter a specific value. 
  • If you're running the 64-bit version of the Java VM and have 4 GB or more of RAM in your computer, set your Java heap size to between 3000 MB to 5000 MB. 
  • If you have at least 16 GB of RAM, set your heap size to 8000 MB. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you can specify a maximum of 100000 MB, which should be sufficient for most streaming needs.

Tip #2: Tune for optimal performance on your hardware configuration

  • Instructions for tuning several components of your Engine server can be found here

Tip #3: Optimize Transcoder performance

  • In addition to making sure that the deployed server that is running Wowza Streaming Engine is tuned properly, refer to the following guidance to optimize transcoder performance.

Tip #4: Be sure you meet the minimum recommended requirements

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Tip #5: Tune the CPU if you're experiencing spikes that could lead to a server crash.

  • Tune Wowza Streaming Engine based on the available CPU resources of your server, use the following guidelines.

Tip #6: Create a Java heap dump for troubleshooting

  • This will generate additional information on memory usage and help identify issues.
  • This article describes how to get a dump of the Java heap on the Wowza Streaming Engine.

Tip #7: Avoid reaching server overload.

  • Hitting bandwidth limitations and running out of memory are two common ways servers hit maximum capacity when streaming.
  • To avoid overloads caused by limitations on server processing capability, you will need to know how many streams your server will need to process concurrently and how much memory this will require.

             a.  Consider a load test tool like jMeter.

             b.  Distribute server load with load balancers.

             c.  Increase your processing power.

             d. Consider a hardware accelerator

 


Resources:

Tune Wowza Streaming Engine Server for Optimal Performance

Wowza Streaming Engine Transcoder Performance Benchmark

Create a Java heap dump for Wowza Streaming Engine