MacOS Installation - Storm Streaming Server

Installing Storm Streaming Server on computers running macOS is very simple thanks to the dedicated installer. This guide will walk you through all the necessary steps of the process and show you the basic server configuration.

If you don't have the installer yet, please visit our Download page.

Installer Steps

The installer will now guide you through the following steps:

1. Accept the Software License
   In the first step, you must accept the software license agreement.
   
2. Enter the License Key
   In the second step, you will be asked to enter the program license key. If you don’t have a license, you can leave this field blank. A developer license will be assigned instead, which allows up to 5 concurrent streams and a total of 10 viewers.
   
   If you have a commercial or non-commercial license for Storm Streaming Server, you can view it on this page:
   https://www.stormstreaming.com/my-products
   
3. Provide Username and Password for Storm Control Panel
   In this step, you need to provide the admin username and password for Storm’s web-based Control Panel.
   
4. Choose Installation Location
   In the fourth step, select the directory where the application will be installed.
   
5. Optional Settings
   In the final step, you can select a few additional options:
   1. Create a desktop shortcut
   2. Open Storm Control Panel
   

Basic Configuration

Now that the Storm Streaming Server application is installed, go to the installation folder you specified in step 4. There are a few things to configure here:

1. JVM Configuration

   In the file Storm Storm Streaming Server.vmoptions, you'll find JVM options that define, among other things, how much RAM should be allocated to the application. The default file content is:

                           
   -server
   -Xmx16g
   -Xms4g
   -XX:+UseG1GC
   -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=100
                       

   The -Xms and -Xmx parameters define the minimum and maximum amount of RAM available to the application. You should adjust these values to match your hardware resources. For example, to allocate a maximum of 128 GB and a minimum of 32 GB, change the values to:

                           
   -Xmx128g
   -Xms32g
                       

2. VHost Configuration

   The socket configuration for Storm Streaming Server is located in the file config/preferences.xml. By default, it includes the following block:

                           
   <VHosts>
   	<VHost host="127.0.0.1" isSSL="false" port="1935">
   		<Protocols>RTMP</Protocols>
   	</VHost>
   	<VHost host="127.0.0.1" isSSL="false" port="8080">
   		<Protocols>HTTP, WEBSOCKETS</Protocols>
   	</VHost>
   </VHosts>
                       

   This defines two sockets listening on 127.0.0.1 (localhost). Port 8080 handles HTTP and WebSocksts connections, and port 1935 handles RTMP. For more information about VHost configuration, including how to enable SSL support, please refer to our VHosts guide.

Managing the Service

You can access the web-based control panel of the application using the 'Strom Control Panel' shortcut. Alternatively, you can open it directly in any web browser at: http://127.0.0.1/cpanel (the IP address and port may vary depending on your VHosts configuration).

The Storm Streaming Server runs as a background service (LaunchDaemon) and is automatically started with the system. Below you'll find basic service management commands:

• To stop the Storm Streaming Server:

                          
  sudo launchctl stop com.webanatomy.StormStreamingServer
                              

  
  
• To start the Storm Streaming Server:

                          
  sudo launchctl start com.webanatomy.StormStreamingServer
                              

FFMPEG Installation (optional)

If the console shows a message about missing FFMPEG (required for stream transcoding), you can specify its path in the config/preferences.xml file. The configuration is found in the <Transcoder> block, like this:

                        
<Transcoder>
	<FFMPEG>
		<Path>/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg</Path> <!-- optional -->
		<Command>-re -nostdin -i {SOURCE_INPUT} -vsync 1 -vcodec libx264 -preset:v {CPU_USAGE_PRESET} -vf scale={OUTPUT_WIDTH}:{OUTPUT_HEIGHT} -tune {TUNE} -g 30 -fflags nobuffer -probesize 32 -analyzeduration 0 -b:v {VIDEO_BITRATE} -acodec aac -b:a {AUDIO_BITRATE} -async 1 -f flv {STREAM_OUTPUT}</Command>
		</FFMPEG>
	<TranscodeTaskLimit>5</TranscodeTaskLimit>
    <!-- remaining block -->
</Transcoder>
                    

If the FFMPEG has been added to the environment variables, you can leave the Path field empty — unless you want to explicitly specify which binaries should be used.

If FFMPEG is not installed at all on your system, you can use a package manager like brew. First, install Homebrew—full instructions are available at https://brew.sh.

Once brew is installed, open a terminal and type:

                        
brew install ffmpeg