Windows Installation - Storm Streaming Server

Installing Storm Streaming Server on computers running Windows OS 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.

Running the Installer

Once the installer file has been downloaded, double-click it and wait for it to launch.

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 3. 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).

Since the application operated as a service, it'll be started automatically with the system. Below you'll find basic commands:

• To stop the Storm Streaming Server:

                                      
  net stop "Storm Streaming Server Service"
                                  

  
  
• To start the Storm Streaming Server:

                                      
  net start "Storm Streaming Server Service"
                                  

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 path 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 on your system at all, you’ll need to install it manually. Here are brief instructions on how to do that:

1. Download FFMPEG
   1. Go to the official website: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html
   2. Click on the Windows link ➔ choose the gyan.dev link (commonly used).
      
   3. Under the Release builds section, download: ffmpeg-release-essentials.zip or ffmpeg-release-full.zip (if you need full build)
      
2. Extract ZIP archive
   1. Extract downloaded .zip file to a folder, such as C:\ffmpeg
3. Add FFMPEG to the System PATH
   1. Open the Start Menu, search for environment variables, and click: "Edit the system environment variables".
      
   2. Click the "Environment Variables..." button.
      
   3. Under System variables, find the Path variable and click Edit.
      
   4. Click New and add the path to the bin folder, for example: C:\ffmpeg\bin
      
   5. Confirm all dialogs by clicking OK.
4. Verify the Installation
   1. Open the Command Prompt (cmd)
   2. Type: ffmpeg -version (and hit enter)
   3. You should see FFmpeg version information displayed.