[bigbluebutton-setup] Clarification on setting up BBB for External & Internal access

[dmantz7]

I want to start off saying thanks to everyone for the wiki and Google
group resources. They have been quite helpful in resolving some of my
minor issues.

I have been working on getting our BBB server accessible from the
outside world using bbbvideo.usd376.com. When I test it the "welcome
to nginx!" is all that shows up. So, I have read through
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_provide_external_access_to_a_BigBlueButton_server_behi
focusing on the section "How can I provide external access to a
BigBlueButton server behind my firewall?" I did get external DNS
setup mapping the domain name (provided earlier) to an external IP
address. Then I have the same domain name mapped to our internal IP
address in local DNS as well.

I opened all 3 ports are open as well within our firewall as
instructed within the section. My problem I ran into when using the
command bbb-conf --setip with our domain name bbbvideo.usd376.com is
that we could no longer access the site internally. Once I used the
command and returned it to 10.3.101.176 it worked internally.

Do I need to have an internal and external IP address mapped to the
domain name with BBB's /etc/hosts file?

Thanks in advance for your support.

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[Richard Alam]

Try using your domain as the parameter when you run bbb-conf

bbb-conf --setip "bbb.usd376.com"

Perhaps we should change the option --setip to --sethost as it is confusing?

richard

--
---
BigBlueButton
http://www.bigbluebutton.org
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton

[Dean Mantz]

Richard,

Thanks for responding.  I like the idea of using --sethost for this function.  As for using bbbvideo.usd376.com as the parameter, I did but had no success.  I had to revert back to the actual internal IP address so that internal connections would resume working.  I am trying to check my internal DNS to see why the domain name is not resolving to the proper internal IP address.

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Aaron C Spike]

On 5/7/2010 11:41 AM, dmantz7 wrote:
> I did get external DNS
> setup mapping the domain name (provided earlier) to an external IP
> address. Then I have the same domain name mapped to our internal IP
> address in local DNS as well.
>
> I opened all 3 ports are open as well within our firewall as
> instructed within the section. My problem I ran into when using the
> command bbb-conf --setip with our domain name bbbvideo.usd376.com is
> that we could no longer access the site internally. Once I used the
> command and returned it to 10.3.101.176 it worked internally.

I have done exactly what you describe above and it works well.

> Do I need to have an internal and external IP address mapped to the
> domain name with BBB's /etc/hosts file?

My BBB server uses our internal DNS server. I don't know if BBB does DNS
lookups for internal communication but it would make sense that you
would need to map the domain to the internal IP if the server resolves
using the external DNS servers.

Aaron Spike

[Denis Zgonjanin]

If you get the "welcome to nginx!" message when trying to access from outside, it should be working but the error could be something else. Try running bbb-conf -c and see what you get. the "welcome to nginx!" is a common error, and if bbb-conf -c returns: 

** Potential Problems **

                        nginx (conf): no symbolic link in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled for bigbluebutton

Then do:

 sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/bigbluebutton

 sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

[Dean Mantz]

Aaron,

Try these two address for me and let me know what you get. 
bbbvideo.usd376.com
24.248.163.257

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Richard Alam]

I get "Welcome to Nginx" for bbbvideo.

Are you able to access properly from within your network? It could be
that nginx is not listening on the proper host.

Can you check the host in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/bigbluebutton?

--
---
BigBlueButton
http://www.bigbluebutton.org
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton

[Dean Mantz]

I can internally access BBB with success.  So, I will check /etc/nginz/sites-enabled/bigbluebutton.

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Aaron C Spike]

On 5/7/2010 1:09 PM, Dean Mantz wrote:
> Try these two address for me and let me know what you get.

> bbbvideo.usd376.com <http://bbbvideo.usd376.com>
> 24.248.163.257

The IP changed by the time I got there. I see "Welcome to Nginx".

One other possible difference between our setups is that my BBB server
has a single interface configured with a single internal IP and NAT
between the internal and external IPs is performed by a firewall
appliance. There may be some additional complexities if your server is
multi-homed.

[Dean Mantz]

Hey guys, what is the command I use again to view whether config, openoffice-headless, web, bigbluebutton are running correctly?  I have used the bbb-conf -c and no error messages appear.  I can remember when setting this up the first time coming across a command that lists those items and tells me if they are running.

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Fred Dixon]

Hi Dean,

You've got the right command. It's

bbb-conf -c

If no error messages appear, then things should be working. Keep in
mind that bbb-conf basically does a bunch of checks of the environment
to see if there are any obvious problems. If you run it, and it says
no errors, but then find that BigBlueButton is still not working, let
us know. It's our intent to build in more checks over time so that
it catches more of the problems that may prevent you from running
BigBlueButton.

Regards,... Fred

[Dean Mantz]

OK gentlemen,

I am probably spinning myself in circles but not getting to http://bbbvideo.usd376.com from the outside is driving me nuts. We can access it correctly within our local network but the "Welcome to nginx!" is the only appearing.  What have I over looked or missed.  When I have ran the bbb-conf -c it does not return with any errors.  Thanks again for your help.

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Fred Dixon]

Can you try running

sudo bbb-conf --setip bbbvideo.usd376.com

Regards,.. Fred

[Denis Zgonjanin]

your technical support seems to be running you in a circle as well

[Dean Mantz]

OK, I believe I have the issue narrowed down but being new to BBB I can use your help. If I use the static IP address internally I reach the BBB server perfectly, When I use BBBvideo.usd376.com I just get the "Welcome" message I mentioned earlier.  So, I go and use bbb-conf --setip bbbvideo.usd376.com to replace the local static IP of 10.3.101.176 and then I just get the "Welcome" screen. Therefore, I must be missing a command or a statement somewhere.  Is a statement within the /etc/ area I need to provide?

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Richard Alam]

It's working fine from here.

Seems like port 1935 is blocked.

It is falling into RTMPT as seen from the client logs.

5/11/2010 15:14:34.067 [ERROR] Failed to connect to
RTMP://bbbvideo.usd376.com/video
5/11/2010 15:14:36.372 [DEBUG] Successfully connected to
RTMPT://bbbvideo.usd376.com/bigbluebutton

Richard

--
---
BigBlueButton
http://www.bigbluebutton.org
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton

[Dean Mantz]

Thanks Richard for the feedback.  I did find some hidden settings in our Sonic Wall that needed some adjusting.  Please try it out and let me know if you can reach it now.

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Richard Alam]

I'm able to access it fine. It works. Doesn't tunnel anymore.

See screenshot.

[Dean Mantz]

Awesome.  Thanks for all of your assistance Richard!!  I was able to get it from home as well.  I am psyched now that I will be able to use it for a conference presentation in July.

Dean Mantz
Family man, Discovery STAR DEN & KS LC, LoTi and Intel Mentor.

[Richard Alam]

No problem.

Hope your presentation goes well.