bbb-record --rebuildall on latest 2.3.0 bionic package

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G H

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May 1, 2021, 7:38:01 AM5/1/21
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Hi,

I built a test VM with Ubuntu 18.04 and installed latest 2.3.0 bionic package on it.
Live is on 16.04 and BBB Server 2.2.35 (2394).

Problem with live is that it has all the old (some with BBB 1.0 and some with BBB 2.0) built (processed) recordings. I wanted to re-process them by BBB 2.3.0 build so that finally all those recordings will be playable on Apple iOS devices. It is a big pain point since beginning.

So I built that VM with BBB 2.3.0 bionic package. Then copied all the recordings (published and raw) to this VM via rsync -rP command. Once copy finished, I then I run the command

bbb-record --rebuildall

Now the questions I have are,
1) How will I know if all the recordings are processed and processing is complete?
2) Do I need to do any configuration before running bbb-record --rebuildall or after running this command in order to get all the recordings playable on Apple iOS devices?
3) Are there any known issues on 2.3.0 bionic package (installed as of 4 days back) regarding bbb-record --rebuildall command? I noticed many issues but the ones I had checked here were resolved by now. I am not aware of any ongoing troubleshooting or development regarding this command to avoid any issues.
4) Live and VM are both configured with different domains. My belief is that bbb-record --rebuildall command doesn't look at the domain name and hence after processing completes if I just copy back both PUBLISHED and RAW directories back to LIVE BBB server then the recordings will still play on LIVE BBB server without any issues because I have not modified domain name within the recordings after moving them to VM with different domain.
5) Is there any easier way to verify if I have all the RAW recordings of all the PUBLISHED recordings? Potentially any command that does this? or getting full list of PUBLISHED and then full list of RAW recordings to compare?

Appreciate your comments.

-Jitesh

sd...@distancelearning.cloud

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May 1, 2021, 8:22:02 AM5/1/21
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Just move over the raw.. not the published.

Set permissions to bigbluebutton:bigbluebutton

 

Set presentation.yml for just -mp4

Sudo bbb-record –rebuildall.

 

This may take a couple of days, depends on meetings, and use of video/screenshare.

 

To see if done.

 

Compare the ls -alt /var/bigbluebutton/published/presentation | wc -l  count with the raw count.

 

When you move these to the new system,  bbb-conf –setip will rewrite the metadata.xml for the new recording link.

 

Regards,

Stephen

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G H

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May 1, 2021, 9:01:38 AM5/1/21
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Thanks Stephen for quick help.

So basically on test VM (2.3.0) I should stop the already running bbb-record --rebuildall and then remove everything from /var/bigbluebutton/published
1) How can I stop bbb-record --rebuildall that is already running?

And then follow your steps.

2) By the way should I comment out -webm and just set -mp4 before rebuildingall recordings. right?
3) Is this because MP4 will be played by all devices and that is why WEBM format of published recordings are no more required from 2.3.0 onwards?

4) And the recordings rebuilt in 2.3.0 will also work on 2.2.35 (2394) ? Or I should upgrade the live system to 2.3.0 ? (I read somewhere 2.3.0 was still not recommended for live environment yet till it reaches GA targets).

Because I will be transferring original RAW recordings back to original system after REBUILT on 2.3.0, so original domain still remains the same on original system. Because of this I will skip bbb-conf --setip command which as I understand is to change domain name of entire BBB server.

Thanks again. Your small comments are quite important for me as you can see if I knew your instructions I would have avoided 2 days of rebuilding all already.

-Jitesh

sd...@distancelearning.cloud

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May 1, 2021, 9:45:19 AM5/1/21
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Yes, comment out -webm and just do -mp4, to save processing/disk space.

 

Whether you have the 2.2 player or the 2.3 player, the published files are the same.

 

The RAW files don’t have the server url,  that’s added to the metadata.xml

 

If you had -mp4 already uncommented then you could just let the rebuild work, if not back the change and then run bbb-record –rebuild,  the rebuild deletes all the published and starts over, so no need to stop.

 

You have a backup of the raw files…. Don’t put these back on the production server.  Just wasting disk space, and not needed if you have backup.

G H

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May 2, 2021, 5:33:34 AM5/2/21
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Thanks again Stephen,

Good advise on space saving as I can see space is filling up quick on live BBB with couple of hours long recordings.

bbb-record --rebuild seems to be great with restart of the processing from beginning. I will empty PUBLISHED directory before I run bbb-record --rebuild command so that in the end I can telly in the end to compare PUBLISHED with RAW recordings.

Great help and suggestions. Thank you very much.

Thanks for the additional guidance of maintaining RAW files off the live BBB server.

By the way how far is 2.3.0 before it is generally available to go on live BBB ?

-Jitesh

sd...@distancelearning.cloud

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May 2, 2021, 7:25:01 AM5/2/21
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2.3.0 is live, and being deployed in production today by many companies.

G H

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May 2, 2021, 9:45:39 PM5/2/21
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Great to hear. I am also going live with 2.3.0 then.

Many thanks Stephen. Your small comments means big help to all users like us.

-Jitesh

G H

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May 2, 2021, 9:56:30 PM5/2/21
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I just realized that in RAW directory the count reflects 182 and in PRESENTATION directory count reflects 391. I think this might be due to in initial setup back in 2014, there was some crontab entry done to remove recordings older than some 90 days or so. Luckily that crontab entry disappeared it looks like when migrated to EC2 at some point.

Is there anyway to regenerate RAW files from processed recordings? (Answer might be NO as I understand. Not sure if this is even possible).
Or any other way to get published recordings to be processed by latest build?

-Jitesh

sd...@distancelearning.cloud

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May 3, 2021, 6:25:24 AM5/3/21
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No, you need the original events.xml and raw media to be able to process, and publish a recording. 

 

If you want to try and convert published .webm to .mp4 as a side task… I believe the players look for both,  so this may allow you to get old recordings playable on IOS.

Would require custom script and some testing to confirm

G H

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May 3, 2021, 7:37:54 PM5/3/21
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Understood. And scripting for webm to mp4 conversion is good idea. I will try to find someone who can create such a linux script, hoping it's not too complicated. If I end up getting such thing done then I will also share if someone might also need it.

Thanks again Stephen. Great help and advices.

-Jitesh
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