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How do I monitor a Video Stream (RTMP via Wowza)?

Votes:

0

I'd like to monitor correct functionality of a wowza server.

The stream will be provided via RTMP, i.e. rtmp:1.2.3.4/live/stream1

How can I monitor the stream with as much as possible details?

Thanks and regards, Mario

prtg rtmp streaming wowza

Created on Sep 9, 2010 3:52:16 PM

Last change on Sep 9, 2010 4:17:14 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]



14 Replies

Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

After months of research I have found only one way it can be done.

1. You will need a program called Steam Pulse: http://streampulse.net. Try the 30 day trial. Install it according to there directions. (Do not install it on the wowza server. It should be on some other box that can access the wowza stream.) I will call this your Monitoring machine. You will have to open up your firewall so that your prtg server can access the Monitoring machine.

2. Test the monitoring machine using any web browser. Enter your stream pulse command. It will look something like this:

http://MonitoringMachineIP:5052/check?url=rtmp://YourWowzaServer.com:1935/live/streamename.stream&time=30

After about 30 seconds it should return a value similar to this:

[200] OK - Flash media is still playing OK. BufferLength: [0.001]; BufferTime: [0]; BytesLoaded: [0]; BytesTotal: [0]; CanSeek: [true]; CurrentTime: [25.85]; Duration: [NaN]; DynamicStreamSwitching: [false]; HasAudio: [true]; HasDRM: [false]; IsDynamicStream: [false]; Loop: [false]; MediaHeight: [368]; MediaWidth: [640]; NumDynamicStreams: [0]; State: [playing];

3. Next we setup the PRTG Sensor. The type of sensor you need is the HTTP Content Sensor. For best results set the timeout to 120. Insert the stream pulse test command in the script url. I recommend that you set the interval for at least 15 minutes. Under number of channels I put 5. It returns 16 or 17 values but PRTG will ignore the text values anyway, so I just picked up the first 5.

There you have it. You can similarly use StreamChecker (another product by the same company) to monitor Windows Media Streams.

Note: The guys over at StreamPulse worked with me to get this working. They even modified the output of the StreamChecker and StreamPulse in order for it to work. So, Kudos to them!

Created on Sep 10, 2010 8:55:46 PM

Last change on Feb 3, 2017 11:08:59 AM by Luciano Lingnau [Paessler]



Votes:

1

Hi Laurie,

thank you very much for your feedback. During my research during the last weekend, I discovered Stream Pulse, too. I think we definetly will give Stream Pulse a chance.

Nonetheless, it would be awesome, if PRTG itself had the capability to monitor streaming servers. Additionally, it would be interesting, if other people had different experiences and solutions.

Regards, Mario

Created on Sep 13, 2010 7:40:10 AM



Votes:

1

PTF MediaStreamer

Hi Laurie and Apitz,

I'm currently working on a Custom Sensor to monitor Window Media Streams and Flash Streams. The setup is similar to what Laurie described, the MediaStreamReader is an application that actually monitors the stream and a special Custom Sensor (MediaStream.exe) can query the MediaStreamReader for: playing state, bytes received, buffer length and many more.

It is getting hands and feet:

The MediaStreamer.exe can load a number of Mediaplayers and Flashplayers, monitoring a stream.

Next, a Custom Sensor (MediaStream.exe) can query the app, returning one of these values

MediaStreamer

Created on Sep 13, 2010 7:04:38 PM

Last change on Sep 15, 2010 4:23:37 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]



Votes:

0

Thanks for the feedback. So far this is working pretty good. Have it setup for testing 8 streams. CPU on monitoring machine really jumps at the time of the tests, but not too bad yet. The monitoring programs have not locked up or conflicted with any of the other programs on that computer.

Will be interested to see what Gerard puts together.

Created on Sep 13, 2010 11:14:54 PM



Votes:

0

PTF MediaStreamer

With PTF.MediaStreamer you can have your PRTG Server monitor media streams.

The download consists in two .exe files:

  • MediaStreamer.exe is an application that constantly monitors your streams and
  • MediaStream.exe is the Custom Sensor that queries the MediaStreamer and reports the result to your PRTG Server.

MediaStreamer

Next you can use the !MediaStream Custom Sensor to query one of the players property's

Property's

!MediaStream parameters:

-c=   IP-Address or DNS name of the computer running PTF.MediaStreamer
-pl=  The number of the player to query.
-ix=  The index of the players property to return the value for.
-u=   Optional, Domain\Username of a user that can access the c drive of the computer running PTF.MediaStreamer.
-p=   Optional, Password or PassHash of a user that can access the c drive of the computer running PTF.MediaStreamer.

Assuming the !MediaStreamer runs on your PRTG Server, using:

mediastream -c=localhost -pl=1 -ix=3

The sensor will return: "bitRate 128000"

The MediaStreamer can be downloaded from this page.

Created on Sep 17, 2010 8:36:38 PM

Last change on Dec 20, 2010 1:16:24 PM by Patrick Hutter [Paessler Support] (7,225) ●3 ●3



Votes:

0

Hi Gerard,

I'm currently trying to setup MediaStreamer to monitor some Flash streams. I install the application successfully, add a player, select FlashPlayer, enter a name, and a URL that definitely works, which I can verify with an interactive flash player I have.

When I click play, I get the dialog, but Value column remains empty and nothing happens. If i just let the application run, nothing changes, Last Request, Last Result and Pending Requests all remain empty.

Is there a specific format I need to specify the URL in? For example my URL looks something like - rtmp:server.com/application/streamname

I've tried running the MediaStreamer on 3 different machines, with the same result on all of them.

Any suggestion would be very much appreciated!

Regards, Alex

Created on Jan 24, 2011 8:27:21 PM



Votes:

0

Hi Alex,

The Flash player can only run native flash and no rtmp or rtsp. I'm currently working on a verison that also supports the VLC player. If you like you can download the beta from http://ptf-prtgaddons.googlecode.com/files/PTF.MediaStreamer.zip

Please let me know what you think.

Gerard.

Created on Jan 25, 2011 3:05:27 PM



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0

It looks like these solutions have been archived. Is there a better solution now to monitor video streaming?

Created on Oct 30, 2015 5:33:03 PM



Votes:

0

Hello,

Currently there aren't any dedicated sensors or software solutions for video streaming monitoring.

Depending on which aspects of video streaming you want to monitor, you can try using one of the HTTP sensors

Best regards

Created on Nov 2, 2015 3:30:43 PM by Isidora Jeremic [Paessler Support]



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I can't seem to successfully implement what I need. I have a vlc streaming to http that keeps timing out randomly and I want to have a sensor that will go off when it times out. Any suggestions?

Created on Dec 23, 2015 4:45:53 PM



Votes:

0

Hi Jacob,

I am sorry, we have neither experience in this kind of monitoring nor the test devices to try this, so I am afraid that we cannot give you any precise answer to your question. Maybe you can try to write your own custom script to monitor video streaming.

Created on Dec 24, 2015 2:14:20 PM by Isidora Jeremic [Paessler Support]



Votes:

0

You can use StreamTest.net They have a free live stream monitoring service You can also pick which Geo-location(s) you want to monitor from. It works well with Wowza, RTMP, HLS.

Give it a shot, http://www.streamtest.net/mymonitoredstreams

Created on Sep 30, 2016 6:54:30 PM



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I sorry but the suggested service at Strematest isn't free at all

Created on Oct 22, 2016 4:48:12 PM



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Using the HTTP sensor I was able to monitor an HLS stream by setting the URL to the main m3u8 file that is generated by the HLS converter e.g. http://server/hls/stream.m3u8

Created on Feb 2, 2017 7:33:27 AM




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