Red5 is an open source RTMP server, the streaming protocol of choice for Adobe Flash. That makes it a free alternative to the commercially licensed Flash Media Server.

There are no officially supported RPMs for CentOS/RHEL, it's necessary to perform the installation manually. Red5 is a Java application and, as such, it is necessary to install the JDK. The current version of Red5 (1.1.1) will not work with Java versions later than 8. Agree to the license and download the JDK at https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. Unlike recent versions of java, you will be forced to go through the exceedingly obnoxious step of creating an otherwise useless oracle account if you have not already done so (or if you have done this fifty times but can't remember any of them, as the case may be). It is important that you provide a working e-mail address because you will have to click on a validation link before you can log in. I tend to fill the rest of the fields out with dirty words because I am somewhat juvenile and deeply resentful of such things.

# rpm -iv jdk-8u212-linux-x64.rpm warning: jdk-8u212-linux-x64.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID ec551f03: NOKEY Preparing packages... jdk1.8-2000:1.8.0_212-fcs.x86_64 Unpacking JAR files... tools.jar... plugin.jar... javaws.jar... deploy.jar... rt.jar... jsse.jar... charsets.jar... localedata.jar...

Obtain the latest Red5 tarball from https://github.com/Red5/red5-server/releases and unpack it to /opt/:
# wget https://github.com/Red5/red5-server/releases/download/v1.1.1/red5-server-1.1.1.tar.gz # tar zxf red5-server-1.1.1.tar.gz # mv red5-server/ /opt/red5

The stock Red5 init script requires jsvc:
# yum install jsvc

Copy the Red5 SysV init script to /etc/init.d/ and the systemd .service file to /etc/systemd/system/ then enable the service to start on boot:
# cp red5 /etc/init.d/ # cp red5.service /etc/systemd/system/ # systemctl enable red5.service

Edit /etc/init.d/red5 and add the RED5_HOME variable before the FILE_PATH variable:
# The path to the folder containing daemon jar RED5_HOME="/opt/red5" FILE_PATH="/usr/local/$NAME" # If red5 home is set, use it if [ ! -z "$RED5_HOME" ]; then echo "Setting file path using RED5_HOME" FILE_PATH=$RED5_HOME; fi export RED5_HOME=$FILE_PATH; echo "Path $FILE_PATH";

If you have installed multiple versions of Java you can set the default with the alternatives command:
# alternatives --config java There is 1 program that provides 'java'. Selection Command ----------------------------------------------- *+ 1 /usr/java/jdk1.8.0_212-amd64/jre/bin/java Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

Update the JAVA_HOME variable in /etc/init.d/red5; if your default version is anything other than 8 link directly to it instead of using the default symlink:
# The path to the folder containing the java runtime #JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java" JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/default" JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_212-amd64"

The init script with Red5 1.1.1 is out of date; it references commons-daemon-1.0.15.jar while the package ships with commons-daemon-1.1.0.jar. Update the script to reflect:
#CLASS_PATH="$FILE_PATH/commons-daemon-1.0.15.jar:$FILE_PATH/red5-service.jar:$FILE_PATH/conf" CLASS_PATH="$FILE_PATH/commons-daemon-1.1.0.jar:$FILE_PATH/red5-service.jar:$FILE_PATH/conf"

...or you will encounter the following error in /opt/red5/log/red5-error.log:
Cannot find daemon loader org/apache/commons/daemon/support/DaemonLoader Service exit with a return value of 1

If you will be using Red5 in a production environment it's probably a good idea to allocate more than the default amount of ram to the JVM. It's also a very good idea to isolate Red5 from other services and resources, ideally in a virtual machine if not a fully dedicated server. If this is your use case, it is safe to allocate up to your total available memory minus one to two GB by editing /etc/init.d/red5 and adding the following arguments to the JVM_OPTS variable (you may need to scroll right):
# The amount of ram to allocate to the JVM (system total minus 1-2GB on a single-purpose system) RED5_RAM="-Xms2g -Xmx2g" ... JAVA_OPTS="$LOGGING_OPTS $SECURITY_OPTS $JAVA_OPTS $JVM_OPTS $RED5_RAM $TOMCAT_OPTS"

With the configuration we have set up so far we will be running Red5 as root. I know I don't have to tell you why exposing a complicated service running as root to the wild is a terrible idea. Whomever wrote the stock init script chose to utilize jsvc; among the best reasons to use a helper like this is to drop the service into a non-privileged user account. In fact, the very second line on jsvc's website explaining its purpose is:

Jsvc allows the application (e.g. Tomcat) to perform some privileged operations as root (e.g. bind to a port < 1024), and then switch identity to a non-privileged user.

Red5 doesn't ship with any documentation that indicates it will be running as root or suggesting that you should do otherwise. The init script isn't set up to be configured with an alternative account. Even the more current and expansive commercial "pro" edition of Red5's documentation has you configure the server as root.

From jsvc's website:

Jsvc uses 3 processes: a launcher process, a controller process and a controlled process. The controlled process is also the main java thread, if the JVM crashes the controller will restart it in the next minute. Jsvc is a daemon process so it should be started as root and the -user parameter allows to downgrade to an unprivilegded user.

We need to fix this.

First, create the non-privileged system account red5:
# useradd -d /opt/red5 -s /sbin/nologin -r red5

Do not give the new account a password: a non-privileged account should never be logged into.

Now edit /etc/init.d/red5 and instantiate the RED5_USER variable then place it in the command line thus:
# The user to run java under RED5_USER="red5" ... jsvc_exec() { cd $FILE_PATH $EXEC -home $JAVA_HOME -cp $CLASS_PATH -cwd $RED5_HOME $JAVA_OPTS -outfile $LOG_OUT -errfile $LOG_ERR -pidfile $PID -user $RED5_USER $1 $CLASS $ARGS }

Now you may start the service:
# service red5 start Setting file path using RED5_HOME Path /opt/red5 Starting the Red5 service... The Red5 service has started.

Now check your processes; you will note two instances of jsvc.exec: the controller process running as root and the larger (JVM) process running as red5:
# ps aux USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND root 28121 0.0 0.0 10736 356 ? Ss 22:35 0:00 jsvc.exec -home /usr/java/default -cp /opt/red5/commons-daemon-1.1.0.jar:/opt/red5/red5-service.jar:/opt/red5/conf - red5 28122 19.3 4.9 4288264 193616 ? Sl 22:35 0:10 jsvc.exec -home /usr/java/default -cp /opt/red5/commons-daemon-1.1.0.jar:/opt/red5/red5-service.jar:/opt/red5/conf -

Now we can see that Red5 is listening on its designated ports:
# lsof -i COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME jsvc 28122 red5 101u IPv6 713777 0t0 TCP *:macromedia-fcs (LISTEN) jsvc 28122 red5 108u IPv6 716369 0t0 TCP *:onscreen (LISTEN) jsvc 28122 red5 110u IPv6 716373 0t0 TCP *:distinct (LISTEN) ...or... # lsof -i -P COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME jsvc 28122 red5 101u IPv6 713777 0t0 TCP *:1935 (LISTEN) jsvc 28122 red5 108u IPv6 716369 0t0 TCP *:5080 (LISTEN) jsvc 28122 red5 110u IPv6 716373 0t0 TCP *:9999 (LISTEN)

As you may note, /etc/services does not accurately reflect our use case for some ports. You may update it at your discretion.

• 1935 - RTMP
• 5080 - HTTP tomcat web daemon for demo and custom FLEX webapps, management/statistics interface, REST API (pro version).
• 9999 - RTMPS

If you are running firewalld or the default iptables policy it will be necessary to open the relevant ports, as we covered in Open a Port on CentOS/RHEL. Think carefully about whether you want to expose port 5080 and, if you do, where to.
# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=1935/tcp success # firewall-cmd --reload success

When I wrote Red5 Streaming Media Server Init Script for Gentoo 8 years ago I set Red5 up to use a non-privileged account as a matter of course because Red5 didn't ship with an OpenRC init script or installation instructions for Gentoo; I simply adhered to best practices. In writing this it dawns on me that there are very likely now thousands of Red5 and Red5 Pro installations in the wild exposing a complex Java application - complete with tomcat instance and demo webapps - while running as root.

For your convenience, an updated version of the init script for version 1.1.1:
#!/bin/sh # /etc/init.d/red5 ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: Red5 # Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog $network # Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 6 # Short-Description: Starts the red5 service # Description: This file is used to start the daemon and should be placed in /etc/init.d # chkconfig: 2345 85 85 # processname: red5 ### END INIT INFO # Author: Sheldon Neilson <sheldon[AT]neilson.co.za> # Url: www.neilson.co.za # Date: 25/04/2013 # Modified by Paul Gregoire <mondain[AT]gmail.com> on 18 May 2016 # Modified by http://foxpa.ws on July 17 2019 for Red5 v.1.1.1 NAME="red5" DESC="Red5 service" # The path to Jsvc EXEC="/usr/bin/jsvc" # The user to run java under RED5_USER="red5" # The amount of ram to allocate to the JVM (system total minus 1-2GB on a single-purpose system) # RED5_RAM="-Xms2g -Xmx2g" RED5_RAM="-Xms512m -Xmx512m" # The path to the folder containing daemon jar RED5_HOME="/opt/red5" FILE_PATH="/usr/local/$NAME" # If red5 home is set, use it if [ ! -z "$RED5_HOME" ]; then echo "Setting file path using RED5_HOME" FILE_PATH=$RED5_HOME; fi export RED5_HOME=$FILE_PATH; echo "Path $FILE_PATH"; # The path to the folder containing the java runtime #JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java" JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/default" # Our classpath including our jar file and the Apache Commons Daemon library #CLASS_PATH="$FILE_PATH/commons-daemon-1.0.15.jar:$FILE_PATH/red5-service.jar:$FILE_PATH/conf" CLASS_PATH="$FILE_PATH/commons-daemon-1.1.0.jar:$FILE_PATH/red5-service.jar:$FILE_PATH/conf" # The fully qualified name of the class to execute CLASS="org.red5.daemon.EngineLauncher" # Any command line arguments to be passed to the our Java Daemon implementations init() method ARGS="9999" # The file that will contain our process identification number (pid) for other scripts/programs that need to access it. PID="/tmp/$NAME.pid" # System.out writes to this file... LOG_OUT="$FILE_PATH/log/$NAME-service.log" # System.err writes to this file... LOG_ERR="$FILE_PATH/log/$NAME-error.log" # JAVA options # You can set JVM additional options here if you want if [ -z "$JVM_OPTS" ]; then JVM_OPTS="-Xverify:none -XX:+TieredCompilation -XX:+UseBiasedLocking -XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=8m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=32m -Dorg.terracotta.quartz.skipUpdateCheck=true" fi # Set up logging options LOGGING_OPTS="-Dlogback.ContextSelector=org.red5.logging.LoggingContextSelector -Dcatalina.useNaming=true" # Set up security options SECURITY_OPTS="-Djava.security.debug=failure" # Set up tomcat options TOMCAT_OPTS="-Dcatalina.home=$RED5_HOME" JAVA_OPTS="$LOGGING_OPTS $SECURITY_OPTS $JAVA_OPTS $JVM_OPTS $RED5_RAM $TOMCAT_OPTS" jsvc_exec() { cd $FILE_PATH $EXEC -home $JAVA_HOME -cp $CLASS_PATH -cwd $RED5_HOME $JAVA_OPTS -outfile $LOG_OUT -errfile $LOG_ERR -pidfile $PID -user $RED5_USER $1 $CLASS $ARGS } case "$1" in start) echo "Starting the $DESC..." # Start the service jsvc_exec echo "The $DESC has started." ;; stop) echo "Stopping the $DESC..." # Stop the service jsvc_exec "-stop" echo "The $DESC has stopped." ;; restart) if [ -f "$PID" ]; then echo "Restarting the $DESC..." # Stop the service jsvc_exec "-stop" # Start the service jsvc_exec echo "The $DESC has restarted." else echo "Daemon not running, no action taken" exit 1 fi ;; *) echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/$NAME {start|stop|restart}" >&2 exit 3 ;; esac