BBB behind DynDNS

Although BBB does not recommend to run it at home it is possible with an dynamic IP configuration. With the nowadays available fibre and fast VDSL lines at least conferences for small groups are feasible.

The trick is to bind the websockets to localhost and let the current IP loop on localhost. Then let a script update the config on IP change.

Lets take a look step by step. First install BBB with the official installer. Be sure to have prepared your box according to the system requirements with the now aged ubuntu 20.

Then have a look at the configuration files. There are several. You can display the values of matter with bbb-conf --check.

You need to adapt the config files until you get a similar output like this:

• FQDN of server: host.domain.tld
• local IP: 5.5.5.5

BigBlueButton Server 2.5.4 (3063)
                    Kernel version: 5.4.0-125-generic
                      Distribution: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (64-bit)
                            Memory: 32893 MB
                         CPU cores: 24

/etc/bigbluebutton/bbb-web.properties (override for bbb-web)
/usr/share/bbb-web/WEB-INF/classes/bigbluebutton.properties (bbb-web)
       bigbluebutton.web.serverURL: https://host.domain.tld
                defaultGuestPolicy: ALWAYS_ACCEPT
                 svgImagesRequired: true
              defaultMeetingLayout: CUSTOM_LAYOUT

/etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton (nginx)
                       server_name: host.domain.tld
                              port: 80, [::]:80
                              port: 443 ssl

/opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/vars.xml (FreeSWITCH)
                       local_ip_v4: 5.5.5.5
                   external_rtp_ip: host:host.domain.tld
                   external_sip_ip: host:host.domain.tld

/opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/sip_profiles/external.xml (FreeSWITCH)
                        ext-rtp-ip: $${external_rtp_ip}
                        ext-sip-ip: $${external_sip_ip}
                        ws-binding: 127.0.0.1:5066
                       wss-binding: 127.0.0.1:7443

/usr/local/bigbluebutton/core/scripts/bigbluebutton.yml (record and playback)
                     playback_host: host.domain.tld
                 playback_protocol: https
                            ffmpeg: 4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1

/usr/share/bigbluebutton/nginx/sip.nginx (sip.nginx)
                        proxy_pass: 127.0.0.1
                          protocol: http

/usr/local/bigbluebutton/bbb-webrtc-sfu/config/default.yml (Kurento SFU)
/etc/bigbluebutton/bbb-webrtc-sfu/production.yml (Kurento SFU - override)
                        kurento.ip: 5.5.5.5
                       kurento.url: ws://127.0.0.1:8888/kurento
                    kurento.sip_ip: 127.0.0.1
               recordScreenSharing: true
                     recordWebcams: true
                  codec_video_main: VP8
               codec_video_content: VP8

/usr/share/meteor/bundle/programs/server/assets/app/config/settings.yml (HTML5 client)
/etc/bigbluebutton/bbb-html5.yml (HTML5 client config override)
                             build: 2829
                        kurentoUrl: wss://host.domain.tld/bbb-webrtc-sfu
                  enableListenOnly: true
                    sipjsHackViaWs: true

/usr/share/bbb-web/WEB-INF/classes/spring/turn-stun-servers.xml (STUN Server)
                              stun: stun.l.google.com:19302

In detail you need to change:

• /opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/vars.xml
  • set local_ip_v4 (l. 59) to the local IP
  • set external_rtp_ip (l. 295) and external_sip_ip (l. 307) to the fqdn like host:host.domain.tld
• /opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/sip_profiles/external.xml
  • set IP of ws-binding (l. 100) and wss-binding (l. 101) to 127.0.0.1. Leave ports as they are.
• /usr/share/bigbluebutton/nginx/sip.nginx
  • set proxy_pass IP to 127.0.0.1 leave port as is.
• /etc/bigbluebutton/bbb-webrtc-sfu/production.yml
  • change it to this format, where 5.5.5.5 is the internal IP and 7.7.7.7 the external IP

freeswitch:
  ip: 7.7.7.7
  sip_ip: 127.0.0.1
kurento:
- ip: 5.5.5.5
  url: ws://127.0.0.1:8888/kurento
mediasoup:
  plainRtp:
    listenIp:
      announcedIp: 7.7.7.7
      ip: 0.0.0.0
  webrtc:
    listenIps:
    - announcedIp: 7.7.7.7
      ip: 0.0.0.0
    - announcedIp: 5.5.5.5
      ip: 0.0.0.0

Then you need to add the public IP to the loopback device of the server: ip addr add 7.7.7.7/32 dev lo.
On each new IP given from your ISP you need you only need to update the configfile /etc/bigbluebutton/bbb-webrtc-sfu/production.yml and replace the IP of the local loopback device. I wrote a little script for that. This is a dirty hack, but should work for ovh and hetzner (own branch).

Inspirations:

• https://munari.xyz/2020/10/25/bigbluebutton-behind-nat/
• https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/issues/10968

Stresstest

You might want to test what load your server and its line is capable of. For this purpose exists a bbb stress tester. I configured it to be used with heroku. You need to provide credit card info at heroku and get a bigger dyno. Then clone the repo. Get the API secret of BBB with bbb-conf --secret and add this value to set-heroku-env.sh. Adapt also URL and the other parameters as you wish. Then login to heroku and push up the stress tester. See the readme.