"Libretime" Multi-container Docker Setup.

This is a multi-container Docker build of the Libretime Radio Broadcast Software (Libretime is a direct fork of Airtime for those who are wondering, hence the similarities).

It's an aim to run the environment ready for production which can be stood up in a few minutes (with ease), and all common media directories, database files, auto-dj icecast fallback support etc is mapped into the container(s) so data is persisted between rebuilds of the application.

It's originally based off my docker-multicontainer-airtime setup, and has been adapted to suit the newer Libretime sources accordingly.

If you require assistance deploying this solution for a commercial station, please feel free to reach out to me - I do provide consultancy services.

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Docker Hub: bushrangers/ubuntu-multicontainer-libretime

Overview:

The project consists of four main containers/components:

• libretime-core - This is the main Libretime container - Currently Based on the latest Ubuntu Xenial build.
• libretime-rabbitmq - A seperated RabbitMQ container based on Alpine Linux.
• libretime-postgres - The database engine behind Libretime - It's also an Alpine Linux build in an attempt to be as 'lean and mean' as possible when it comes to system resources.
• libretime-icecast - The Icecast2 daemon - Alpine linux based, lightweight and uses minimal resources.

Optional Extras:

• icecast-analytics - Your Icecast statistics in Google Analytics.

Standing up:

It's pretty straightforward, just clone down the sources and stand up the container like so:

# Clone down sources to /opt/libretime...
git clone https://github.com/ned-kelly/docker-multicontainer-libretime.git /opt/libretime
cd /opt/libretime

### CREATE A .env FILE AND ADD CONFIGURATION (see below for configuration options) ###
# You can use the default configuration and skip this step if you are just testing.

vi docker-multicontainer-libretime/.env

# Create a new docker network if this is the first time running Libretime it will be required...
docker network create libretime

# You will need to make your 'localmusic' directory writable so you can upload some content to the server...
mkdir localmusic && chmod 777 localmusic

# Stand up the container
docker-compose up -d

Building against the Master Branch:

If you want to build against the most recent Libretime releases (rather than using the pre-built docker image), simply edit the main docker-compose.yml file and comment out the image directive (in the libretime-core definition) and uncomment the build line. This will not pull the latest build from the Docker hub, but rather build a local copy from the latest Libretime sources locally. Note that there's no guarantees against the stability of Libretime when using "bleeding edge" builds and you should test this before rolling out into production.

NOTE:

When running for the first time, the libretime-core container will run some 'boostrap' scripts. This will take 15-30 seconds (after standing up the containers) BEFORE you will be able to fully access libretime.

You can monitor the progress of the bootstrap process by running: docker logs -f libretime-core.

Once the containers have been stood up you should be able to access the project directly in your browser...

Configuration:

You will want to create a new .env file in the root of the project directory with variables that will not be over-written when pulling down newer builds of the configuration.

If you are just testing locally and not deploying this in a production environment, you can skip over this section and use the default configuration, however if you are planning on deploying this on the Internet as a live server you SHOULD SET this configuration so you are not using default passwords/configuration etc.

Configuration Variables Currently Supported:

Variable	Targets	Default Value	Purpose
POSTGRES_USER	libretime-postgres	libretime	The username to provision when standing up PostgreSQL
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	libretime-postgres	libretime	Password for the PostgreSQL Database
RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER	libretime-rabbitmq	libretime	Username to access the RabbitMQ service
RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS	libretime-rabbitmq	libretime	Username to access the RabbitMQ service
EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME	libretime-core	localhost	The FQDN of your server published on the Internet - If left as localhost apache iframes and other configuration will be stripped out and made "relative"
LOCAL_MUSIC_MAPPING	libretime-core	./localmusic	The path to your media directory / where uploads/media will be stored
WEB_UI_PORT	libretime-core	8882	The default port that the main Libretime HTTP Server/Web-UI will run on
MASTER_SOURCE_PORT	libretime-core	8001	Master port that producers can use to over-ride the active program with an Icecast Stream (Use a tool like BUTT)
DJ_SOURCE_PORT	libretime-core	8002	DJ's Icecast port that they can use remotely (using their Libretime credentials) to broadcast during their scheduled time-slot
ICECAST_PORT	libretime-icecast	35112	The default port that Icecast will stream on -- Suggest leaving as default (a high number), 8000 is a common port that is often port-scanned
ICECAST_LOCATION	libretime-icecast	Mars	The location of your Stream - Hint, put your city name here!
ICECAST_SOURCE_PASSWORD	libretime-icecast	libretime	This is the password Libretime uses to connect to icecast - You should make this something nice and secure - You don't want people hijacking your stream!
ICECAST_RELAY_PASSWORD	libretime-icecast	libretime	The password that people can use to re-stream your stream (i.e. create a satellite stream)
ICECAST_ADMIN_USERNAME	libretime-icecast	admin	The username to Administer the Icecast service
ICECAST_ADMIN_PASSWORD	libretime-icecast	libretime	Password for the Icecast Administration User
ICECAST_ADMIN_EMAIL	libretime-icecast	martians@example.com	The "contact email" of the main person managing this setup/station (make this a generic email i.e. info@yourstation.com)
ICECAST_HOSTNAME	libretime-icecast	icecast.local	This can be the same as your EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME parameter if you're running on the same IP/Host - It does however need to be a FQDN!
ICECAST_MAX_CLIENTS	libretime-icecast	500	Total number of people that can stream the station before Icecast will deny connections - You should limit this to a realistic value depending on how much UPLOAD bandwidth you have available at your station...
ICECAST_MOUNT_NAME	libretime-icecast	/live	This is the endpoint that your stream will be published/accessible on
WEBSITE_HOMEPAGE	libretime-icecast	http://libretime.org/	The URL to your station's homepage.

You should change the Icecast passwords at a minimum - (Don't leave the passwords as the default if you're exposing this to the internet, you will be hacked (The default is ok if you're testing) - You will also need to update your settings in the Libretime UI).

Accessing:

Just go to http://server-ip:8882/ (change port 8882 to whatever you mapped in your docker-compose file if you changed this)...

• Default Username: admin
• Default Password: admin

If you need to check the status of any services you may also do so by going to:

• http://server-ip:8882/?config

Have fun!

BE SURE TO WAIT 15-30 SECONDS OR SO FOR THE CONTAINERS TO BOOTSTRAP BEFORE TRYING TO ACCESS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Things to note & hack fixes:

• There seems to be a bug in the current build of Libretime where if you run Postgres on another host the web/ui fails to log in (without any logs/errors showing anywhere)... After much pain trying to get this running "properly", the quick and simple fix has been to use a TCP proxy, that just proxies the PostgreSQL port:5432 to the actual dedicated postgres container.

• By default - using "localhost" as the server name variable (in airtime.conf), iFrames obviously won't work - For now we are using a reverse proxy fix to replace any references to the "localhost" iframes to be relative.. See Feature Request 515 for details.

• There seems to be issues when trying to just plonk a reverse proxy directly in front of the latest release of Libretime - Suspect some additional headers may need to be passed through - Anyone who has found a fix when using reverse proxies, please submit a PR.

• The current build of Airtime has some issues pulling in podcasts that are in formats other than MP3 - this includes the #519 fix for users wanting to auto-import large quantities of podcasts it's pretty important as libretime currently only seems to work with MP3 podcasts.

• If you're syndicating a lot of podcasts, there's an issue where the temp files are not properly cleaned up in the /tmp/ directory of the container which will result in disk space issues if you're running for a long time... There's a cron job that's been added to the container to cleanup the /tmp/ files each hour ... If you need to add any other custom cron jobs for your setup, just add them to the bootstrap/add-to-cron.txt file and then re-build the container.

Deploying on the Internet?

You will need to setup port forwarding to your Docker host for:

• TCP:8000 (Icecast server) - NB: change the default icecast passwords first!
• Perhaps to your web interface port if you want this public...
• TCP:8001 & TCP:8002 (Remote access for Master & Source inputs - NB: This allows open access to Libretime, use with caution or via a VPN - or make sure you have secure passwords for your DJ's!

You might want to use something like This "Caddy" Docker Container to proxy pass to Apache with an automatic signed SSL certificate thanks to Lets Encrypt...

Icecast Google Analytics

If you want to send the data from your Icecast Streams to Google Analytics (so number of listeners, most popular streams/bitrates etc - please see the docker-icecast-google-analytics project, which can be integrated to your cluster.

Fallback Icecast Stream Support

The setup includes a custom build of Icecast which has been pre-configured with a service called ezstream which will automatically play fallback music (A random playlist generated from your LOCAL_MUSIC_MAPPING content) in the event of a Libretime failure/restart/upgrade of the main Libretime container, or lack of programming in Libretime (i.e. there's nothing configured in Libretime).

By default, the "playlist" of fallback media will be auto-regenerated each night at midnight... if you wish to manually trigger a regeneration of the fallback playlist you may run the following:

docker exec -it libretime-icecast bash -c "/playlist-builder.sh"

Customising & scripting your deployment

• Anything in the customisations/ directory will be mapped into /etc/airtime-customisations in the container allowing you to script custom fixes/changes to the core libretime container.

• By default a file called run.sh will be executed (if it exists).

Sample Customisations (in run.sh):

• Change Homepage Background
• Add in Custom CSS to Homepage
• Add in Google Analytics Tracking to Homepage

Sample screenshots

Fig 1: Homepage Example (with CSS customisations).

Fig 2: Example of Schedule

Fig 3: Configuration Passing & all services running "out of the box" as expected.