How to Set Up Wowza Streaming Engine on a Linux VPS

Refresh the package index and apply pending upgrades:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Cloud base images usually ship with an outdated kernel. Applying the upgrade before installing Wowza avoids having to restart the engine right after.

Install the utilities this tutorial will use:

sudo apt install -y curl wget unzip ufw htop

htop helps debug CPU usage during transcoding; ufw is the firewall we will configure at the end.

Confirm the VPS has at least 2 GB of swap configured:

swapon --show
free -h

If there is no swap (empty output), create 4 GB:

sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Swap is not a substitute for RAM, but it prevents the JVM from being OOM-killed during audience peaks.

Log in to wowza.com, go to Downloads, copy the direct link for the .deb or the Linux shell installer, and pull it on the VPS:

cd /tmp
wget -O wowza-installer.deb "https://www.wowza.com/downloads/WowzaStreamingEngine-4-9-x/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.9.x-linux-x64-installer.deb"

Replace the URL with the real link generated in your account — they include an authentication token in the query string.

Install the package:

sudo dpkg -i wowza-installer.deb

The installer asks you to accept the EULA, choose the Streaming Manager admin password, and paste the trial license key. Use a strong generated password — you will need it to log into the web panel.

Enable and start both services (engine + manager):

sudo systemctl enable --now WowzaStreamingEngine
sudo systemctl enable --now WowzaStreamingEngineManager

The main service is the engine that processes streams; the manager is the administrative web panel on port 8088.

Confirm that both came up without errors:

sudo systemctl status WowzaStreamingEngine
sudo systemctl status WowzaStreamingEngineManager

Look for active (running) in green. If it shows failed, read the log at /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/logs/wowzastreamingengine_access.log — it is almost always an invalid license or a port already in use.

Open Streaming Manager in the browser:

http://VPS_IP:8088/enginemanager

Log in with the admin user you defined during installation. You will land on the home page with server status, uptime, and active connections (zero for now).

In the side menu, click Applications and pick live. On the Properties tab, confirm that:

• Application Type is set to Live
• Streaming Type is set to Live Single Server
• Playback Types has HLS, MPEG-DASH, and RTMP checked

Hit Save (top-right corner) and click Restart Application if prompted.

On the Incoming Security tab, set the mode to Open (no authentication required) only for initial testing. In production switch to Username/Password required for all publishing and register publishers under Server > Source Authentication.

Without publishing authentication, anyone who discovers the IP and application name can inject streams — that is a classic abuse vector on an exposed server.

Set the default policies and allow SSH first (so you do not lock yourself out):

sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

Open the RTMP port for ingest and playback:

sudo ufw allow 1935/tcp

Port 1935 serves both RTMP publishing and HLS playback over HTTP-on-RTMP — Wowza multiplexes both on the same socket.

Open Streaming Manager only to your admin IP (do not leave it exposed to the internet):

sudo ufw allow from YOUR.IP.HERE to any port 8088 proto tcp

Replace YOUR.IP.HERE with the fixed IP you administer from. For dynamic IPs, consider a VPN or an SSH tunnel instead of opening the port.

Enable the firewall:

sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status verbose

The confirmation prompt asks you to type y. Check that the output lists every expected rule before closing the SSH session.

In OBS, go to Settings > Stream and configure:

• Service: Custom
• Server: rtmp://VPS_IP:1935/live
• Stream Key: myTest1

Click Start Streaming. In Streaming Manager, under Applications > live > Incoming Streams, you should see myTest1 appear with real bitrate and FPS within seconds.

Open the HLS playback in VLC or a web player:

http://VPS_IP:1935/live/myTest1/playlist.m3u8

Typical latency lands between 20 and 40 seconds with 10s chunks. For lower latency, configure LL-HLS on the Stream Files tab of the application — it requires chunkDurationTarget=2 and a compatible client.