Installing RealServer

Installation instructions for the RealServer Basic Server 4.01 and RealServer Basic Server 5.01 are included below.  Use of the Basic Server is subject to the RealServer Basic license agreement which appears automatically during installation.

Installing RealServer 4.01

1. Connect to your Virtual Server using Telnet or SSH and untar the RealServer 4.01 distribution file. At a command prompt on your Virtual Server, type:

       % cd     (this will put you in your home directory)
       % tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/realserver_4.01.tar
   

2. Run the RealServer setup utility. Type:

       % cd ~/usr/local/pnserver-4.01
    % ./setup
   

   Please review the setup guidelines described below for help on specific questions the setup utility will ask you.

Installing RealServer 5.01

1. Connect to your Virtual Server using Telnet or SSH and untar the RealServer 5.01 distribution file. At a command prompt on your Virtual Server, type:

       % cd     (this will put you in your home directory)
       % tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/realserver_5.01.tar
   

2. Run the RealServer setup utility. Type:

       % cd ~/usr/local/pnserver-5.01
    % ./setup
   

   The RealServer 5.01 (Basic) setup utility will ask you for a "CustomerName" and "LicenseKey". Enter these two values exactly as they appear below:

   CustomerName
   01-0102-0009-75458

   LicenseKey
   fc600z4f20100009708f3cce0100d6040020003000000104f0097e0a81a1900002e01

   Please review the setup guidelines described below for help on other specific questions the setup utility will ask you.

Setup Guidelines: 4.01 and 5.01

During the setup process, please use the following guidelines:

• When it prompts you for the "full pathname", give it just that:
  

    /usr/home/[your login name]/usr/local/pnserver-4.01
            or
    /usr/home/[your login name]/usr/local/pnserver-5.01
  

• You need to choose the custom install option, NOT the "Express Finish", in order to correctly set the options yourself. When you are asked to choose between "Express Finish [F]" and setting the options yourself [N], be sure to select "N".
• For the various passwords, I recommend your choosing the same password you use to access your virtual server, to avoid confusion.
• You may choose the default port (port 7070) or any other above 1024, since any port above 1024 is an unprivileged port.
• You will not be able to enable "Smart Networking" since it runs on port 80, the same port on which your web server runs. So enter "No" when asked if you would like to enable SmartNetworking.
• Your user id is your user name [your login name]. When you are prompted to enter your group id, type "vuser".

Starting and Testing Your RealServer

1. To start your RealServer, simply connect to your Virtual Server and type the following commands:

       % cd ~/usr/local/pnserver-4.01
           or
       % cd ~/usr/local/pnserver-5.01

       % ./bin/pnserver server.cfg
   

   This should start two pnserver processes. To verify this, type:

       % ps -x | grep pnserver

   This will reveal the pnserver processes running on your Virtual Server. If they are not shown, check the error log in "~/usr/local/pnserver-VERSION/logs/pnerror.log" to find out why the RealServer did not start. Where "VERSION" is either "4.01" or "5.01".

2. Add the RealServer to your local auto-reboot file (~/etc/rc). We-Host provides each of its Virtual Server administrators the ability to automatically run programs should a system reboot occur (such as for scheduled system maintenance). This is done simply by adding the programs that you would like to run at system startup to your ~/etc/rc file. You can use FTP to upload an rc file or edit it directly on your Virtual Server using pico or another online editor.

   PLEASE NOTE: If your virtual server does not already have an ~/etc/rc file you will need to create one.

   Add the following line to your ~/etc/rc file:

       ~/usr/local/pnserver-4.01/bin/pnserver ~/usr/local/pnserver-4.01/server.cfg
           or
       ~/usr/local/pnserver-5.01/bin/pnserver ~/usr/local/pnserver-5.01/server.cfg
   

3. Test your RealServer by connecting to it with the RealPlayer. If you currently do not have a RealPlayer, or do not have the latest version of RealPlayer, you can download it from the RealNetworks Player Products Page.

   Launch the RealPlayer and perform the following steps:

   1. From the "File" menu, select "Open Location".
   2. In the URL box, enter a path to the media file installed on your Virtual Server as part of the RealServer setup. These sample media clips are found in your "~/usr/local/pnserver/content" directory and can be accessed using URLs of the following form:

          pnm://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME:[port]/[path and filename]
      

      where [port] is the port you selected at server installation. If you specified the default port, 7070, as part of the RealServer setup and installation then it is not necessary to include the port number in the URL. For example, try this URL:

          pnm://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/welcome.rm
      

   If the RealPlayer is able to play the media file, then the RealServer was installed correctly on your Virtual Server. Congratulations!

   Please note: As stated above, you need to enter these URLs into the RealPlayer location window -- not the location window of your web browser!

4. If you ever want to stop the server, simply type:

   % kill 'cat ~/usr/local/pnserver-VERSION/logs/pnserver.pid'

   Where "VERSION" is either "4.01" or "5.01".

Creating links to RealAudio and RealVideo Media Files
Now that you have successfully installed and tested your RealServer. You are ready to create links to audio and video content on your web site. In order to this, you need to first make sure that the web server on your Virtual Server is configured to properly handle the RealServer extensions, namely ".rm", ".ra", ".ram", and optionally ".rpm".

If your Virtual Server was set up later than December 15, 1997 then your "mime.types" file (located in your "~/www/conf" directory) includes the MIME types necessary. If your Virtual Server was set up prior to December 15, 1997 then simply Telnet or SSH to your Virtual Server and add the following two lines to your "mime.types" configuration file:

 audio/x-pn-realaudio           ram rm ra
 audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin    rpm

If you FTP the "mime.types" file down to your local computer, be sure you upload it back to your Virtual Server in ASCII mode. An alternative to editing the "mime.types" file is to simply copy the "mime.types" file from the "contrib" directory- to do this type:

    % cp /usr/local/contrib/mime.types ~/www/conf

After you have completed the modifications to the "mime.types" file (if modification was necessary), you are ready to serve RealAudio and RealVideo content from your web site:

1. Copy your encoded RealAudio and RealVideo files (files with the .rm and .ra extensions) to your Virtual Server via FTP (save these files to your "~/usr/local/pnserver/content" directory. This is the "BasePath" where RealServer looks for its media files. You can change this my modifying your "server.cfg" file which is located in your "~/usr/local/pnserver" directory. Be sure to FTP any mediafiles in BINARY mode (not ASCII mode).
2. Use a text editor to create a metafile containing a RealAudio or RealVideo URL. The contents of your file should be in the following form for RealAudio files:

       pnm://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/mediafile.ra

       or, for RealVideo files:

       pnm://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/mediafile.rm

   where YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME is the domain name of your Virtual Server and "mediafile.ra" or "mediafile.rm" is the RealAudio or RealVideo file you uploaded to your content directory in the previous step.

3. Next, save the above metafile as a text file with the .ram extension. For example:

       sample.ram

   FTP the metafile to your Virtual Server (in ASCII mode since it is a text file). Metafiles should be saved in your htdocs directory hierarchy.

4. Finally, reference the metafile as a hyperlink in your HTML document. For example:

       <a href="sampleaudio.ram">
       <a href="/servers/extensions/realserver/samplevideo.ram">

   Both relative or complete paths are acceptable.

Working Examples

The HTML hyperlink code and the metafile text for two working examples (one RealAudio file and one RealVideo file) are shown below.

Contents of RealAudio meta file (sampleaudio.ram):

    pnm://www.epsilon.we-host.com/sample.ra

HTML Source Code:

    <a href="sampleaudio.ram">Audio Clip Example</a>


Contents of RealVideo meta file (samplevideo.ram):

pnm://www.epsilon.we-host.com/sample.rm

HTML Source Code:

    <a href="samplevideo.ram">Video Clip Example</a>

The following links are actual examples which implement the instructions included on this page. Go ahead and try them out! (Note: the video clip example takes a little bit longer to start as it's a large file).

Audio Clip Example

Video Clip Example

Technical Information

More detailed technical information may be obtained from RealNetworks' web site. Of particular value are the RealServer 5.0 and RealServer 4.0 Manuals (available in PDF format). For general support information, visit RealNetworks' Service & Support Directory.