Appearance
Streaming servers
The servers that deliver your TV channels to set-top boxes, under Servers > Manage Servers. Ministra picks a server for a box each time it starts a channel.
A streaming server (usually Flussonic) carries your channels' streams and sends them to boxes:
- it shares the load: several servers can carry the same stream, and the least busy one is used;
- it serves a region: with streaming areas, boxes are sent to the servers meant for them, by country or IP range.
How a box gets its server
When a box starts a channel whose stream uses load balancing, Ministra:
- takes the stream's servers: only those listed on the stream and switched on. With monitoring on for the stream, servers whose copy of it is failing are left out;
- keeps those for the box's area: servers whose area matches the box (its country, or its IP address for an IP area) and servers without an area. If none is left, the default area's servers;
- picks the least busy: the number of devices playing from the server now, divided by its max sessions;
- or turns the box away: if even the least busy server is at its limit, the box is told the channel cannot be played right now.
Max sessions 0
Ministra counts a server with max sessions 0 as full, so it is never picked for a load-balanced stream. Give every server that carries such streams a limit.
Servers do not pick channels themselves: each channel's stream lists the servers that carry it (Live TV > Channels, a channel's streams). A server that no stream lists is never used for live TV.
A server's settings
| Setting | |
|---|---|
| Name | A name for you; boxes never see it |
| Address | How boxes reach the server: a host name or IP address, with :port when it is not 80, without http:// or a path. It takes the place of the host in the stream's address |
| Max sessions | How many devices may play from it at once. 0 counts as full |
| Area | The streaming area it serves. Without an area it serves any box |
| Enabled | Switched off, it gets no new streams |
| Online | Whether Ministra's monitoring could reach it, as of the last sync |
Streaming areas
Areas (Servers > Streaming Area) group boxes by the country they connect from or by IP ranges. Give a server an area to keep it for those boxes, or none to serve everyone. One area can be the default: its servers take the boxes no other server is meant for.
An area must be in Ministra before a server can use it. If saving a server says the area is not synced, sync the streaming areas first.
Kept in step with Ministra
Saved in Mintrix, a server goes to Ministra first; if Ministra refuses it, nothing is saved. Changed in Ministra's admin, it comes back with the next sync; the last change wins. Deleted on either side, it is deleted on the other. Saved while the Ministra connection is off, it stays in Mintrix and is linked by its address later.