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Serving Videos From Subfolders in VOD Application

Posted At : July 24, 2008 9:01 AM | Posted By : Stefan Richter | Related Categories: FMS

This post should be read in conjunction with my previous one about virtual directories with the FLVPlayback component and FMS.

I just needed to troubleshoot a client's FMS installation. Videos are organised in a deep structure of subfolders and to be delivered via the standard VOD application of Flash Media Streaming Server. I was using the FLVPlayback component to make sure the videos were playable. Once again it became apparent that the FLVPlayback component needs to be fed with an application instance name as soon as you try and deliver files that are not inside the toplevel /vod/media folder.
As you may know, the VOD application is by default configured to live (on Windows) at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3\applications\vod while its files are stored at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3\applications\vod\media. Both setting can be configured either in fms.ini or directly in FMS's XML conf files.
I needed to remap the VOD directory from VOD_DIR = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3\applications\vod\media to a new location. This worked fine. However as soon as I started to create subfolders inside /media I was no longer able to stream the videos using the FLVPlayback component. Luckily - and through past experiences - I knew that this was an instance problem. So instead of setting FLVPlayback's source to rtmp://myserver.com/vod/subfolder/myvideo I added an instance name - any instance name - such as rtmp://myserver.com/vod/inst/subfolder/myvideo and voila, the video would play again.
Hopefully this information will save somebody some grief.

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Using the FLVPlayback Component to Stream Files from Virtual Directories (April 14, 2008)

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Can you explain what you mean by "instance name"? Is this a problem only with the FLVPlayback component?

I have been experimenting with FMS3 and it's new VOD media asset organization. We modified the fms.ini file to look to our high speed SAN for the VOD folder where the videos are organized in subfolders. I didn't have any trouble accessing these assets through RTMP and I use a custom built Flash video playback component. Your post has given me pause for concern.

# Posted By Randy Troppmann | 7/24/08 4:59 PM

No need for concern. This 'issue' is related to the flvplayback component, your custom player should work fine. It's also not really a bug either, more of a gotcha.
Regards
Stefan

# Posted By stefan richter | 7/24/08 7:43 PM

Is it possible to change the VOD_DIR in the fms.ini to a mapped network path ,where the videos are?
I had tried but no effect

# Posted By sooraj | 8/1/08 12:13 PM

I personally would make such a change inside the actual XMl config file, not in fms.ini. But that's my personal preference.
Mapped network drives can be used for storing media, but I seem to remember that I had problems using share names. Try using the IP instead.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 8/1/08 12:31 PM

My problem is that
I had installed FMS in my local system and the videos are in a network path for example \\salinux\videos
I had put this UNC path for the VOD_DIR.
But it is not working.
In this path, where I put the IP address?

# Posted By sooraj | 8/1/08 12:50 PM

try using something like \\10.0.0.5\videos
(but use the actual IP of your network drive)

Sorry, this is not my best area of expertise...

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 8/1/08 12:54 PM

OK,
It is not working using the IP address.
Thanks for your reply.

# Posted By sooraj | 8/1/08 1:01 PM

What is the best way to set up the folder structure? I have FMS3 on the local drive on my server but the videos are on a different drive. I am able to connect with the server but continue to get the Stream Not Found message. I have tried to change the file path and move the files around and nothing seems to be working.

# Posted By Brad | 8/19/08 10:29 PM

Brad, you can simply configure your stream storage directory to be on your other drive, then organise your folders there. Mapping the VOD DIR is one way of achieving this, or check the docs on details on how to configure the stream storage location independent of VOD. Lastly you can also use dynamic stream mappings which allow you to pull files out of multiple locations. The FMS configuration docs should hold all the answers.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 8/20/08 8:51 AM

hi, today I got this working after a lot of search.
read this doc
Adobe Flash Media Server
at Adobe Flash Media Server Configuration and Administration Guide / Configuring the server / Configuring content storage /Mapping Directories to
network drives

actually FMS is running as a local system account. So, change its log on account to one which has network access. Go to run-> services.msc.
open the properties for flash media server service & flash media administrator service and change the log on account.

after this it would probably start working for you also.

# Posted By Hemadri | 11/16/08 7:04 PM

This did not work for me am I missing something? I created a new application folder called Stuff_VOD and mapped a virtual directory to D:\MyStuff for the video files. The URL for accessing the files (rtmp://myserver/Stuff_VOD/myvid.flv) works fine. However when I add a subfolder (D:\MyStuff\Foo), I cannot get any vids to play from this location using either rtmp://myserver/Stuff_VOD/foo/myvid.flv or rtmp://myserver/Stuff_VOD/myinst/foo/myvid.flv. What am I missing? Thanks!

# Posted By Droed | 12/23/08 5:31 PM

sorry but I don't think I can troubleshoot this from where I stand...

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 12/23/08 7:27 PM

If you are using Flash Media Streaming Server, note that you cannot create custom applications. You have to stream from either the live or vod application.

# Posted By Randy Troppmann | 12/23/08 7:34 PM

If you are using Flash Media Streaming Server, note that you cannot create custom applications. You have to stream from either the live or vod application.

# Posted By Randy Troppmann | 12/23/08 7:35 PM

Randy,

To respond to your comment about streaming from live or vod, I created a subfolder within the media folder, which contains the vod samples. I then moved the sample.flv file into this subfolder (foo) and restarted the FMS service. Still no joy...

# Posted By Droed | 12/23/08 9:15 PM

Sub directories inside the VOD folder works for me with no problems, but only streaming an .FLV, I cannot make it work streaming .MP4
Anyone had/have this issue?

# Posted By Guillermo | 3/3/09 7:52 AM

I just can't get this to work.

So I've changed VOD_DIR in fms.ini and it works fine as long as I stream a video from ..vod/media. If I try to create a subfolder in the media folder or in the vod folder and access via "rtmp:[address]/vod/media/media2/sample", things don't work anymore.

Any help is highly appreciated.

# Posted By Ana | 5/28/09 11:22 AM

I haven't tried this myself but I don't usually use the VOD folder. That app is configured in a special way. I suggest that if you need subfolders just use a 'normal' application (say myvod), then create a streams folder, then create a subfolder according to your instance name and then any other subfolders you need in there.

HTH

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 5/28/09 11:29 AM

Thanks for your quick response.
However, I've tried this as well. I have a "myvod" application with "streams/_definst_/" and it works fine. But I've put a "media2" subfolder under the "streams/_definst_/" path and I cannot stream. Maybe I just haven't been able to find the correct rtmp path. Or maybe I need to change my main.asc, which now contains just:

application.onConnect = function(p_client)
{
this.acceptConnection(p_client);
}

# Posted By Ana | 5/28/09 11:41 AM

if that's all you have in your .asc file then you can delete it completely. Eliminates one source of potential error.

From what you describe though your setup should work. I guess it's 'just' a path issue. Hard to say from here.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 5/28/09 12:06 PM

Thank you very much for your help!
It was indeed a path problem, I had to use "rtmp:[address]/myvod/_definst_/media2/myvideo". Actually it's what you've pointed out, the fact that you have to include the instance name, but I didn't expect this would apply to _definst_.
Thanks again and have a nice day!

# Posted By Ana | 5/28/09 12:39 PM

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