MCU Deployment

TrueConfAbout 15 min

MCU Deployment

Select the Linux OS version to download the TrueConf MCU distribution:

Debian 10
Debian 11
Debian 12

For proper static IP address configuration, we recommend checking our knowledge base article.

With Internet access

To install TrueConf MCU, you need to have superuser (root) rights.

  1. Update the system packages using the console command:
apt update && apt -y upgrade

2. To start installation, run the following command in the directory with the downloaded distribution:

apt install -yq ./<file_name>.deb

3. The installation of TrueConf MCU will begin. During the installation process, accept the terms of the license agreement by clicking OK.

You may need to install additional dependencies. In this case, run the following command:

apt install -f

Once the dependencies are installed, TrueConf MCU installation will resume.

  1. To test the functionality of TrueConf MCU, execute the command:
systemctl list-units | grep tcmcu

If installation is successful, the status will be active.

Installation in a closed network

When installing TrueConf MCU, missing packages (dependencies) are downloaded. Therefore, if the host does not have Internet access, additional system configurations need to be made before starting the installation.

In addition to the TrueConf MCU distribution package, you will need to obtain the full set of installation disks for the target operating system.

Below, we will provide an example of deployment on Debian 11.

All further operations will require superuser (root) rights.

The instruction below shows how to create folders with certain names, but you can select any names for them.

Step 1: Downloading images using jigdo

To download the complete set of Debian 11 disks, we will use the jigdo tool.

  1. Install the jigdo package with the following command:

    apt install jigdo-file

    If you are going to download the disk set on a Windows OS, download jigdo from the official site.

  2. To download each image, you will need two files: *.jigdo and *.template. Download them for the first three ISO images from the link.

  3. Navigate to the directory with the downloaded files:

    cd /path_to_files/

  4. Execute the command:

    jigdo-lite debian-update-11.8.0-amd64-DVD-1.jigdo debian-update-11.8.0-amd64-DVD-1.template

  5. For the prompt Files to scan:, do not enter anything and simply press the Enter key.

  6. For the Debian mirror: prompt, enter the mirror address http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ and press Enter.

  7. For the Debian non-US mirror: prompt, enter the mirror address http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ and press the Enter key. This will initiate the download of the necessary files, as indicated by the information in the terminal, and the first ISO image will be downloaded.

  8. Repeat steps 4-7 to download additional discs (DVD-2, DVD-3).

  9. After downloading the ISO files, copy them to the target machine using scp or, for example, a USB drive.

Step 2. Copy files to the workstation

  1. Connect a USB drive to your server.

  2. You will need to get additional information about the USB drive. To do it, run the following command in the terminal:

    fdisk -l

    You will see information about all drives. Find out which of the drives is your USB drive. You can do it by checking the disk size. For example, you may need to check information about this disk /dev/sdc1, but in your case it may be /dev/sdb1:

    /docs/mcu/media/fdisk/en.png

  3. Create a directory using the command:

    mkdir /home/$USER/usb/

  4. Execute the command to mount the USB drive to the /home/$USER/usb directory:

    mount /dev/sdc1 /home/$USER/usb/

  5. Create an iso directory:

    mkdir /home/$USER/iso

  6. Copy the information from the USB drive to the /home/$USER/iso/ directory:

cp -r /home/$USER/usb/ /home/$USER/iso/

Copying data may take some time.

Step 3: Mounting OS Images as a Repository

Then, you will need to mount OS images as a repository:

  1. Create the directories with the following commands:

    mkdir /debian
mkdir /debian/dvd4
mkdir /debian/dvd5
mkdir /debian/dvd6

  2. Mount the OS ISO images:

    mount –o loop /home/$USER/iso/usb/debian-11.8.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso /debian/dvd4
mount –o loop /home/$USER/iso/usb/debian-11.8.0-amd64-DVD-2.iso /debian/dvd5
mount –o loop /home/$USER/iso/usb/debian-11.8.0-amd64-DVD-3.iso /debian/dvd6

  3. Verify that the disk is mounted by executing the command:

    df -h
    /docs/mcu/media/show_disks/en.png

  4. Open the repository configuration file using the nano editor and ensure that all lines are commented out:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

If some of the lines are not commented out, comment them out with the “#” character which should be put the beginning of each line and add the following code at the end of the file:

deb [trusted=yes] file:/debian/dvd4 buster contrib main non-free
deb [trusted=yes] file:/debian/dvd5 buster contrib main non-free
deb [trusted=yes] file:/debian/dvd6 buster contrib main non-free

Save changes with Ctrl+O and close the editor with Ctrl+X. Update the list of packets and make sure that no error occurred during the process:

apt update

Step 4. Installing the MCU

Since in the previous step the deb package was copied along with the OS images, the installation file TrueConf MCU is located at /home/$USER/iso/usb/. To install it, execute the following command in the terminal:

apt –f install /home/$USER/iso/usb/<file_name>.deb

To make sure that the server has been started, run the following command:

systemctl list-units | grep tcmcu

Authorization

The TrueConf MCU starts automatically when the video conferencing server is enabled. After the service starts, the server can be accessed via a browser using its IP address, prompting an authorization window to appear.

Authorization data by default:

Login - admin

Password - admin

You can change the authorization credentials after registering the server.

/docs/mcu/media/login/en.png

Registration

During registration, the server records specific hardware parameters of the machine. If these parameters change, your license will become invalid. The correction of the hardware key linked to your license is carried out by your manager and the technical support center completely free of charge.

After authorization, the registration window will appear:

/docs/mcu/media/registration/en.png

Online

On the registration page, click the Online registration button, then enter the key received via email in the Registration Key field, and click the Register button.

/docs/mcu/media/registration_online/en.png

Offline

Offline registration is available only to users of the full version of TrueConf MCU. If you need a trial version that works without an internet connection, please contact the .

If you are working in a closed network without internet access, go to the registration page, click the Offline registration button, enter the key you received via email, and click the Create a registration file button. The regoffline.mrg file will be generated and automatically downloaded to your computer. Save the file in a convenient location and press Next.

Send the saved regoffline.mrg file to the email address of our .

In the reply email, you will receive a registration confirmation file. Upload it using the appropriate button, and then click Register.

/docs/mcu/media/registration_offline/en.png

Upon successful activation, you will be automatically redirected to the control panel TrueConf MCU page.

Performance

To evaluate the performance of the computing platform, TrueConf MCU uses metrics based on the speed of executing core operations such as transcoding, scaling, and transferring data from one memory area to another, etc.

It would be a major misconception to think that everything depends on the number of cores and clock speed. One should also consider memory speed which is determined by various factors like memory type, the number of memory channels (slots on the motherboard), and the size of the CPU cache.

In virtualization systems, memory operates slower than the memory in hardware servers.

Performance also depends on the number of CPUs since data needs to be transferred between them.

The calibration procedure allows you to measure these parameters on a specific platform to subsequently understand how many connections and of which type the server can handle without compromising resolution and frame rate (FPS).

Power

We would also like to pay much attention to CPU power management in Linux. It is an important factor that affects server performance.

By default, Linux runs a processor in power-saving mode. You can check the current mode with the command:

sudo cpupower frequency-info

You can enable maximum performance mode by using the command:

sudo cpupower frequency-set --governor performance

By default, this utility is not included in the system, but it can be installed from repositories for most Linux versions:

sudo apt install linux-cpupower

As far as we know, full support for power management was introduced in Debian 11.

Calibration

For optimal server resource utilization, it is recommended to perform calibration whenever there is a change in its hardware specifications or a major update (e.g., from version 1.2 to 1.3) TrueConf MCU. This will increase the maximum number of users who can simultaneously participate in conferences on the server and improve the quality of video and audio. Calibration also affects the accuracy of the server performance statistics.

To start the calibration process, go to the Administration → Calibration menu and click Start calibration.

A window will appear in the lower right corner of the control panel, displaying the calibration progress. You can interrupt the process by pressing the Stop button. During the calibration, TrueConf MCU will automatically measure the server performance when operating in various modes and with different audio and video codecs.

/docs/mcu/media/calibration_window/en.png

When the calibration process starts, all ongoing conferences will be forcibly ended. Also, you won't be able to hold conferences on the server until the process is completed or canceled. The calibration can take several hours and depends on the server capacity.