How to install and configure Jitsi video conferencing server on Ubuntu

Jitsi is a free open-source multi-platform voice, videoconferencing, and instant messaging applications for the web platform, Windows, Linux, and macOS, etc. This application is similar to Cisco Meet, Google Meet, and Zoom video conferencing. Also kindly take look at the Top 30 Sysadmin Blogs & Websites for System Administrators in 2020 to get popular posts from top sysadmins. You may also be interested in the following open-source project on how to install Mattermost on Ubuntu and Debian. With Jitsi, you can easily create a Jitsi meeting in your browser within seconds without installing additional software or browser extensions. See this guide for VOIP Telephony Support: How to setup and configure Jitsi as SoftPhone.

Why should I consider Jitsi?

1: If you intend to build a self-hosted secure video conference system for your team.
2:It's an open-source JavaScript WebRTC application that allows you to build and deploy scalable video conference. Its build on top of some Jitsi projects, including Jitsi Video bridge, Jifoco, and Jigasi.
3: It has featured video conferences, such as desktop and presentation sharing, invite a new member to join a video conference with just a link, and enable collaboration editing using the Etherpad.
4: Jitsi Meet does not also require an account to use some of its great features.
- Screen sharing
- Group chat
- Collaborative document editing
- Integration with Google and Microsoft Calendar
- Integration with other popular collaborative software including Slack and MatterMost

Firstly, before proceeding, update the repository. For more information on why this is done, see how to configure the OpenSSH server. For the difference between these commands below, see differences between Linux system Update, Upgrade, and Dist-upgrade.Run the command below to have the system updated.

sudo apt update

Install and configure Jitsi video conferencing server on Ubuntu

Step 1: Install the Jitsi repository key: Add jitsi key and repository to the system using the command below

wget -qO - https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add - 

Step 2: Add the Jitsi repo and update apt using the command below

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list" 

Step 3: Install apt-transport-https to access packages with an SSL needed for a secure connection

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

The Step 5: Now, lets update the Ubuntu Ubuntu server package lists with the command below

sudo apt-get -y update

Step 6: Install Jitsi-Meet: In this step we will be installing Jitsi- Meet with the command below

sudo apt-get -y install jitsi-meet

You will be asked to confirm the hostname of the following installation, since, this is a test VM, I am okay with the hostname of the server.

Next, you will be prompted to create a self signed SSL Certificate or use your own certificate
– I will select the first option to create “create a self signed SSL Certificate” as shown below

This will continue with the installation as shown below

At this point, we are done with the installation, all the needed packages such as jitsi videobridge, jicofo, and nginx virtual host have been installed and setup by default.

As you can see from the image above, we can now switch to the Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate. Jitsi meet provides an inbuilt script for SSL Let’s Encrypt configuration as shown below.

Run the Let’s Encrypt script provided by Jitsi meet as shown below. The script will install the Let’s Encrypt tool on the server, and it will generate an SSL certificate for the Jitsi meet based on its hostname or domain as you must have configured in step 6 above.

sudo /usr/share/jitsi-meet/scripts/install-letsencrypt-cert.sh

Note: The SSL certificate for Jitsi meet hostname or domain name will be placed in the ‘/etc/letsencrypt/live’ directory.

Note: If you are having issues “The package python-virtualenv has no installation candidate” generating the SSL certificate with the following error, see the following link.

Step 6: Firewall Setup. You could setup firewall to permit the following protocols SSH, HTTP, HTTPS service ports, and open the other range port that needed by jitsi meet 10000/20000 UDP port with the following commands below.

ufw allow ssh
ufw allow http
ufw allow https
ufw allow in 10000:20000/udp

To enable the UFW firewall and view the status, use the commands below.

ufw enable
ufw status

Since, this is a test installation, I will proceed to access the Jitsi server as shown below
– Run https://localhost

You will be asked to accept the security risk as shown below in order to continue

Now, we have successfully accessed out Jitsi application.

Step 7: In order to start a new meeting, enter a descriptive name as shown below and click on “GO” as shown below

You will be asked to your browser will ask you for the microphone and camera use permission.
– Click on allow as shown below

Now you are successfully connected to the room as shown below

Now you can raise your hand to ask questions or Enter your nickname in order to chat. Also kindly take look at the Top 30 Sysadmin Blogs & Websites for System Administrators in 2020 to get popular posts from top sysadmins.

Note: If you would like to remove Jitsi, run the following command below.

sudo apt autoremove jitsi-meet

I hope you found this blog post on Jitsi video conferencing server on Ubuntu helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.