Version: 3.0

Monitoring AMS with Grafana

In this document, you'll learn how to monitor Ant Media Servers with Apache Kafka, Elasticsearch and Grafana. This is a step-by-step guide to install your monitoring system from scratch.

Use Automatic Installation Script
Install Apache Kafka
Install Elasticsearch and Logstash
Install Grafana

Information about CVE-2021-44228

Since Apache Kafka uses Log4j 1.x, there is no impact [1]. If your Logstash and Elasticsearch version is lower than 7.16.1, you can upgrade to the latest version with the command apt-get update && apt-get install -y logstash elasticsearch. If you do not have the possibility to update, you need to add the parameter -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true to the JVM option.

[1] https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/security.html
[2] https://discuss.elastic.co/t/apache-log4j2-remote-code-execution-rce-vulnerability-cve-2021-44228-esa-2021-31/291476

Which data can you access from Ant Media?

Ant Media Server provides the following statistics:

instanceId
cpuUsage
jvmMemoryUsage
systemInfo
systemMemoryInfo
fileSystemInfo
jvmNativeMemoryUsage
localWebRTCLiveStreams
localLiveStreams
localWebRTCViewers
localHLSViewers
encoders-blocked
encoders-not-opened
publish-timeout-errors
vertx-worker-thread-queue-size
webrtc-vertx-worker-thread-queue-size
server-timing
host-address

Automatic Installation Script

If you would like automatic installation instead of dealing with the steps above, you can use the script below:
Install Monitoring Tools through shell script for Ant Media Server

Usage:

Download the Installation Script

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ant-media/Scripts/master/install-monitoring-tools.sh && chmod +x install-monitoring-tools.sh

Run the Installation Script
```
sudo ./install-monitoring-tools.sh
```

After the installation is completed successfully, log in to the Web panel http://your_ip_address:3000/ through your web browser. The default username and password is admin/admin.

Install Apache Kafka

Kafka is useful for building real-time streaming data pipelines to get data between the systems or applications.

Install Java because Apache Kafka requires Java.

apt-get update && apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk -y

Download Apache Kafka and extract the archive file:

wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/kafka/2.2.0/kafka_2.12-2.2.0.tgz
tar -zxvf kafka_2.12-2.2.0.tgz
sudo mv kafka_2.12-2.2.0 /opt/kafka

Edit server.properties:

vim /opt/kafka/config/server.properties

Add:

listeners=PLAINTEXT://your_server_ip:9092

Start Apache Kafka:

sudo /opt/kafka/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh /opt/kafka/config/zookeeper.properties &
sudo /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-server-start.sh /opt/kafka/config/server.properties &

First, ZooKeeper is started because Kafka needs ZooKeeper, then Kafka.

Check if it's working:

netstat -tpln | egrep "9092|2181"

If the ports (9092 and 2181) are in listening mode, it’s working.

Run Apache Kafka as a `systemd` service

Running Apache Kafka as a systemd service lets us manage Kafka services with systemctl.

Create a unit file for Apache Kafka:

vim /lib/systemd/system/kafka.service

Content:

[Unit]
Description=Apache Kafka Server
Requires=network.target remote-fs.target
After=network.target remote-fs.target kafka-zookeeper.service

[Service]
Type=simple
Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64
ExecStart=/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-server-start.sh /opt/kafka/config/server.properties
ExecStop=/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-server-stop.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Create a unit file for Zookeeper:

vim /lib/systemd/system/kafka-zookeeper.service

Content:

[Unit]
Description=Apache Zookeeper Server
Requires=network.target remote-fs.target
After=network.target remote-fs.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64
ExecStart=/opt/kafka/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh /opt/kafka/config/zookeeper.properties
ExecStop=/opt/kafka/bin/zookeeper-server-stop.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and reload systemd daemon:

systemctl enable kafka-zookeeper.service
systemctl enable kafka.service

Start services:

systemctl start kafka-zookeeper.service
systemctl start kafka.service

Kafka settings for Ant Media Server

Edit the Kafka broker settings in AMS config:

vim /usr/local/antmedia/conf/red5.properties

Update the line:

server.kafka_brokers=ip_address:port_number

Example:

server.kafka_brokers=192.168.1.230:9092

Restart Ant Media Server:

service antmedia restart

Check if it’s working:

/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server 192.168.1.230:9092 --topic ams-instance-stats --from-beginning

Output:

{"instanceId":"a06e5437-40ee-49c1-8e38-273544964335","cpuUsage":{"processCPUTime":596700000,"systemCPULoad":0,"processCPULoad":1},"jvmMemoryUsage":{"maxMemory":260046848,"totalMemory":142606336,"freeMemory":21698648,"inUseMemory":120907688},"systemInfo":{"osName":"Linux","osArch":"amd64","javaVersion":"1.8","processorCount":1},"systemMemoryInfo":{...}}

Some Useful Apache Kafka commands

List all topics:

/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-topics.sh --list --bootstrap-server your_kafka_server:9092

Monitor messages for a specific topic:

/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server 192.168.1.230:9092 --topic ams-instance-stats --from-beginning

Install Elasticsearch and Logstash

Install Elasticsearch

Import GPG key and Repo:

wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list

Update package lists and install:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install elasticsearch

Enable and start Elasticsearch service:

sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch.service
sudo systemctl start elasticsearch.service

Install Logstash

Install Logstash:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install logstash

Enable Logstash:

sudo systemctl enable logstash.service

Configure Logstash:

vim /etc/logstash/conf.d/logstash.conf

Content:

input {
  kafka {
    bootstrap_servers => "kafka_server_ip:9092"
    client_id => "logstash"
    group_id => "logstash"
    consumer_threads => 3
    topics => ["ams-instance-stats","ams-webrtc-stats","kafka-webrtc-tester-stats"]
    codec => "json"
    tags => ["log", "kafka_source"]
    type => "log"
  }
}

output {
  elasticsearch {
     hosts => ["127.0.0.1:9200"] #elasticsearch_ip
     index => "logstash-%{[type]}-%{+YYYY.MM.dd}"
  }
  stdout { codec => rubydebug }
}

Restart Logstash:

sudo systemctl restart logstash

Test Elasticsearch and Logstash

curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/_cat/indices?v&pretty'

Install Grafana

Install Grafana:

sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common wget apt-transport-https
wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main"
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install grafana

Enable and start Grafana:

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server
sudo systemctl start grafana-server

Configure Grafana

Login: http://your_ip_address:3000/login (default: admin/admin).
Add data source → Select Elasticsearch.
Configure:

URL : http://127.0.0.1:9200
Index name: logstash-*
Time field name: @timestamp
Version: 7.0+

Create a dashboard and queries.

Download the example dashboard: antmedia-dashboard.json

Create Telegram Alert

Follow steps with @BotFather and Grafana Notification Channels to integrate alerts into Telegram.

Enable SSL

Use Nginx + Certbot to enable HTTPS. (Configuration steps provided above).

Performance Tuning

Tune heap size, pipeline workers, Kafka partitions, and Logstash logging based on your server capacity.

Congratulations!

You now have a complete monitoring solution for your Ant Media Server cluster.

If you’ve followed all the steps, your Ant Media Server metrics should now be flowing into Grafana. You’ll be able to visualize CPU usage, memory stats, stream counts, and more in real time.

From here, you can:

Build custom dashboards for deeper insights into AMS performance.
Use queries and visualizations to monitor system health and streaming metrics.
Set up alerts (for example, via Telegram) to get notified when thresholds are exceeded.

Information about CVE-2021-44228​

Which data can you access from Ant Media?​

Automatic Installation Script​

Install Apache Kafka​

Run Apache Kafka as a systemd service​

Kafka settings for Ant Media Server​

Some Useful Apache Kafka commands​

Install Elasticsearch and Logstash​

Install Elasticsearch​

Install Logstash​

Test Elasticsearch and Logstash​

Install Grafana​

Configure Grafana​

Create Telegram Alert​

Enable SSL​

Performance Tuning​

Congratulations!​

Information about CVE-2021-44228

Which data can you access from Ant Media?

Automatic Installation Script

Install Apache Kafka

Run Apache Kafka as a `systemd` service

Kafka settings for Ant Media Server

Some Useful Apache Kafka commands

Install Elasticsearch and Logstash

Install Elasticsearch

Install Logstash

Test Elasticsearch and Logstash

Install Grafana

Configure Grafana

Create Telegram Alert

Enable SSL

Performance Tuning

Congratulations!