Setup Jitsi Meet on GCP - Developer Guide

Welcome to our comprehensive developer guide for deploying Jitsi Meet on Google Cloud Platform! Jitsi Meet is a powerful, open-source video conferencing solution, and with our pre-configured GCP image, you can get it running in your own GCP environment in minutes.

This guide will walk you through every step, from launching the product to configuring your domain and securing your instance. Let's get started!

Related Article

How to Set Up Jitsi on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

A comprehensive guide to setting up Jitsi on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for a scalable, secure, and high-performance video conferencing solution.

Meetrix.IO • Kelum Sampath

Not sure how much capacity you need? Our guide on Jitsi Meet server requirements and the 1000 user limit explains how participant counts map to instance sizing. If your users sit behind restrictive networks, you may also need a TURN server for Jitsi Meet to relay media.

Launch the Product

Step 1: Find the Product

1. Log in to your Google account.
2. Go directly to a product page, for example Jitsi Meet 500 Users on GCP Marketplace.
3. You can also browse all Meetrix products at the Meetrix Solutions Page and pick the tier that matches your concurrent user count.
4. You will see the product listing page. For this guide, we use the 500 concurrent user setup as the example.

Step 2: Launch the Product

1. Select your GCP project from the project selector.
2. Review the product description and pricing.
3. Click the GET STARTED button.
4. Select the project, accept the terms, and click AGREE.

Free Trial

This product includes a 5-day free trial with up to USD 50.00 in licence fee credits. To activate it, tick I accept the solution trial Terms and Conditions on the launch screen before proceeding.

You will then see the deployment configuration form. Fill in the fields across the following sections.

General

• Deployment name - a unique name for this deployment.
• Service account - choose an existing service account or create a new one.

Instance Types

Choose an instance type for Jitsi Meet based on your concurrent user count:

• For 50 or 100 users, Jitsi Meet and the JVB (video bridge) run on a single server, so choose a high-performance server.
• For 250 or 500 users, you can select a general-purpose server for the main instance.

• For 250 or 500 users, the JVBs run as separate servers, so choose an instance type for the JVBs.
• For the 500 user setup, you can also customize the JVB server count.

If your product includes Jibri (recording), select the preferred instance type for Jibri. On the 500 user product you can also customize the number of Jibri instances.

Domain and SSL

• Domain - the domain name you will use for this Jitsi Meet instance.
• Admin email - used to install the SSL certificate via Let's Encrypt.

Storage and Networking

• Cloud Storage bucket - create a bucket separately to store Jibri recordings and add its name here. This applies only to Jibri (recording) setups.
• Boot disk size - customize as needed.
• Firewall settings - to restrict SSH access, add the IP or IP range you want to allow.

Click DEPLOY and wait several minutes until the deployment is finished.

Install SSL

Step 1: Point DNS

1. After the deployment is ready, click on the Compute Engine resource name.

2. Copy the External IP under the Network interfaces section.

3. Go to your DNS provider and add a simple A Record pointing the Jitsi domain to the copied IP.

Step 2: Access the Server

1. In the VM instance page, click on SSH.

2. Authorize and continue to log into the server.

Step 3: Run Certbot

1. Type the following command and continue:

sudo certbot --nginx

Follow the instructions accordingly:

• Add email.
• Agree to the Terms and Conditions.
• Agree/Disagree to share email with foundation.
• Select the domain name.

Step 4: Start a Meeting

Open a new browser tab using the domain and enjoy Jitsi Meet.

Manage the Server

Stop and Start the VM

To pause the instance without deleting it, go to Compute Engine, then VM instances in the GCP console, select your instance, and click Stop. Click Start to bring it back online. Stopping the VM pauses compute charges but keeps the boot disk and its data.

Delete the Deployment

To fully remove the deployment and stop all billing:

1. Go to Solution deployments in the GCP console.
2. Find your Jitsi Meet deployment.
3. Click Delete to remove all associated resources.

Troubleshoot

Check the Server Logs

To check logs, log into the server and use the following commands:

sudo tail -f /var/log/jitsi/jicofo.log
sudo tail -f /var/log/prosody/prosody.log
sudo tail -f /var/log/prosody/prosody.err
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log
sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog
sudo tail -f /var/log/jitsi/jvb.log

Check Console Logs

You can open the browser console in the meeting page and check for any visible errors.

Technical Support

If you run into any issues, our support team is here to help. Reach out to us at aws@meetrix.io.