Jitsi Meet is a free, open-source video conferencing platform that allows you to host secure and scalable video calls both using a Mobile Phone / Tablet / PC or any other electronic device for which jitsi client has available port. Jitsi meet is the best free alternative one can get to Rakuten Viber / Facebook (Meta) / Zoom / Apples' Facetime etc.
What makes Jitsi really worthy is it can make your Video streaming communication give you flexibility to keep your communication a little bit private and harder to be captured than if you use the general Video streaming platforms.
Jitsi is also a very simple to use and can be used either with a Desktop Client on Windows / Linux and Mac OS or Smart Phone running Android (Samsung / Huawei etc.) or iOS (iPhones) you can configure to use the Jitsi server or directly via a SSL encryption secured web URL address. The only thing i really don't like about Jitsi is it uses Java and its way of work is cryptic just like it is pretty hard to debug or understand exactly how the software works, as when errors came the usual crazzy Java exceptions are filling the jitsi logs.
In below short guide, I'll try provides a simple step-by-step instructions for installing Jitsi Meet on a Debian-based systems, hoping that anyone can benefit from Jitsi by building his own server.
What you should have before you start buillding your new Jitsi meet server
Before you begin, ensure that your system meets the following requirements:
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A fresh installation of Debian 10 (Buster) or newer.
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A non-root user with sudo privileges.
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A fully updated system.
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A domain name pointing to your server's IP address.
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OpenJDK 11 installed.
To get a better understanding on how Jitsi meet works it is worthy to take a quick look on Jitsi Architectural diagram:
1. Update Your System
Start by updating your system's package list and upgrading existing packages:
# apt update sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Install Required Dependencies
Install the necessary packages for adding repositories and managing keys:
# apt install apt-transport-https curl gnupg2 -y
3 Add Jitsi Repository
Add the Jitsi repository key to your system:
# curl https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/jitsi-keyring.gpg
Then, add the Jitsi repository:
# echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jitsi-keyring.gpg] https://download.jitsi.org stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list > /dev/null
Update your package list to include the Jitsi repository into apt database:
#
apt update
4. Install Jitsi Meet
Install the Jitsi Meet package:
# apt install jitsi-meet -y
During installation, you'll be prompted to:
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Enter the hostname: Provide your domain name (e.g.,
meet.example.com). -
Choose SSL certificate: Select "Generate a new self-signed certificate" or "Obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate" if you have a valid domain.JitsiScaleway
If you opt for Let's Encrypt, ensure that ports 80 and 443 are open on your firewall.
5. Configure Firewall openings
If you have already a configured firewall to filter out traffic, open the necessary ports to allow traffic to your Jitsi Meet server from your router or entry firewall device as well as on the Linux itself:
Allow access to SSH server
# ufw allow 22/tcp
Allow access to HTTP unecrypted to Jitsi meet server
# ufw allow 80/tcp
# ufw allow 443/tcp
Allow access necessery for proper operation of Jitsi VideoBridge (port range 10000 to 20000)
# ufw allow 10000:20000/udp
# ufw enable
Verify the firewall status is Okay
# ufw status
6. Access Jitsi Meet in a browser
Open a web browser and navigate to your server's domain or IP address:
https://meet.your-custom-domain-or-IP.com
Hopefully all is okay and You should see the Jitsi Meet interface, where you can start or join a meeting.
7. Secure Conference Creation (Optional extra)
By default, anyone can create a conference. To restrict this:
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Install and configure Prosody for authentication.
For those who don't know Prosody is a modern XMPP communication server -
Set up secure domains and configure authentication settings.
For detailed instructions, refer to the Jitsi DevOps Guide.
Conclusion
Now You should have successfully installed Jitsi Meet on your Debian server.
Installing to Ubuntu and Redhat OSes such as Fedora or Redhat based distros should be not much difrerent from on this guide, except you have to use
the correct RPM repositories.
Now you can further now host secure video conferences using your own infrastructure and have an increased privacy and perhaps be more calm that the CIA or Mussat, MI6 / FSB might be not spying your Video conference talks (except if they don't already do it on an OS level which most likely the case but this doesn't matter. :).
For advanced configurations and features, consult the Jitsi Handbook and the Jitsi DevOps Guide.Jitsi
That's all folks Enjoy !
