How to Install Jitsi Meet Video Conference Platform on Ubuntu

Jitsi Meet is a free, open-source, secure, simple, and scalable video conferencing solution that you can use as a standalone application or embed it into your web application. The Jitsi Meet client runs in your browser, so you don't need to install anything on your computer. With Jisti Meet you can stream your desktop or just some windows. You can video chat with the entire team and invite users to a meeting using a simple, custom URL.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to install the video conferencing service Jitsi Meet on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server.

Requirements

• A server running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
• A non-root user with sudo privileges.

Getting Started with installing Jitsi Meet on Ubuntu 20.04

Before starting, update your system with the latest version with the following command:

sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Once your system is up-to-date, restart your system to apply the changes.

Next, you will need to set up a hostname and FQDN to your system. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname server1

Next, open /etc/hosts file and add FQDN:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add the following line:

127.0.1.1 server1.example.com server1

Save and close the file. Then, verify the hostname with the following command:

hostname -f

The result shall be:

root@server1:/# hostname -f
server1.example.com

Install Java

Next, you will need to install Java to your system. You can install OpenJDK JRE 8 by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install -y openjdk-8-jre-headless -y

Once the Java is installed, verify the Java version with the following command:

java -version

Output:

openjdk version "1.8.0_252"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_252-8u252-b09-1ubuntu1-b09)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.252-b09, mixed mode)

Install Nginx

Jitsi Meet uses Nginx as a reverse proxy. So you will need to install it to your system. You can install it with the following command:

sudo apt-get install nginx -y

Once the Nginx is installed, you can check the Nginx service with the following command:

sudo systemctl status nginx

Output:

Synchronizing state of nginx.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable nginx
root@server1:/home/administrator# sudo systemctl status nginx
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-06-17 11:56:22 UTC; 12s ago
       Docs: man:nginx(8)
   Main PID: 34894 (nginx)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 2275)
     Memory: 3.6M
     CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
             ├─34894 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
             ├─34895 nginx: worker process
             └─34896 nginx: worker process

Jun 17 11:56:21 server1 systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server...
Jun 17 11:56:22 server1 systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.

Jitsi Meet Install

By default, Jitsi Meet is not available in the Ubuntu 18.04 default repository. So you will need to add the repository for that.

You can do this by running the following command:

wget -qO - https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi.list"

Next, update the repository and install Jitsi Meet with the following command:

sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install jitsi-meet -y

During the installation process, you will need to provide your hostname as shown below:

Provide your hostname and click on the OK button. You will be asked to select the SSL certificate as shown below:

Select the first option and click on the Ok button to start the installation.

Access Jitsi Meet

Jitsi Meet is now up and listening on port 443. Open your web browser and type the URL https://server1.example.com or https://your-server-ip. You will be redirected to the following page:

This warning appears as the site is currently protected by a self-signed SSL certificate. Accept the warning to proceed. You can later exchange the SSL certificate to an officially signed one e.g. from let's encrypt to avoid this error.

Here, provide the room name as you wish and click on the GO button. You should see the following page:

Click on the Allow button to start the live video conference.

Links

• https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/