Are UNC paths for content dir supported in Wowza Str. Engine on Windows Server 2008

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hello, I did an advanced search for this topic but only found threads for Wowza version 3.x. My question:

Are UNC paths no longer supported in Wowza Streaming Engine? I can’t seem to get Wowza 4.0.3 to stream on-demand content while using a UNC path for the content directory.

Here are some specific details related to my issue:

We have perpetual licenses for Wowza Media Server 3 and for Wowza Streaming Engine 4. Currently we haven’t installed the perpetual license on the Wowza 4 device but are using an evaluation license for testing.

We have a Windows Server 2008 VM running Wowza 3.6.2 and I am able to specify an UNC path for our “vod” application content directory:

vod

…

default

\Senfs03\SENMedia

FYI, I AM able to play back live and on-demand streams from this Wowza 3.6.2 server (I do realize that application.xml where the vod content dir is specified has nothing to do with live, point is the Wowza server works all around)

We also have a Windows Server 2008 VM running Wowza 4.0.3. The web GUI does not allow me to specify the “\Senfs03\SENMedia” UNC path, it gives an error saying path does not exist. On-demand streaming does not work when I manually edit the “vod” application xml with the same UNC path directory, even after restarting the application.

FYI, This Wowza 4.0.3 VM streams live just fine and vod as well if I leave the default content directory.

When using Windows Explorer while logged into this 2008 Server VM, I am able to Navigate to the UNC path just fine.

Yes, I made sure the target .mp4 exists both in the default content directory and the UNC target directory.

If UNC paths are still supported in Wowza Streaming Engine, how do I specify the path?

Thanks

2

Hi,

Yes, UNC paths are still supported in Wowza Streaming Engine. It’s likely that it really can’t find the location and it’s most likely due

to problems accessing that network resource while Wowza Streaming Engine is running as a service.

Try adding a login user and password to the Wowza Streaming Engine windows service. Ensure that the user has

access permissions to the resource. That should help.

Daren

3

Hi,

Glad that helped.

Wowza Streaming Engine 4 does come installed with the service enabled, so this is different than earlier versions, where the standard startup mode was Standalone

and such network paths would just work without further configuration.

Daren

4

Thank you Daren, your suggestion worked! I configured the Wowza 4.0.3 VM to have the service to run as an account explicitly authorized to access the UNC destination. The on-demand streaming works now!

During UNC testing on our Wowza 3.6.2 VM I had Wowza started as an application (rather than running as a service) while logged in with an account that had access ton the UNC destination. We usually run Wowza as a service and I overlooked that that’s not what was happening in the test VM.