Introduction

LiveKit provides a scalable, open-source WebRTC stack for building real-time audio/video applications. This guide walks you through setting up a production-ready LiveKit installation on any cloud-agnostic virtual machine. Whether you’re on AWS, Azure, GCP, or bare-metal, this tutorial applies universally.

1. Prerequisites

A Linux VM (Ubuntu 22.04 recommended)
Root/sudo access
DNS and domain name

2. Firewall Configuration

Open the following ports to allow WebRTC and API traffic:

80 – HTTP (for Let’s Encrypt challenge)
443 – HTTPS (API + TURN TLS)
5349 – TURN over TLS (recommended)
50000-60000/UDP – Media traffic (configurable)

sudo ufw allow 80,443,5349/tcp
sudo ufw allow 50000:60000/udp
sudo ufw enable

3. Domain Setup & SSL

Point a domain (e.g., livekit.yourdomain.com) to your VM’s public IP. Use Let’s Encrypt for SSL:

sudo apt install certbot
sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d livekit.yourdomain.com

This generates certificates in /etc/letsencrypt/live/livekit.yourdomain.com/.

4. TURN Server Deployment

TURN is required for NAT traversal. You can install Coturn:

sudo apt install coturn
sudo nano /etc/turnserver.conf

Basic config:

listening-port=5349
tls-listening-port=5349
cert=/etc/letsencrypt/live/livekit.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
pkey=/etc/letsencrypt/live/livekit.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem
realm=livekit.yourdomain.com
user=test:password
lt-cred-mech
fingerprint
min-port=50000
max-port=60000

sudo systemctl enable coturn
sudo systemctl start coturn

5. LiveKit Installation

Download and install the LiveKit server:

curl -L https://github.com/livekit/livekit/releases/latest/download/livekit-server-linux-amd64 \
  -o livekit-server && chmod +x livekit-server

Configuration

Create livekit.yaml:

port: 7880
rtc:
  udp_port_range_start: 50000
  udp_port_range_end: 60000
  tcp_port: 7881
  use_external_ip: true

keys:
  your_api_key: your_api_secret

turn:
  enabled: true
  domain: livekit.yourdomain.com
  tls_port: 5349
  credential: password

Run the server:

./livekit-server --config livekit.yaml

6. Sample Management Commands

Once deployed, you can use the lk CLI to manage LiveKit.

curl -sSL https://get.livekit.io/cli | bash

lk room list --api-key your_api_key --api-secret your_api_secret --url https://livekit.yourdomain.com

lk room delete myroom
lk egress list

7. Debugging and Logs

LiveKit server logs to stdout – run it via tmux or a service manager.
To view logs:

journalctl -u livekit.service -f

If using systemd, create a unit file /etc/systemd/system/livekit.service:

[Unit]
Description=LiveKit Server
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/livekit-server --config /etc/livekit.yaml
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Conclusion

With this setup, you now have a robust, production-ready LiveKit server running on any cloud or bare-metal VM. You’ve configured SSL, TURN, firewall, and a management interface. LiveKit empowers developers to create low-latency, real-time communication platforms — fully under their control.

KubeAce Support

At KubeAce, we help businesses build scalable video infrastructure using LiveKit, WebRTC, and Kubernetes. Need assistance setting up monitoring, autoscaling, or integrating LiveKit into your application? Reach out to us!