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ApsaraVideo Live:Streaming domains

Last Updated:Aug 29, 2023

ApsaraVideo Live collects and distributes live streams and provides real-time media processing for live streams on the server side. To implement these features, you must add domain names to ApsaraVideo Live and configure the domain names. This topic describes the streaming domains and how to add and bind domain names. This topic also describes the features of ApsaraVideo Live that are enabled for streaming domains.

Overview

To ingest and play streams, you must add an ingest domain and a streaming domain to ApsaraViedo Live.

  • Ingest domain

    An ingest domain is a domain name that is used to ingest streams. To add an ingest domain, set the Domain Type parameter to Ingest Domain.

  • Streaming domain

    A streaming domain is a domain name that is used to play streams. To add a streaming domain, set the Domain Type parameter to Streaming Domain.

To ingest and play streams, you must add an ingest domain and a streaming domain and bind the ingest domain to the streaming domain. You cannot use the same domain name as an ingest domain and a streaming domain at the same time.

Limits

You can add a maximum of 20 domain names within each Alibaba Cloud account. If the average daily peak bandwidth of your domain names exceeds 50 Mbit/s, you can apply to increase the upper limit for the number of domain names. Make sure that the increase of domain names does not incur business risks. You can submit a ticket to contact Alibaba Cloud technical support. For more information, see Contact us.

Add a domain name

To add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live, perform the following steps:
  1. Check the compliance of the domain name.

    ApsaraVideo Live uses Alibaba Cloud CDN to accelerate content delivery. Before you add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live, make sure that the domain name meets the compliance requirements. This prevents losses that can be caused by non-compliance. For more information, see Verify a domain name.

  2. Verify the ownership of a domain name

    The first time you add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live, ApsaraVideo Live verifies the ownership of the domain name. If you pass the verification, ApsaraVideo Live identifies you as the owner of the domain name. Ownership verification is not repeated the next time that you add the domain name to ApsaraVideo Live or when you add a subdomain of a verified domain to ApsaraVideo Live. ApsaraVideo Live uses a DNS record or a verification file to verify the ownership of a domain name. For more information, see Verify the ownership of a domain name.

  3. Add the domain name to ApsaraVideo Live by using the ApsaraVideo Live console or by calling the AddLiveDomain operation.

    When you add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live, you must configure the Domain Name, Live Center, Domain Type, and Acceleration Region parameters.

    Parameter in the consoleAPI parameterDescription
    Domain NameDomainNameThe domain name to be added. Do not specify a domain name that is already added to another Alibaba Cloud service. Otherwise, the The specified domain already exists error message appears and the domain name fails to be added.
    • If you use the ApsaraVideo Live console to add domain names, you can specify subdomain names. Wildcard domain names are not supported.
    • If you call the ApsaraVideo Live API to add domain names, you can specify wildcard domain names that start with periods (.).
    Live CenterRegionThe region used as the live center of ApsaraVideo Live. To bind an ingest domain and a streaming domain, you must specify the same live center for both domains. After you configure this parameter, the value cannot be changed.

    For more information about how to select a live center, see How do I select a live center?.

    Domain TypeLiveDomainTypeThe type of the domain name. You can add an ingest domain or a streaming domain. After you configure this parameter, the value cannot be changed.
    Acceleration RegionScopeThe acceleration region in which you want to accelerate content delivery. Valid values:
    • Chinese Mainland:

      If the streamers are located in the Chinese mainland, set the value to Chinese Mainland based on the configuration channel for ingest names.

      If the audience is located in the Chinese mainland, set the value to Chinese Mainland based on the configuration channel for streaming domains.

      You must apply for an Internet content provider (ICP) filing for the domain name from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China.

    • Global:

      If the streamers are distributed across the world, set the value to Global based on the configuration channel for ingest domains.

      If the audience is distributed across the world, set the value to Global based on the configuration channel for streaming domains.

      You must apply for an ICP filing for the domain name from the MIIT of China.
    • Outside Chinese Mainland:

      If the streamers are located outside the Chinese mainland, set the value to Outside Mainland China based on the configuration channel for ingest domains.

      If the audience is located outside the Chinese mainland, set the value to Outside Mainland China based on the configuration channel for streaming domains.

      You do not need to apply for an ICP filing for the domain name from the MIIT of China.

    Note Unit prices of Alibaba Cloud CDN bandwidth and traffic for live streaming vary based on the acceleration region. CDN acceleration is supported only when users make playback requests in a specific acceleration region and bills are generated based on the unit prices for the acceleration region. If you set this parameter to Global and only users in the Chinese mainland make playback requests, fees for content delivery outside the Chinese mainland are not generated. For more information about the billing rules, see Billing of standard streaming and the ApsaraVideo Live pricing.
  4. Resolve a domain name
    After you add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live, you must map the domain name to the CNAME that is assigned to ApsaraVideo Live. This way, requests sent to the domain name can be redirected to points of presence (POPs) for content delivery. For more information, see Add a CNAME record.
    Note
    • For more information about DNS resolution and DNS records, see What is DNS resolution?.
    • After you add an ingest domain and a streaming domain to ApsaraVideo Live, you must configure CNAME records to allow the domain names to take effect.
    • A time-to-live (TTL) value is specified in the CNAME record of a domain name to indicate how long the CNAME record can be cached on the DNS resolver. If you modify the CNAME record of the domain name, the new settings take effect after the cache expires, which takes approximately 10 minutes.

Bind the domain names

After you add an ingest domain and a streaming domain to ApsaraVideo Live, you must bind the ingest domain to the streaming domain to ingest and play streams.

ApsaraVideo Live uses edge ingest to preferentially ingest streams to the optimal POPs so that you can access the most efficient upstream network. To ensure successful live streaming, you must map a streaming domain to an ingest domain.

Note The live center ingest feature of ApsaraVideo Live is being phased out. Streaming domains that are added after February 21, 2019 do not support the live center ingest feature. To use these streaming domains, you must bind one or more ingest domains to the streaming domains.

You can bind multiple ingest domains to multiple sub-streaming domains. The following figure shows the binding. You must specify a main streaming domain and multiple sub-streaming domains.

Binding between domains
  • You can bind multiple ingest domains to a streaming domain.

    An ingest domain can be bound to only one main streaming domain. To play an ingested stream by using multiple streaming domains, specify one streaming domain as the main streaming domain and bind other streaming domains to the main streaming domain.

    You can bind streaming domains in the ApsaraVideo Live console or by calling the AddLiveDomainMapping operation.

  • After you bind one or more sub-streaming domains to the main streaming domain, you can bind an ingest domain to the main streaming domain. This way, you can use multiple streaming domains to play ingested streams.

    Sub-streaming domains inherit the settings of the main streaming domain, such as the settings of stream ingest and transcoding. The settings that you configure for sub-streaming domains do not take effect. For example, transcoding templates are valid only for main streaming domains. For more information about whether a setting is valid for a streaming domain, see Features supported for streaming domains.

    You can bind streaming domains in the ApsaraVideo Live console or by calling the AddLiveDomainPlayMapping operation.

Features supported for streaming domains

After you add domain names to ApsaraVideo Live, you must configure the domain names to ingest and play streams. The following table describes the features of ApsaraVideo Live that are supported for main streaming domains and sub-streaming domains.

FeatureMain streaming domainSub-streaming domain
Live stream management View details of streams, including online streams, historical streams, and disabled streams-
Configure disabled streams-
Recording managementView recordings-
Edit index files-
View snapshots-
DomainsModify an acceleration region-
Add or remove stream ingest information-
Add a sub-streaming domainA sub-streaming domain cannot be nested within another sub-streaming domain.
Configure the origin host for an HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) videoThe origin host header of a sub-streaming domain must be specified as the main streaming domain.
Configure streaming latency-
Configure HTTP headers-
Configure security settings, including the HTTPS configuration and the settings for hotlink protection, URL signing, and IP address blacklist or whitelist-
Monitor the peak bandwidth-
Configure IPv6 settings-
Media processing managementConfigure transcoding templates-
Configure recording templates and recording callbacks-
Configure snapshots and snapshot callbacks-
Configure time shifting-
Configure streaming latency-
Stream pulling configuration-
MonitoringResource monitoring: Monitor the downstream bandwidth-
Resource monitoring: Collect back-to-origin statistics-
Resource monitoring: Monitor HTTP status codes-
Real-time monitoring: Monitor the bandwidth and traffic-
Real-time monitoring: Monitor quality-
Access statisticsUnique visitors-
User distribution-
Resource usage queryStreaming bandwidth and traffic-
Ingested channels-
Transcoding duration-
Snapshots-
Time shifting configuration-
Log managementDownload logs-