Installing Jitsi Meet on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver (18.04 LTS)

• media
• videoconferencing
• Jitsi-Meet
• Ubuntu
• Bionic-Beaver

Jitsi Meet serves as an open-source video conferencing solution, designed to facilitate virtual meetings for remote teams. The software emphasizes quality in both video and audio performance and ensures security through fully encrypted connections, employing TLS/SSL protocols and Let’s Encrypt certificates.

Jitsi Meet provides features such as:

• Desktop and content sharing: Facilitate meetings by sharing desktops, presentations, and other content.
• Simplified conference invitations: Invite participants to your conference using a straightforward, custom URL.
• Collaborative document editing: Enhance collaboration by editing documents in real-time using Etherpad during meetings.
• Integrated chat with messaging and emojis: Support communication by exchanging messages and emojis within the video conferencing interface. Jitsi Meet features a user-friendly chat function to facilitate interactions.

In summary, Jitsi Meet provides a competitive alternative to commercial solutions, offering advanced features with a focus on security for remote teams in need of a reliable video conferencing solution.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

• A Scaleway account logged into the console
• Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
• An SSH key
• An Instance running on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver with at least 4 GB of RAM.
• A domain or subdomain pointed to your Instance

Installing Jitsi Meet

1. Connect to your Instance via SSH.

2. Configure the hostname of the server corresponding to your domain/subdomain name. Replace jitsi.mydomain.tld with the subdomain pointed to your Instance.

   hostnamectl set-hostname jitsi
   sed -i 's/^127.0.1.1.*$/127.0.1.1 jitsi.mydomain.tld jitsi/g' /etc/hosts
   

3. Update the software already installed on the system:

   apt update && apt upgrade -y
   

4. Install a Nginx server before installing Jitsi Meet. The Nginx server will serve as a reverse proxy for the Jitsi web interface. The Jitsi installation tool will take care of the configuration of Nginx, if it is present on the system. Run the following commands to install and enable Nginx:

   apt install -y nginx
   systemctl start nginx.service
   systemctl enable nginx.service
   

   Important

   If Nginx or Apache is not present on the system, Jitsi Meet will automatically install Jetty during the installation.

5. Download the APT key and set up the repositories of Jitsi, to install the software with apt.

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

6. Launch the installation of Jitsi Meet.

   apt install -y jitsi-meet
   

During the installation, you will be prompted to:

• Enter the FQDN of your Instance. For example jitsi.mydomain.tld and press Enter:

• Choose the SSL certificate option Generate a new self-signed certificate (You will later get a chance to obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate) and press Enter.

7. Run the script /usr/share/jitsi-meet/scripts/install-letsencrypt-cert.sh to obtain a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for your Instance:

   /usr/share/jitsi-meet/scripts/install-letsencrypt-cert.sh
   

During the certificate request, you are asked to enter your e-mail address to receive notifications regarding your certificate. 8. Your private Jitsi Meet Instance is ready for a first conference call. Open a web browser and type the FQDN of your Instance, for example: https://jitsi.mydomain.tld. The following screen will appear:

Enter a name for your conference and press Go to enter the conference room. It is now possible to share the conference link, set a password, configure the audio and video quality, and more.

For more information about Jitsi Meet and the advanced configuration of the tool, refer to the official Jitsi documentation.