openvidu/backend

OpenVidu Meet Backend

This is the backend of OpenVidu Meet. It is a Node.js application that uses Express as web server.

How to run

For running the backend you need to have installed Node.js. Then, you can run the following commands:

npm install
npm run start:dev

This will start the backend in development mode. The server will listen on port 6080. You can change the port and other default values in the file src/config.ts.

How to build

For building the backend you can run the following command:

npm install
npm run build:prod

Storage Structure

The OpenVidu Meet backend uses an S3 bucket to store all application data, including rooms, recordings, user information, and system preferences. The bucket follows a hierarchical structure organized as follows:

Bucket Structure

openvidu-appdata/
├── openvidu-meet/
│   ├── global-preferences.json
│   ├── users/
│   │   └── admin.json
│   ├── rooms/
│   │   └── room-123/
│   │       └── room-123.json
│   └── recordings/
│       ├── .metadata/
│       │   └── room-123/
│       │       └── {egressId}/
│       │           └── {uid}.json
│       ├── .secrets/
│       │   └── room-123/
│       │       └── {egressId}/
│       │           └── {uid}.json
│       ├── .room_metadata/
│       │   └── room-123/
│       │       └── room_metadata.json
│       └── room-123/
│           └── room-123--{uid}.mp4

Directory Descriptions

Global Preferences (global-preferences.json)

Contains system-wide settings and configurations for the OpenVidu Meet application, such as default recording settings, UI preferences, and feature toggles.

Users (users/)

Stores user account information in individual JSON files. Each file is named using the username (e.g., admin.json) and contains user-specific data including authentication details, permissions, and preferences.

Rooms (rooms/)

Contains room configuration and metadata. Each room is stored in its own directory named after the room ID, containing:

• room-123.json: Room configuration, settings, and metadata

Recordings (recordings/)

The recordings directory is organized into several subdirectories to manage different aspects of recorded content:

• Recording Files (room-123/): Contains the actual video files with naming convention room-123--{uid}.mp4

• Metadata (.metadata/room-123/{egressId}/{uid}.json): Stores recording metadata including:

  • Recording duration and timestamps
  • Participant information
  • Quality settings and technical specifications
  • File size and format details

• Secrets (.secrets/room-123/{egressId}/{uid}.json): Contains sensitive recording-related data such as:

  • Encryption keys
  • Access tokens
  • Security credentials

• Room Metadata (.room_metadata/room-123/room_metadata.json): Stores room-level information for recordings including:

  • Room name and description
  • Recording session details
  • Participant list and roles

Recording Identifier Format

Recordings use a composite identifier format: recordingId: room-123--{egressId}--{uid}

Where:

• room-123: The room identifier
• {egressId}: LiveKit egress process identifier
• {uid}: Unique recording session identifier

This naming convention ensures uniqueness and provides traceability between the recording file, its metadata, and the originating room session.

Recordings

The recording feature is based on the following key concepts:

1. Single active recording per room: Each room can only have one active recording at a time. When a new recording starts, a lock is acquired to mark that room as actively recording. Any attempt to start another recording for the same room while the lock is active will be rejected.

2. Lock lifetime: The lock has not lifetime. It is not automatically released after a certain period. Instead, it remains active until the recording is manually stopped and an egress_ended webhook is received, or when the room meeting ends. This design choice allows for flexibility in managing recordings, as the lock can be held for an extended duration if needed. However, it also means that care must be taken to ensure that the lock is released appropriately to avoid blocking future recording attempts. (see Failure handling below).

flowchart TD
  A["Start New Recording Request"] --> B{"Can room be recorded?"}
  B -- No --> C["Reject Request"]
  B -- Yes --> D["Acquire lock in Redis"]
  D --> E["Send startRecording to LiveKit"]
  E --> F["Wait for recording_active event"]

  %% Branch for recording_active event
  F -- "recording_active event received" --> G["Cancel timeout"]
  G --> I["Resolve Request"] --> H{"Monitor recording events"}
  H -- "egress_ended" --> J["Release lock"]
  H -- "room_finished" --> J["Release lock"]

  %% Branch: Timeout
  F -- "No event within 30 sec (Timeout)" --> K["Attempt to stop recording"]
  K --> L{"Stop recording result"}
  L -- "Success (recording stopped)" --> N["Reject Request"] --> H
  L -- "Error (recording not found, already stopped,\nor unknown error)" --> O["Reject Request"] --> J

4. Failure handling: If an OpenVidu instance crashes while a recording is active, the lock remains in place. This scenario can block subsequent recording attempts if the lock is not released promptly. To mitigate this issue, a lock garbage collector is implemented to periodically clean up orphaned locks.

   The garbage collector runs when the OpenVidu deployment starts, and then every 30 minutes.

graph TD;
    A[Initiate cleanup process] --> C[Search for recording locks]
    C -->|Error| D[Log and exit]
    C -->|No locks found| D
    C -->|Locks found| E[Iterate over each lockId]

    E --> Z[Check if lock still exists]
    Z -->|Lock not found| M[Proceed to next roomId]
    Z -->|Lock exists| Y[Check lock age]
    Y -->|Lock too recent| M
    Y -->|Lock old enough| H[Retrieve room information]

    H -->|Room has no publishers| W[Check for in-progress recordings]
    W -->|Active recordings| L[Keep lock]
    W -->|No active recordings| I[Release lock]

    H -->|Room found with publishers| W[Check for in-progress recordings]
    H -->|Room not found| W[Check for in-progress recordings]

    I --> M
    L --> M
    M -->|More rooms| E
    M -->|No more rooms| N[Process completed]