Hosted Slicers (Legacy)

ℹ️

Uplynk’s Hosted Slicers solution has reached its end of life, and will be shut down later this year. Hosted Slicers has been replaced with a completely rewritten Cloud Slicers solution. Cloud Slicers are easier to use, more stable and have a richer feature set. Start using Cloud Slicers today.

Hosted Slicers allows you to run a slicer in our cloud. This allows you to ingest and encode content without on-premise hardware. You may customize this slicer in the following ways:

• Choose an ingest point that defines where it will be hosted and the streaming protocol for the audio / video feed that will be ingested.
• Select the version of the slicer software that it will run.
• Define a slicer configuration that determines how the audio / video feed will be ingested and processed.

Create and delete slicers as required by your business needs.

Quick Start

Set up a streaming workflow by performing the following steps:

1. Create an Ingest Point in the region where your Hosted Slicer will be hosted.

   The purpose of an ingest point is to persist your ingest URLs even when switching to a different Hosted Slicer. This means you will not have to update your encoder's publishing configuration when switching to a different Hosted Slicer.

2. Create a Hosted Slicer in the same region as the above ingest point.

3. Add Hosted Slicer to the desired live channel, live event, or failover group.

4. Push Video Feed from your encoder to the ingest point created in step 1.

5. Point Your Player to your live channel or live event's playback URL.

Ingest Point Administration

An ingest point identifies a URL and ports to which an encoder should push an audio/video feed.

Upon creating a Hosted Slicer, you must associate it with an ingest point from which it will ingest an audio/video feed.

Key Information

• An ingest point is restricted to a specific region and streaming protocol.
• An ingest point can be in either of the following states:
  • IN_USE: This state indicates that it has been associated with a Hosted Slicer.
  • NOT_IN_USE: This state indicates that it is available for assignment to a Hosted Slicer.
• Deleting a Hosted Slicer changes the state of the ingest point that was associated with it from IN_USE to NOT_IN_USE. This allows you to reuse the same ingest point with a different Hosted Slicer.

Create an Ingest Point

1. Navigate to Ingest Points: From the main navigation, go to Slicers > Ingest Points.
2. Click + Ingest Point.
3. In the Endpoint Name option, assign a name to the ingest point.
4. In the Type option, select the streaming protocol for the feed that will be ingested.
5. In the Region option, select the region where the Hosted Slicer that will ingest this feed will be hosted.
6. Optional: In the Endpoint Description option, type a description for this ingest point.
7. Click Create.

Modify an Ingest Point

You may not reassign an ingest point to a different region. Create a new ingest point if you require one for a different region.

1. Navigate to Ingest Points: From the main navigation, go to Slicers > Ingest Points.
2. Click on the desired ingest point.
3. In the Name option, modify the name assigned to this ingest point.
4. Optional: In the Description option, modify the description assigned to this ingest point.
5. Click Save.

Delete an Ingest Point

1. Navigate to Ingest Points: From the main navigation, go to Slicers > Ingest Points.
2. Check the ingest point's status:
   • IN_USE: You cannot delete an ingest point that is in this state. You must first delete the Hosted Slicer associated with it.
   • NOT_IN_USE: Proceed to the next step.
3. Click on the desired ingest point.
4. Click Delete Ingest Point.
5. Click Yes > Delete to confirm the deletion.

Cloud Slicer Live Administration

Before creating a Hosted Slicer, you must first perform the following steps:

1. Identify the Region (e.g., Oregon or Ohio) where your Hosted Slicer will be created.

2. Identify the Streaming Protocol through which your feed will be published to a Hosted Slicer. A Hosted Slicer supports the following protocols: RTP | RTMP | SRT | RIST

The SRT streaming protocol requires slicer version 22060200 or higher.

3. Create an Ingest Point point within the region identified in step 1.

Key Information

• You may assign a custom slicer configuration to your Hosted Slicer. You can define this custom configuration by:

  • Importing settings from a file
  • Manually adding settings
  • A combination of both

• You may import settings from a file. We support the following formats:

  • Text File: Import a file that uses the same format as a Live Slicer configuration file. Specify each desired setting on a separate line.

  • JSON: Import a file containing settings defined as key-value pairs using JSON notation.

    Learn more.

• Our service manages certain slicer configuration settings. You should not manually assign these reserved settings to your Hosted Slicer.

Create a Hosted Slicer

1. Navigate to Hosted Slicers: Go to Slicers > Hosted Slicers from the left navigation of the main page.

2. Click + Create Slicer.

3. From the Ingest Point section, select an ingest point that corresponds to the region where this slicer will be hosted and the streaming protocol for the feed that it will ingest.

   • Click Select Ingest Point.
   • Select the ingest point that will be assigned to the Hosted Slicer.
   • Click Save.
   • RTP, SRT, and RIST
     • In the Source IP Address option, type the IP address from which your feed will be pushed. Our service will only ingest feeds served from this IP address. Allow your feed to be pushed from any IP address by setting this option to 0.0.0.0.
     • Regardless of how this setting is configured, the encoder pushing the feed to our service must authenticate to our service by passing the Hosted Slicer's streaming key.
       Learn more.

4. From the Slicer Software Version section, assign a slicer software version to the Hosted Slicer.

   • Click Select Version.

   • Select the desired slicer version.

   • Click Save.

     If this Hosted Slicer's ingest point uses the SRT streaming protocol, you must select slicer version 22060200 or higher.

5. Optional: From the Encoding Profile section, select the encoding profile that will be assigned to the Hosted Slicer.

   • Click Change Profile.
   • Select the encoding profile that this Hosted Slicer will use to encode content.
   • Click Save.

6. Optional: From the Slicer Configuration section, import, add, or remove slicer settings.

   • Define this slicer's ID through the slicerID setting.
   • Click Customize.
     • Optional: Import slicer configuration settings.
     • Optional: Add or remove settings as needed.
   • Click Save.

7. Optional: From the Slicer Notes option, briefly describe the purpose of this Hosted Slicer.

8. Click Create.

Modify a Hosted Slicer

1. Navigate to Hosted Slicers: Go to Slicers > Hosted Slicers from the left navigation of the main page.

2. Click on the desired Hosted Slicer.

3. Update this Hosted Slicer as needed.

   • Optional: From the Slicer Configuration section, review your slicer configuration. Import, add, or remove slicer settings as needed.
     • Define this slicer's ID through the slicerID setting.
     • Click Customize.
       • Optional: Import slicer configuration settings.
       • Optional: Add or remove settings as needed.
     • Click Save.
   • Optional: From the Slicer Version section, update the Hosted Slicer's slicer version.
   • From the Additional Details section, add, modify, or delete notes as needed.

4. Click Save.

5. Changes to your Hosted Slicer's slicer configuration require restarting your Hosted Slicer. Restart your Hosted Slicer.

If you modified the Hosted Slicer's slicer version, the Hosted Slicer will automatically restart. No further action is required to apply changes to your Hosted Slicer's slicer configuration.

Customize a Hosted Slicer

You can import existing slicer configuration settings or adjust a slicer's settings.

Import Slicer Configuration Settings

1. Click + Import.

2. Set the Source option to File. Select the desired file:

   • Click Browse
   • Navigate to the directory that contains the desired slicer configuration file
   • Select the file
   • Click Open

3. From the Import Mode option, choose one of the following:

   • Append after configuration settings: Choose this option to place all of your imported settings below your existing slicer configuration settings.

   • Prepend before configuration settings: Choose this option to place all of your imported settings above your existing slicer configuration settings.

   • Replace all configuration settings: Choose this option to remove all of your existing slicer configuration settings and replace them with your imported settings.

     Appending or prepending slicer configuration settings may result in duplicate settings. It is strongly recommended to avoid duplicate settings by immediately removing them from your slicer's configuration.

4. Click Import File.

Add or Remove Settings

• Add a setting

  1. Click + Custom. Alternatively, add a commonly used setting by clicking + Standard instead.

  2. In the Key option, type the name of the desired Live Slicer configuration setting.

  3. In the Value option, assign a value to that setting.

  4. Click Add Custom Setting.

• Remove a Setting

  1. Mark the settings you want to remove.

  2. Click x Remove.

Delete a Hosted Slicer

1. Navigate to Hosted Slicers: Go to Slicers > Hosted Slicers from the left navigation of the main page.
2. Click on the desired Hosted Slicer.
3. Click Delete Hosted Slicer.
4. When prompted, click Delete to confirm the deletion.

Restart a Hosted Slicer

Restarting a Hosted Slicer typically takes around 60 seconds.

1. Navigate to the Slicers page.
2. Click on the desired Hosted Slicer.
3. Click Restart Hosted Slicer.
4. Click Restart to confirm this action.

Slicer Status Information

Use a Hosted Slicer's status to find out whether it is ready to stream your content. Core Hosted Slicer statuses are described below:

• pending: Indicates that our service has not started provisioning your Hosted Slicer.
• initializing: Indicates that our service is in the process of creating your Hosted Slicer.
• created: Indicates that your Hosted Slicer has been created, but is not in use.
• running: Indicates that your Hosted Slicer is active. An active Hosted Slicer can be in any of the following states: capture, replace, ad, or blackout.
• failed: Indicates that our service could not create your Hosted Slicer.

Reserved Slicer Configuration Settings

You may not use the following settings with a Hosted Slicer:

api_port | apikey | capture_delay | multicast | no_signal_image | no_signal_pad | port | rtmp_url | rtp_backlog_dur | rtp_headers | rtp_readahead_dur | ssl_port | username

Slicer Configuration File

You may import a slicer configuration file when defining your Hosted Slicer's slicer configuration. You may format this slicer configuration file using either colon-separated values or JSON.

You may not define a reserved slicer configuration setting within a slicer configuration file. Attempting to import a file that contains a reserved setting will generate an error.

Our service automatically detects the format when importing your slicer configuration file. It does not rely on the file extension when making this assessment.

Colon-Separated Values (Live Slicer Configuration File)

You may define slicer configuration settings using the same format as a Live Slicer configuration file. Specify each desired setting on a separate line.

Syntax: "{Setting}": "{Value}"

Example:

remote:on
description:Sports
input:rtmp
autoexpire_age:3
slicerID:sports_slicer

JSON

You may define slicer configuration settings using JSON format. Define each slicer configuration setting as a key-value pair using JSON notation.

Syntax: "{Setting}": "{Value}"

Example:

{
	"remote": "on",
	"description": "Sports",
	"input": "rtmp",
	"autoexpire_age": "3",
	"slicerID": "sports_slicer"
}

Encoder

Your encoder must push an audio/video feed to an ingest point. If you have assigned that ingest point to a Hosted Slicer, then that Hosted Slicer will automatically encode your content.

Our service will only ingest your feed when the following conditions are met:

1. Encoder Configuration: Your encoder is configured to push an audio/video feed to the Hosted Slicer's streaming URL.

   Sample publishing URL:

   rtmp://ingest-prod-1-us-east-1.mss.aws.oath.cloud/slicer12345

2. RTP, SRT, and RIST: Your encoder's IP address matches the one defined in the ingest point's Source IP Address option.

   You may bypass this restriction and allow your feed to be pushed from any IP address when this option is set to 0.0.0.0.

3. SRT Only: You must configure your encoder to pass the Hosted Slicer's streaming key along with your feed. This configuration varies by encoder. If your encoder does not provide a password option when defining an SRT publishing target, then you should include the passphrase query string parameter in the publishing URL.

   Syntax: ?passphrase=Streaming Key

   You can find this streaming key by viewing the desired Hosted Slicer's Streaming Information section.

   Sample publishing URL:

   srt://ingest-prod-1-us-east-1.mss.aws.oath.cloud:48120?passphrase=7b4777ca-c0de-410b-913e-a011607ef525

Link Health Monitoring

A link is established when an encoder starts pushing an audio/video feed to an ingest point. Hosted Slicer performance relies on this link, and therefore, we track key link health metrics. These metrics are measured by:

• Session: Provides link health, aggregated in some cases, from the moment the link was established. Use session statistics to assess the overall health of the link between the encoder and the Hosted Slicer.

• Recent Interval: Provides the most recent link health measurement. Use these statistics to identify recent trends (e.g., link health improvements or degradation).

View these metrics from within the Link Monitor section of the desired Hosted Slicer.

Link health metrics are described below.

Dashboard

The Live Slicer Monitoring dashboard provides statistics and graphs that describe Live Slicer health.

The left pane

• Determines whether you will view the Slicer View(s) associated with your personal user account or your organization's shared ones.
• Allows you to switch to a different Slicer View.
• Indicates the current Slicer View and the number of Live Slicers associated with it by health status.
• Toggles Live Slicers from the dashboard by owner. For each owner, it also indicates the number of Live Slicers by health status.

The right pane provides the following information and statistics for each Live Slicer associated with the current Slicer View.

Key Information

By default, all Live Slicers that have been associated with the currently selected Slicer View and that have been active within the last 24 hours are displayed on the dashboard. This list may be filtered by Live Slicer ID, health status, or account owner.

• Filter by Live Slicer ID: Type the desired ID and then press the Enter key.
• Filter by Live Slicer health status: Click the health status filter icon , mark and/or clear the desired statuses, and then click off of it to hide the popup.
• Choose Columns: Select the set of columns to be displayed by clicking the columns icon .
• View Detailed Information: Clicking on a Live Slicer provides more detailed information about that Live Slicer and its health. This detailed view is known as Live Slicer Details.

Live Slicer Details

View more detailed health information by clicking on a Live Slicer.

• Health Measurement: Live Slicer health is measured according to its current ruleset. View and/or set a Live Slicer's ruleset from the pane on the right-hand side of the window.
• Assign Rulesets: Assign rulesets to one or more Live Slicer(s) from the Monitoring Rules page.
• Set Profile: View and/or set the profile that determines when the Live Slicer will push health data to Amazon SNS or trigger audio notifications from the pane on the right-hand side of the window.

This mode consists of the following four views: Slicer Snapshot, Charts, Health Details, Status.

Slicer Snapshot

This view consists of the following sections:

• Preview: Displays a thumbnail preview of the Live Slicer's output. The output for this preview varies according to its state.
  • Slicing: Displays recently sliced content.
  • Ad Break: Displays a message indicating that the thumbnail is unavailable.
  • Replacing Content: Displays a message indicating that the thumbnail is unavailable.
  • Blackout: Displays a message indicating that the thumbnail is unavailable.
  • Offline: By default, green frames are shown whenever the signal is lost. Black frames or an image may be shown instead when either the no_signal_pad or the no_signal_image setting is defined.
• Health Level: Indicates the Live Slicer's current health status and the duration that it has been in that state.
• Slicer Status: Indicates the Live Slicer's status and the duration that it has been in that state.
• Health - {Ruleset}: Displays historical health status for the current Live Slicer. The line graph's title indicates the ruleset through which health status was determined.

You may view Live Slicer health for a previous time window by clicking the Choose Start Date link that appears to the right of the Start Date option and then selecting the desired start date and time.

Charts

This view graphs historical statistics for key metrics. Click on a metric to view its line graph.

You may view metric health for a previous time window by clicking the Choose Start Date link that appears to the right of the Start Date option and then selecting the desired start date and time.

Each metric is color-coded to indicate health status:

• Healthy: Indicates that all monitored metrics are below warning thresholds.
• Neutral: Indicates that the Live Slicer is not slicing content.
• Warning: Indicates that one or more monitored metrics are at warning levels.
• Critical: Indicates that one or more monitored metrics are at critical levels.

Some of the metrics reported in this view may be responsible for determining Live Slicer health status in multiple ways. This relationship is explored below.

For more information see Monitoring Metrics.

A Live Slicer's status is determined by ruleset. If a Live Slicer has been assigned multiple rulesets, then each unique combination of Live Slicer and ruleset will be listed on the dashboard.

Health Details

This view provides detailed Live Slicer health for a given timestamp.

• Details: Identifies the timestamp for the current set of health data and the amount of time that the Live Slicer has been in the current state.
• Metrics: Provides health data for each metric. Specifically, each row identifies a metric, its health status at the time identified in the Details section, and a brief description of the last time that this metric's health status changed.

Status

This view provides metric data for a given timestamp.

• Details: Identifies the timestamp for the current set of health data.
• Status JSON: Provides detailed Live Slicer information, including metrics, in JSON format.
• Metrics: Provides data for each metric.

Alert Log Data

The Alert Log page displays log data for alerts generated for the current Live Slicer over the specified date range. Leverage this historical data to discover trending issues and adjust warning/critical alert levels.

• Alert log data is paginated and limited to 10,000 entries. If you encounter this limitation, adjust your filters (e.g., reduce the time window or only show changes in health status) to reduce the number of entries.
• Alert log data is displayed in reverse chronological order (i.e., newest to oldest event).
• Log alerts are triggered according to the ruleset(s) assigned to your Live Slicer(s).

Key Information

Filter log data by:

• Health Status: Mark or clear the desired health status(es).
• Status Change: Filter log data to only show changes in a Live Slicer's health status by marking the Show changes in health only option.
• Time: Specify the date range for which log data will be shown by setting the From and To options and then clicking Apply.

The following information is provided for each logged alert:

Common Tasks

• View Log Data: View the Alert Log page by clicking Log from the Live Slicer Monitoring dashboard.
• Refresh Log Data: View log events that have occurred since the start of your browsing session by clicking Apply.
• Filter Log Data: Filtering options are provided on the left-hand side of the page.
• Navigate Log Data: The Alert Log page can display up to 15 alert events. View older alerts by clicking on one of the following:
  • �� First: Navigates to the first page.
  • Previous: Navigates to the previous page.
  • Page_Number: Navigates to a specific page.
  • Next: Navigates to the next page.
  • Last »: Navigates to the last page.