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Delivery and Scaling
Install a Load Balancer

Install a Load Balancer

A load balancer is a streaming-only server: it delivers to viewers while the main server keeps the panel, the database and the decisions. When one machine stops being enough, you add one from inside the panel — no manual setup on the new box beyond a clean Ubuntu install.

Before you start

The new server needs the same foundation as the main one: a supported Ubuntu release (24.04–25.10), root SSH access, and network reach to the main server. Nothing is installed by hand — the panel does it.

Install from the panel

Open Servers → Install Server and fill in one screen:

  • Name — how it appears everywhere in the panel.
  • IP, SSH port, root username and password — used once, for the installation itself.
  • Type — load balancer, or a proxy fronting an existing server.
  • Broadcast ports — the HTTP and HTTPS ports this server will stream on.
  • Private IP — use the internal network for server-to-server traffic where you have one; viewer traffic and panel traffic stay separate.
  • sysctl tuning — apply the same kernel profile the installer offers on the main server; decline it only if you maintain your own.

The panel connects, installs the streaming stack, registers the server and brings it online — progress is visible as it runs, and the new node appears in the server list carrying traffic.

What each server controls

Every server has its own settings after install: broadcast ports, max clients (a hard connection ceiling), which network interface carries traffic, and a guaranteed speed figure that load balancing weighs when placing connections. Monitoring is automatic — the dashboard shows per-server connections, CPU, memory, disk, load and throughput the moment the server exists.

How traffic distributes

Viewers connect and the panel places them across the servers a stream runs on, within each server’s limits. Two refinements are worth knowing from day one:

  • Per-stream server trees — every stream, movie and channel chooses which servers carry it, so a premium channel can run everywhere while niche content stays on one box.
  • Geo and ISP routing — servers can prefer or insist on viewers from chosen countries or ISPs, which is how a Benelux box serves Benelux viewers instead of whoever arrived first.

Growing and shrinking

Adding the third and tenth server is the same one screen. Deleting a server from the panel releases its content assignments and revokes its database access. The main server stays the single place you administer — load balancers have no panel of their own to secure or update separately.

Capacity is now a screen, not a project. The API exposes the same operations — install_server, get_server_stats, get_servers — for automation on top.