Files and Paths

Files and Paths

This section provides an overview of the files and paths used by Centova Cast, to assist advanced systems administrators in diagnosing problems, customizing Centova Cast, or integrating Centova Cast with third-party solutions.

Log Files

Centova Cast maintains log files for its web, application, and FTP servers under the /usr/local/centovacast/var/log/ directory. The log files include:

  • cc-web.log
    the error/info log file for the Centova Cast web server

  • cc-web_access.log
    the access log file for the Centova Cast web server

  • cc-ftpd.log
    the log file for the Centova Cast FTP server

  • control/master.log
    the log file for the Centova Cast daemon (critical information may be logged to syslog instead)

  • imaged/*.log
    the log files for the Centova Cast image daemon

  • comet/cc-comet.log
    the log file for the Centova Cast comet daemon

Additionally, separate logs are maintained for each client account under the /usr/local/centovacast/var/vhosts/USERNAME/var/log directory. The per-account log files include:

  • access.log
    the usage log file for the streaming server software used by the account (IceCast, SHOUTcast, etc.)

  • error.log
    the error/diagnostic/debug log file for the streaming server software used by the account

  • source.log
    the log file for the autoDJ software used by the account (ices, sc_trans, etc); some autoDJ software may use alternate names for this log file

  • nextsong.log
    the log file for the Centova Cast autoDJ interface, which provides instructions to the autoDJ software indicating what songs should be played, and when

  • reports/*.zip
    the monthly statistics report files for the account

Client Data (Linux)

On Linux servers, client data (configuration files, media files, etc.) is stored under the /usr/local/centovacast/var/vhosts/ directory.

If you want your client data stored on a different (perhaps larger) partition, you may set up a bind mount to point elsewhere. For example, you might edit /etc/fstab and add:

/usr/local/centovacast/var/vhosts   /opt/largedisk/foo   none   bind

Replace /opt/largedisk/foo with the path to the directory in which you want the client data to be stored. Finally, run the following command to activate the bind mount:

mount /usr/local/centovacast/var/vhosts

You only need to run the mount command once; the next time you reboot, the bind mount will be configured automatically from /etc/fstab.

Client Data (Windows)

On Windows servers, client data (configuration files, media files, etc.) is stored in under C:\CCVHosts folder. This location is configurable during the installation of the Windows Control Daemon.

Cron Job

Centova Cast maintains its own crontab file in /etc/cron.d/centovacast instead of modifying /etc/crontab directly. You can modify this file but bear in mind that it may be overwritten by future updates as needed.

Configuration

Centova Technologies does not recommend modifying the Centova Cast configuration files except as directed by the Centova Technologies helpdesk staff. The purpose of this section is to identify the purpose of each configuration file under /usr/local/centovacast/etc/ to assist advanced administrators who may have prior experience with the underlying software used by Centova Cast.

Web Interface

  • centovacast.conf
    This is the master configuration file for Centova Cast's web interface.

  • cc-panel.conf
    This file sets basic configuration options for Centova Cast's web server.

  • caching.conf
    This file configures Centova Cast's cache options.

  • cc-appserver.conf
    This file controls how Centova Cast's FastCGI backend manages its processes. If your web interface sees a lot of traffic and you start seeing HTTP code 5xx errors in the web interface, increasing APPSERVER_CHILDREN in this file may help.

  • cc-web.conf
    This is the main configuration file for Centova Cast's web server. Currently, Centova Cast's web server is nginx, so this and the files under the web.d/ subdirectory are nginx configuration files.

  • web.d/cc-interface.conf
    This is the web server configuration file for the Centova Cast web interface.

  • web.d/cc-content.conf
    This is the web server configuration file for on-demand content and other static content served from clients' home directories.

  • cc-system.conf
    This is the internal configuration file for Centova Cast's application server. The application server in this case happens to be PHP in FastCGI mode, and this file happens to be a php.ini. Note that Centova Cast uses PHP in a manner that is very different than a typical Apache/PHP configuration, and these settings have been carefully tuned for correct operation; administrators who are familiar with PHP should be advised that modifying this file is discouraged and may not yield the expected results.

  • cc-dynamic.conf
    This file is dynamically generated from the contents of various other configuration files at each startup. It should not be modified directly.

FTP Server

  • cc-ftpd.conf
    This is the configuration file for Centova Cast's FTP server. Normally you shouldn't need to modify this unless you want to configure bandwidth throttling or bind the FTP server to a specific address.

Control Daemon (Linux)

The Centova Cast control daemon is, in simplified terms, an agent which runs on all Centova Cast stream hosting servers and manages application execution and disk access. In a scenario where a hosting provider has multiple physical servers hosting streams, installing the control daemon on each server allows all of the servers to be remotely managed by a single Centova Cast web interface server, substantially reducing the memory and CPU overhead on each hosting server.

  • cc-control.conf
    This is the main configuration file for Centova Cast's control daemon. It is well-documented with comments but you shouldn't normally need to modify it.

  • license.conf
    This file contains your license key. If you need to install a new license in future, update the key here.

  • rpcaccess
    Configures the list of IP addresses which are permitted to connect to the control daemon. Normally this should only include localhost (127.0.0.1) and the IP address of your Centova Cast web interface.

  • rpcshadow
    Configures the secret key used by the Centova Cast web interface to connect to the control daemon. Keep this private and secure at all times, as it allows unrestricted access to your server.

Control Daemon (Windows)

The Windows control daemon stores all of its configuration data in the Windows registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Centova Technologies\Centova Cast Control Daemon registry key.

Image Daemon

The Centova Cast image daemon is a high-performance image manipulation server used by Centova Cast to resize, crop, and otherwise manipulate album cover images. While it may seem odd to have a server daemon dedicated to this purpose in an application where image processing is not a primary function, it quickly becomes apparent that, during track importing, image manipulation becomes a significant performance bottleneck.

Based on the well-known imlib2 image processing library, this daemon outperforms virtually any other general-purpose image manipulation solution on Linux, and the raw speed at which the daemon is able to process images dramatically reduces the time required to import new tracks.

  • cc-imaged.conf
    This is the main configuration file for Centova Cast's image daemon. It is well-documented with comments but you shouldn't normally need to modify it.

Comet Daemon

The Centova Cast comet daemon handles persistent "push" connections to clients, allowing for realtime status information to be transmitted to users' browsers.

  • cc-comet.conf
    This is the configuration file for the comet daemon. You shouldn't normally need to modify this.

General Configuration

  • cc-services.conf
    This file tells Centova Cast what services are running on the local machine. This file need not be modified manually; installing a service as described in section 2 of the quick reference will automatically update this file.

  • update.conf
    Configures the URL and channel for Centova Cast updates. Typically this should not be modified except as instructed by Centova Technologies.

Other Files

Any other files found under the etc/ directory are support files for Centova Cast's service applications and should not be modified.