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Configurations ​

PeerTube configuration ​

PeerTube configuration is loaded with node-config. You can have multiple config files that will be selected due to a specific file load order. In production, PeerTube usually loads the following configuration files, in this order:

  1. default.yaml: all default options set by PeerTube, you copy this file on install/upgrade
  2. production.yaml: custom options that override default.yaml, you update this file on install/upgrade
  3. local-production.json: options set by the admin using the web interface (PeerTube reloads options set in this file on the fly, and doesn't need to be restarted)
  4. environment variables: env variables set in Docker (if you use Docker)

The yaml configuration files (default.yaml, production.yaml) are parsed during application start, which means that PeerTube has to be restarted if you manually changed these files. PeerTube automatically reloads some configuration keys on the fly when they are updated from the web interface.

You can find an exhaustive list of the configuration options in default.yaml.

Environment variables ​

  • NODE_ENV: Specify server mode (production, dev or test) to choose the appropriate configuration
  • NODE_CONFIG_DIR: Specify PeerTube configuration directory
  • NODE_APP_INSTANCE: Specify application number. If set, PeerTube will use the chosen configuration app number (production-1.yaml for example)
  • PT_INITIAL_ROOT_PASSWORD: Set up an initial administrator password. It must be 6 characters or more
  • FFMPEG_PATH and FFPROBE_PATH: Use custom FFmpeg/FFprobe binaries
  • HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY: Use proxy for HTTP requests
  • YOUTUBE_DL_DOWNLOAD_BEARER_TOKEN: Token to send in Authorization HTTP header when downloading latest youtube-dl binary

Security ​

Installing PeerTube following the production guide should be secure enough by default. We list here suggestions to tighten the security of some parts of PeerTube.

Set up a HTTP proxy ​

With ActivityPub federation and import features, PeerTube does many HTTP requests to the external world. To prevent private network/URL access, we encourage to use a HTTP proxy using HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables.

Systemd Unit with reduced privileges ​

A systemd unit template is provided at support/systemd/peertube.service. Some directives can be changed to improve security!

  • PrivateDevices=true: sets up a new /dev mount for the Peertube process and only adds API pseudo devices like /dev/null, /dev/zero, or /dev/random but not physical devices. This won't work on Raspberry Pi. That's why we don't enable it by default

  • ProtectHome=true: sandboxes Peertube such that the service can not access the /home, /root, and /run/user folders. If your local Peertube user has its home folder in one of the restricted places, either change the home directory of the user or set this option to false

Scalability ​

Here is some advice if you plan to manage a large PeerTube instance that may have many viewers or uploaders.

Many concurrent viewers ​

If you plan to have many concurrent viewers (~ 1000) on a PeerTube video: we recommend to and adapt some configuration keys:

  • Use the recommended installation guide with nginx serving PeerTube public static files
  • Have at least 4 CPU cores and 4GB of RAM
  • Use the default PeerTube configuration (in your production.yaml)
  • Use warn log level in PeerTube configuration (log.level) to reduce log overhead or disable HTTP requests logging (log.log_http_requests)
  • Disable HTTP request duration metrics (open_telemetry.metrics.http_request_duration.enabled) if you enabled OpenTelemetry metrics
  • Disable all PeerTube plugins

If you plan to have more concurrent viewers, consider in addition to:

  • Disable client logs (log.accept_client_log)
  • Disable OpenTelemetry metrics (open_telemetry.metrics.enabled)
  • Help to distribute video static files using:
  • Forbid access to /api/v1/videos/{videoID}/views and /api/v1/metrics/playback in your reverse proxy so PeerTube does not handle these API calls (you'll loose views and viewers statistics)

Many videos ​

To handle many videos uploaded/imported on your instance, we recommend to: