CPU Usage too high with SSL

[Janez_Makovsek1]

Hi,

If we switch Apache on our Website to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS, example:

http://web.com goes to https://www.web.com

Then Wowza CPU usage explodes to about 10x of what it was before and the server streaming stops. We verified that it is in fact Wowza executable that starts to use so much CPU and that CPU load is proportional to connection count.

However, I cant imagine the type of relationship which causes Wowza server (which runs on separate IP) to depend upon the Http or Https of the Website which is serving the player.

If anybody wants to embedd our player (iframe) and if they then switch their website to HTTPS this would cause Wowza server complete CPU meltdown.

What could be causing this? We have CORS enabled and use Flowplayer with Apple HLS. The player has https defined for Wowza video source. Example:

https://stream.web.com:1935/live/OurStream/playlist.m3u8

Everything works fine, if there are only 10-20 connections, but with increasing count the extra CPU overhead per connection becomes more obvious and at about 250 connections reaches 12 CPU cores at 100%.

Is there some way to debug which subsystem in Wowza is using CPU? Any idea how to determine the cause?

Thanks!
Atmapuri

[Jermaine_Hemby]

Hello,

Thanks for contacting the Wowza Community!

Can you confirm when setting up your server to delivery traffic over SSL you followed one of these articles?

Security

Hope this helps. If any further questions, feel free to contact us.

regards

Jermaine

[Janez_Makovsek1]

Hi,

Can you confirm when setting up your server to delivery traffic over SSL you followed one of these >articles?

Yes.

Hope this helps.

No.

If any further questions, feel free to contact us.

Yes, please.

Thanks!
Atmapuri

[Nadia_Romani]

Hi, I have the same issue.

We have 2 servers serving a HLS live stream.

The cpu usage was always under 20% since we changed the stream url on the web players.

Now the web players are using https url, same number of users connected, but the cpu usage is now at 100%.

Is it “normal” this high cpu usage or there is something that can be optimised?

I already tuned the server using the Wowza guide.

Thanks for your help

Nadia

[Kristian_Borgen]

Any answer to this ?

[Janez_Makovsek1]

Yes. This:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-improve-ssl-performance-with-java-8

[Kristian_Borgen]

We have this config running, but still see a CPU usage that is much higher than prior to enabling streamlock.

We now have 58 live viewers on a single Intel E5-2680 v4 2.4 GHZ. Running now at about 40-50% CPU, after a couple of hours into our live stream. Because it starts pretty low, about 10% (Normal - transcode)

Running latest Wowza verison.

[Janez_Makovsek1]

We had similar problem. CPU usage on our machine grows from 30% with 50 viewers to 50% with 550 viewers. This Java settings however we had to do twice, because the first time, we actually changed the help comment line rather than actual config.

[Rose_Power-Wowza_Com]

Thanks for sharing this @Janez Makovsek

[Kristian_Borgen]

Copy of my log, starting up Wowza:

CET comment server INFO 200 - Java Args[4]: -Djava.security.properties=C:/Program Files (x86)/Wowza Media Systems/Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.1/conf/java.security

file content:
jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=GCM

We still see that the CPU grows, even if the viewer count is stable throughout the whole live event.

[Janez_Makovsek1]

When the problem is the jdk GCM, then the excessive CPU usage is strictly proportional to the viewer count. If you have stable viewer count, but CPU usage continues to grow, then this does not appear to be related to the SSL part of the Wowza. I would check other parts, which may depend on stream duration. Memory usage, DVR config, Web server config…

[Rose_Power-Wowza_Com]

Please feel free to submit a support ticket @Kristian Borgen so we can run some tests once you follow the steps in the accepted answer for this post. We are happy to help you pinpoint the reason.

https://www.wowza.com/support/open-ticket