Adding a Broadcaster Cluster – Manual

To add a Manual Broadcaster Cluster:

In the main navigation, select Broadcasters.
Click + Add.
The Create New Broadcaster Cluster screen is displayed:
In the Info section, in the Name field, type a logical name for the Zixi Broadcaster Cluster resource.
In the Tags field, select one or more of the predefined Tags from the drop-down list.
Tags are used for access control. By selecting a Tag, you are relating this Cluster to that Tag. Tags are associated with certain roles (through the Users & Roles screen), and roles, in turn, are associated with users and user groups. If you would like to create a new Tag, see Creating a Tag.
In the Events Configuration Profile field, select from the dropdown list the profile that you would like to apply to this cluster. By default, the Default profile is applied.

Events Profiles consist of a series of rules that determine precisely how various types of Events are logged and what results they trigger.
In the DNS Prefix field, enter a unique domain name for sending the streams to/from this cluster.
Select the IP Whitelist checkbox if you would like to control access to this cluster by limiting access to Push inputs and Pull outputs to specific IP address (for an AWS cluster this will enable you to control the AWS security groups)¹.

If you select IP Whitelist, then you must use ZEN authorization mode for this cluster.

If you select IP Whitelist, then after configuring the Broadcaster Cluster you must input the IPs that will have access to this cluster, see Adding IPs to the Whitelist.
Select the DTLS checkbox if you would like to encrypt the stream dynamically using DTLS. (This feature is only supported for Broadcasters running v12.2+.)
If you selected the DTLS checkbox, then the Ignore DTLS certificate when not supported checkbox appears. Select this checkbox if you would like to enable resources using older versions of Zixi software (<v12.2) that don't support verification of the ZEN DTLS certificate to connect to this cluster.
Select the Log SCTE-35 checkbox if you would like to log SCTE-35 markers for streams in this cluster.

To log SCTE-35 markers, SCTE-35 needs to be enabled both on the cluster and in the Source configuration.

SCTE-35 logging is only available for v13.1.40262+ Broadcasters.
Select the RTMP Server checkbox if you would like to receive RTMP push inputs.
If you selected RTMP Server, in he RTMP Server Port field, enter the number of the RTMP server port.
In the Configuration section, in the Management Type field, for manual management, verify that Manual is selected. After creating a Broadcaster Cluster with manual management, you must add Broadcaster instances for use in the cluster. To do this, see Adding a Broadcaster to a Manual Cluster.

To create a Broadcaster Cluster with ZEN Master managed Broadcasters, see Adding a Broadcaster Cluster - Managed.

The manual configuration fields are shown:
In the Authorization Mode field, select one of the following options:
- ZEN Master – ZEN Master automatically verifies the authorization for each ZEN entity (e.g. sources, channels and targets) that accesses the Broadcaster cluster. If you would like to allow access to inputs/outputs that are not configured in ZEN Master, then in the Allow access… section, select the Push Inputs and/or Pull Outputs
- Global Password – Broadcasters are automatically configured to authorize all connections using a single global password. The global password will be used in the Source Password field when you configure a Source. In the Password field, enter the password OR click Random to generate a random password.
- Free for All – Broadcasters will be automatically configured to allow all inputs/outputs to connect. Select Inputs and/or Outputs to automatically allow them to connect.
- Manual – ZEN will not authorize connections. You will need to authorize each connection independently.
Under Allow access to inputs not configured in ZEN Master, select the Push Inputs checkbox if you would like to automatically allow access to Push Inputs. Select the Pull Outputs checkbox if you would like to automatically allow access to Pull Outputs.
Select the Termination protection checkbox if you want to prevent deletion of the Broadcaster Cluster.
If you would like to adjust the advanced settings, click Advanced.
The Advanced settings window is displayed:
Adjust the following advanced settings as desired:
- Load Balance Pull Targets – select one of the following load balancing methods for Pull outputs:
  - Minimize the number of broadcasters (default)– transfers excess load to other broadcasters only when the allotted capacity on the host broadcaster is filled.
  - Uniform distribution – distributes the load equally between all available broadcasters under all circumstances.
- HTTP Streaming Port – You can change the HTTP streaming port from the default (7777) to a custom port. The custom port should match the configuration on the Zixi Broadcaster.
- Bandwidth Limits – set the bandwidth limits.
- The Transcode Thresholds are used by ZEN Master to determine whether an additional transcoded Channel can be added to the broadcaster. Adjust the following thresholds as desired:
  - CPU Threshold – percentage of CPU being used.
  - Memory Threshold – percentage of memory being used.
  - GPU Threshold – percentage of GPU being used.
  - GPU Memory Threshold – percentage of GPU memory being used.
  - GPU Decoder Threshold – percentage of GPU decoder pipeline being used.
  - GPU Encoder Threshold – percentage of GPU encoder pipeline being used.
- If you would like to track usage for this Broadcaster, enter your Billing Code details, see Billing Codes. (Supported for Broadcasters v14.8+)
- External Authorization - if you want, in addition to the to the standard internal authorization process, you can add an external authorization service. In this case, the requests for connections will be redirected to the external service for authorization. For example, an external pay-per-view application can confirm that a requesting end-device belongs to an account that has paid for a live event. Another example could be some external security management application that is managing firewalls accepting requests from dynamic IPs in a consumer network. To enable, set the following parameters:
  - Server Endpoint - the URL of the external authorization server endpoint.
  - Authorization Header Type (optional) - the type of authorization header schema (e.g., basic).
  - Authorization Header Credentials (optional) - the authorization header credentials code.
- If you want to install AgentZ automatically, select the Install AgentZ automatically checkbox. Agent Z is a Sidecar tool that sits on a Zixi Broadcaster, it acquires the system health data and other statistics locally and pushes it to ZEN Master. By enabling this option, ZEN Master will automatically install AgentZ on any existing and future Broadcasters connected to the Cluster. The feature is off by default. Due to AgentZ installation requiring a restart, ZEN Master will not auto-install AgentZ on a Broadcaster that already contains any inputs to avoid disturbing active streams. It is also possible to install AgentZ manually on a Broadcaster. Unlike the ZEN Master install, the manual install does not force a Broadcaster restart. The manual AgentZ installer can be downloaded from the Zixi Customer Portal and instructions are provided in the AgentZ Installation Guide.
Click Save.

The Broadcaster Cluster will only be functional once you add one or more Broadcaster instances to the cluster. First you need to add the Broadcaster (see Adding a Broadcaster to a Manual Cluster), and then you need to connect the Broadcasters to ZEN Master (see Connecting the Zixi Broadcaster (Zixi Broadcaster UI – For Manual)).

¹ If you activate IP Whitelisting then you must use ZEN authorization mode for this cluster.

² The GPU thresholds are only relevant for transcoding workflows using Intel Quick Sync or NVIDIA GPUs.