Run Flash Media Server On Your Mac (in Parallels)
By Stefan Richter
Expert Author
Article Date: 2007-07-13
If you are like me and have slowly had enough of Vista then you may have purchased a Mac by now.
I run Windows XP in Parallels on my Mac, largely due to the fact that Flash Media Server (FMS) is not available for Mac. Of course you can develop your apps on a Mac but you'd have to use a remote FMS server for testing. Not anymore.
Once you have installed Windows and FMS in Parallels you can do one of two things:
- configure your virtual machine to use Shared Networking, the default option. I pulled some of my hair out though because I could not connect to FMS from my Mac - until I disabled the XP firewall (do this at your own risk)
- use Bridged Networking in Parallels which puts both machines onto the same subnet. This turns the Parallels OS (XP in my case) into a machine that appears as standlone on the network, getting its IP via DHCP (from my router) just like any physical box. This is running sweet now. I also had to open port 1935 on the XP firewall (yes I had enabled it again, I'm good).
In fact the old PC of mine (running Vista) also got the treatment: I installed another copy of FMS on that one too and configured it as an Origin Server (which means I did not have to configure anything ;-)). The XP Virtual Machine on my Mac inside Parallels was set up as an FMS Edge server and whoppaaah, it works. I can connect to the Edge from anywhere on my home network and it successfully runs up the (small) chain to the Origin. Why I did this? Not sure, I'm probably mad but it helps me to get used to the whole Edge/Origin concept. It's pretty neat actually and I've also started configuring Suse Linux 10.2, again in Parallels. FMS seems to run fine on that. Anyone else out there with a similar setup? Thought not ;-)
I guess next I could try and map the FMS cache directory to my new NAS device, which would make it kinda like a mini Datacenter in rural England...
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About the Author:
Stefan is a certified Flash Developer who has been involved with Flash Media
Server since its very early days. From his home office in the UK he has
handled a variety of projects, specializing in Flash Video and Rich Internet
Applications for clients that include CNET, USA Network and Unilever. Stefan
is the author of a series of Adobe Developer Center articles, has spoken at
several industry events and contributes a regular column on Flash Video to
Streaming Media Magazine. His site www.flashcomguru.com is one of the
largest online resources on Flash Video. |
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