Jitsi is a free and open-source platform for organizing video conferences that can be deployed on a Virtual or Dedicated server. This is especially useful for companies and teams that need to control their data and avoid limitations of third-party services. In this guide, we will step by step install Jitsi Meet on a Virtual server with Ubuntu OS and ensure it works through HTTPS.

Server Preparation

First, make sure your domain is pointed to the server’s IP address. Go to https://thehost.ua/domains/checkup and enter your domain name.

Update the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install the necessary utilities:

sudo apt install curl gnupg2 apt-transport-https software-properties-common -y

Installing Jitsi

Add the Jitsi repository:

sudo apt install curl gnupg2 -y
curl https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/jitsi-keyring.gpg

Create the repository file:

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jitsi-keyring.gpg] https://download.jitsi.org stable/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list

Installing Jitsi Meet

Proceed to install Jitsi Meet

sudo apt update
sudo apt install jitsi-meet -y

Specify your domain (for example, meet.example.com); Choose the Let’s Encrypt certificate.

Setting Up Authorization and Restrictions

By default, Jitsi allows any user to create conferences. To restrict this: Open the file:

sudo nano /etc/prosody/conf.avail/meet.example.com.cfg.lua

Change:

authentication = "internal_plain"

Add a user:

sudo prosodyctl register moderator meet.example.com

Then restart the services:

sudo systemctl restart prosody
sudo systemctl restart jicofo
sudo systemctl restart jitsi-videobridge2

Configuring the Firewall

Open the necessary ports using (UFW):

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 10000/udp
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw enable

Alternatively or additionally — configuring iptables:

# Allow SSH
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT

# Allow HTTP
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

# Allow HTTPS
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

# Allow WebRTC (UDP 10000)
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 10000 -j ACCEPT

# Allow established connections and loopback
sudo iptables -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT

# Reject everything else (default)
sudo iptables -P INPUT DROP
sudo iptables -P FORWARD DROP
sudo iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

After the above actions, check the service’s operation in the browser. Go to the domain address you are using or the IP address of your server. A conference creation window should open in the browser.