Operating system for media server appliances
InfraMedia
Firmware, not a distribution
A media server does not need a general-purpose operating system with a package manager, a repository and an upgrade schedule of its own. InfraMedia is the immutable firmware our servers run on: it ships as one image together with the product, is configured over HTTP and is updated by a single package you can roll back.
One machine
Two ways to run a media server
The decision is not which Linux is better. It is whether the machine in your rack is something you administer or something you receive ready to work.
A general-purpose distribution
- You install the operating system, then the media server on top, and the seam between them is yours.
- Two update streams: the distribution’s packages and the product’s releases.
- Every machine drifts with time — a fix by hand here, an extra package there — and a year later no two servers are alike.
- Rolling back a failed upgrade means restoring from a backup.
InfraMedia firmware
- The operating system and the product ship as one image, with one version and tested together.
- The root is read-only: there is nothing to install by hand, so there is nothing to drift.
- One update package per machine, installed beside the running version.
- A rollback is picking the previous version and rebooting.
An immutable operating system
InfraMedia belongs to the immutable family: system and executable files cannot be changed while the machine is in service. The filesystem is assembled from prepared squashfs images and mounted read-only.
Nothing drifts
The machine in the rack is exactly what we shipped: a system file cannot be modified, so the quiet accumulated edits nobody remembers a year later cannot happen either. Nor can a system file be swapped for another one.
The system and the product update separately
The application is isolated in a layer of its own, and each side carries its own version. Updating the media server without touching the operating system is routine, and so is the other way round.
An update lands whole or not at all
The new version is placed beside the running one and switched on by a single line in the loader. There is no half-updated state, and a rollback is that same line put back.
Immutability out of the box
Usually such a system is something you have to build yourself: stand up a separate build server, assemble the images, set up network boot and wrap the application in a container. InfraMedia arrives already built — with the media server inside, installed from a USB stick onto bare metal, and no build infrastructure of your own.
An operating system driven by software, not by hand
InfraMedia is built for an appliance: the machine is run by the product sitting on top of it, not by an administrator with ssh and a text editor. Everything that turns a plain computer into a network appliance the system does itself and exposes through one API and one web interface.
The API is the only way in
The configurator has no manual mode: everything configurable is configured by a request. The product on top calls that API itself and needs no human to bring up the network, the clock or the accounts.
Settings live in one store
The settings store is the single source of truth. System files are rendered from it and never read back, so editing them by hand is pointless — the next render restores the stored value.
A web interface in the box
Firmware updates, network settings, partitioning and formatting disks, the clock, accounts and reboot — everything that turns a plain computer into a network appliance is part of the system itself. Nothing has to be delivered separately: the interface ships in the base layer and works even when the product on top has not come up.
Built to embed in the main product
The screens are built apart from the shell: they carry no theme, no router and no authentication of their own, so they drop in as a section of the console of the product the appliance exists for. The operator configures the chassis where they already watch the streams.
How a machine lives
Installs itself from a USB stick
Write the image, fill in one text file on the stick — from there a person only plugs it into the server and switches the power on. The installer asks nothing and waits for no keypress: it partitions the disk, copies the firmware, leaves the credentials behind and powers the machine off.
Configured over an API
Network, time, accounts and power are set by a request to the configurator or from the web interface. There is not a single step that has to be done over ssh.
Updated and rolled back
Updates run unmanaged: no fleet management system, no agent, no ssh session — the machine installs the package itself, beside the running version. Settings, data and passwords survive it, and the previous version stays on the boot partition for a rollback.
One operating system, several products
InfraMedia is what our servers are built on. The product rides on top as a layer, and the machine underneath is the same one in every rack.
On hardware we have checked ourselves
The firmware targets machines we validate: the drivers are built into one kernel, network ports get predictable names, and a known machine boots the same image every time.
That is the opposite of supporting everything. A server we have not seen is a question we answer before you buy it, not a surprise during installation.
You are the only one in control
The firmware is controlled by you alone, and only through its API: the machine learns about new versions from one update channel whose address is compiled into the image, and installing one is always your explicit request. A build without a channel does not know about one at all.
The source code and the build pipeline are ours: the firmware is assembled in Flussonic's own infrastructure, not pulled from a public repository somebody else controls.
Choosing an operating system for your media servers?
Tell us what is in the rack and what has to run on it. We will show the firmware on a bench and say plainly whether it fits.