24/7 OBS Streaming from a VPS: Complete Setup Guide for 2026

Your stream is at 500 concurrent viewers. Your home internet goes out. Your stream is offline in seconds, viewers scatter, and Twitch's algorithm punishes the drop. For streamers who depend on consistent uptime, running OBS from a VPS eliminates this single point of failure entirely.

Why VPS Over Home Streaming

Home streaming constraints:

• Upload bandwidth: Most home connections offer 20 - 50 Mbps upload. A quality 1080p60 stream consumes 6 - 8 Mbps; remaining bandwidth is eaten by other household traffic
• Power outages and internet drops: Both terminate your stream
• PC upgrades and reboots: Cannot reboot without stream interruption

VPS streaming advantages:

• Dedicated upload: 1 Gbps uplinks standard, streaming bandwidth is reserved
• 99.9%+ uptime SLA: Datacenter power infrastructure with redundancy
• Separation from gaming PC: Encode on VPS, game on local PC, no stream impact from gameplay load

Installing OBS-Studio on Ubuntu VPS

# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install OBS Studio
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt install obs-studio

# Install virtual display (VPS has no monitor)
sudo apt install xvfb

# Create virtual display
export DISPLAY=:1
Xvfb :1 -screen 0 1920x1080x24 &

# Start OBS with virtual display
DISPLAY=:1 obs --startstreaming --minimize-to-tray &

OBS Scene Configuration for 24/7 VPS Streams

For a 24/7 automated stream (lo-fi radio, game stream relay):

• Scene 1: Media source (looping video file or RTMP input)
• Scene 2: Countdown/offline screen (for scheduled downtime)

OBS settings (Output > Streaming):

Encoder: x264 (software encoding on CPU)
Rate Control: CBR
Bitrate: 6000 Kbps (for 1080p60 to Twitch)
Keyframe Interval: 2
Preset: veryfast (balance of CPU and quality)

Automating OBS with Scripts

Keep OBS running persistently with PM2:

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start "DISPLAY=:1 obs --startstreaming" --name obs-stream
pm2 save
pm2 startup

PM2 will restart OBS automatically if it crashes and on VPS reboot.

Space-Node's VPS plans include sufficient CPU resources for x264 software encoding (1080p60 requires ~2 - 4 modern cores at veryfast preset).

Start your 24/7 stream on Space-Node VPS

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Related: OBS audio settings for a clean voice, Prometheus uptime alerts for a 24/7 stream