Your 24/7 stream runs on a VPS, but you can't sit at a computer 24/7 yourself. Here's how to manage everything from your phone.
SSH Clients
The most direct way to manage your VPS from a phone:
| App | Platform | Price | |-----|----------|-------| | Termius | iOS/Android | Free (basic) | | JuiceSSH | Android | Free | | Prompt 3 | iOS | Paid | | ConnectBot | Android | Free |
With SSH, you can:
- Check if FFmpeg is running (
pgrep ffmpeg) - Restart your stream (
systemctl restart lofi-stream) - View logs (
tail -f /var/log/stream.log) - Update playlist (
nano playlist.txt)
Monitoring Dashboard
Set up a simple web-based dashboard on your VPS:
from flask import Flask, jsonify
import subprocess, psutil
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route('/status')
def status():
ffmpeg_running = 'ffmpeg' in subprocess.getoutput('ps aux')
cpu = psutil.cpu_percent()
ram = psutil.virtual_memory().percent
return jsonify({
'stream_active': ffmpeg_running,
'cpu_percent': cpu,
'ram_percent': ram
})
app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=8080)
Access http://your-vps-ip:8080/status from your phone's browser for instant stream health checks.
Alert System
Get notified when something goes wrong instead of checking manually:
Discord Webhook Alerts
#!/bin/bash
WEBHOOK="https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK"
if ! pgrep -x "ffmpeg" > /dev/null; then
curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"content":"Stream is DOWN! FFmpeg not running."}' "$WEBHOOK"
fi
Run this every 2 minutes via cron. You'll get a Discord notification on your phone within 2 minutes of any stream failure.
Uptime Monitoring
Services like UptimeRobot (free tier) can check if your VPS is responding. Configure it to ping your monitoring dashboard endpoint and alert you via push notification if it fails.
Emergency Procedures
Stream Crashed
From your phone SSH client:
systemctl restart lofi-stream
Or if using a manual script:
cd /home/stream && ./start.sh &
VPS Not Responding
If SSH doesn't connect, the VPS itself may need a reboot. Most hosting panels (including Space-Node's) have mobile-friendly web interfaces where you can restart your VPS from any browser.
Stream Quality Issues
Check CPU usage:
top -b -n 1 | head -20
If CPU is above 90%, your encoding settings are too demanding. SSH in and reduce bitrate or change the x264 preset from "medium" to "veryfast."
Remote Desktop Options
For more visual control:
| Tool | Latency | Mobile App | |------|---------|------------| | VNC (TightVNC) | Medium | RealVNC Viewer | | NoMachine | Low | NoMachine app | | Apache Guacamole | Medium | Any web browser | | RDP (Windows VPS) | Low | Microsoft RD Client |
Guacamole is particularly useful because it runs in a web browser. No app installation needed.
Best Practice: Automate Everything
The less manual intervention your stream needs, the better. Good automation means:
- Stream auto-restarts on failure (systemd or while loop)
- Playlist rotates automatically (cron jobs)
- Alerts fire on failure (Discord webhooks)
- VPS reboots trigger stream startup (systemd enable)
With proper automation on a Space-Node VPS, you should only need your phone for checking that everything's okay, not for fixing things. The 99.9% uptime guarantee means your VPS stays online even when you're not managing it.
