# Getting started with VOD content delivery in MediaPackage
<a name="getting-started-vod"></a>

This Getting Started tutorial shows you how to use the AWS Elemental MediaPackage console to ingest video on demand (VOD) content and make it available for playback.

## Prerequisites
<a name="gs-prereq"></a>

Before you can use AWS Elemental MediaPackage VOD capability, you must meet the following conditions:
+ You have an AWS account and the appropriate permissions to access, view, and edit MediaPackage components. Make sure that your system administrator has completed the steps in [Setting up MediaPackage](setting-up.md), and then return to this tutorial.
+ You have file-based source content in one or more Amazon S3 buckets. 

For supported VOD inputs and codecs, see [VOD supported codecs and input types](supported-inputs-vod.md).

## Step 1: Access MediaPackage
<a name="gs-access-emp"></a>

Using your IAM credentials, sign in to the AWS Elemental MediaPackage console:

```
https://{{region}}.console.aws.amazon.com/mediapackage/home
```

## Step 2: Create a packaging group
<a name="gs-create-grp"></a>

A packaging group holds one or more packaging configurations. The packaging configurations enable you to define what kind of VOD outputs you want. To apply these output definitions, associate a packaging group to multiple assets.

**Example**  
 You have 15 pieces of source content. You want to serve them all as DASH, HLS, and encrypted HLS outputs. To do this, you define one packaging group with DASH, HLS, and encrypted HLS packaging configurations. You then associate that group to the asset resources that represent these pieces of content. You don't have to create new configurations for each asset.

MediaPackage doesn't require that you supply any customer data. There are no fields in packaging groups where there is an expectation that you will provide customer data.

**To create a packaging group**

1. On the **Packaging groups** page, choose **Create group**.

1. For **ID**, enter a name that describes the group, such as **gamehighlights**. The ID is the primary identifier for the group, and must be unique for your account in this AWS Region. Supported characters are letters, numbers, underscores (\_), and dashes (-). You can't use spaces in the ID.

1. Choose **Create**.

## Step 3: Create a packaging configuration
<a name="gs-create-cfig"></a>

A packaging configuration specifies how the output manifest is configured, such as stream selection limitations and ordering.

MediaPackage does not require that you supply any customer data. There are no fields in packaging configurations where there is an expectation that you will provide customer data.

**To create a packaging configuration**

1. On the **Packaging groups** page, choose the group that you just created.

1. On the details page for the packaging group, under **Packaging configurations** choose **Manage configurations**.

1. On the **Manage packaging configurations** page, choose **Add**, and then choose **New configuration**.

1. For **ID**, enter a name that describes the configuration, such as **hls\_highlights**. The ID is the primary identifier for the configuration, and must be unique for your account in this AWS Region. Supported characters are letters, numbers, underscores (\_), and dashes (-). You can't use spaces in the ID.

1. Keep the defaults for the remaining fields, and then choose **Save**.

## Step 4: Create an asset
<a name="gs-create-asset"></a>

An asset resource is how MediaPackage ingests, packages, and serves VOD content. The asset is associated with one or more packaging configurations. Downstream devices send playback requests to specific packaging configurations on the asset.

MediaPackage doesn't require customer data from you, so assets don't include those fields.

**To create an asset**

1. From your Amazon S3 buckets, determine what file you're using as source content. Make note of the following:
   + The name of the Amazon S3 bucket where the file is stored
   + The full path for the file, such as *S3://bucket/path/source-file-name*
   + The IAM role that allows MediaPackage to read from Amazon S3

1. On the MediaPackage console, go to the **Assets** page, and then choose **Ingest assets**.

1. For **Amazon S3 bucket name**, choose the bucket where your source content is stored.

1. For **IAM role**, choose **Use existing role** and select the IAM role that allows MediaPackage to read from Amazon S3.

1. For **Filename**, enter the full path to either the .smil manifest (MP4) or the .m3u8 parent playlist (HLS) within your Amazon S3 bucket, including the name of the source content. You don't need to enter the bucket name because you chose it in **Amazon S3 bucket name** field. For example, if your content is called` lion_movie.m3u8` and is in a subdirectory called `thursday_night` in a bucket called `movies`, you would enter the following in the **Filename** field:

   ```
   thursday_night/lion_movie.m3u8
   ```

   For more information about using .smil manifests with MediaPackage, see [Requirements for .smil manifests](supported-inputs-vod-smil.md).

1. For **Packaging group**, choose the group that you created in [Step 2: Create a packaging group](#gs-create-grp).

1. Choose **Ingest assets**.

## Step 5: Provide playback URLs
<a name="gs-provide-url"></a>

After creating the asset resource, AWS Elemental MediaPackage prepares to serve the packaged manifests to viewers. This happens in the background and might take some time depending on the size and complexity of the source content, but is usually less than a few minutes. The URLs of the manifests are available immediately on the asset's details page, but content is not yet available for playback.

After the processing for each manifest is complete, MediaPackage sends an Amazon CloudWatch event to your account.

On the asset, MediaPackage provides a URL for each packaging configuration. This URL is how downstream devices (CDN or playback device) request VOD content from MediaPackage.

**To get playback URLs**

1. On the MediaPackage console, go to the **Assets** page and choose the **ID** of the asset that you created in [Step 4: Create an asset](#gs-create-asset).

1. On the asset's detail page, get the URL for each packaging configuration.

1. Provide the URLs to the person in charge of the downstream device (CDN or player). In the downstream device, this person must enter the request destination as the URL from the corresponding packaging configuration.

Each URL is stable. It never changes during the lifetime of the combination of this asset and packaging configuration. Provide the URL to the person in charge of the downstream device (CDN or player). In the downstream device, this person must use the asset's URL as the request destination.

## (Optional) Step 6: Monitor MediaPackage activity
<a name="gs-monitor-emp"></a>

Use Amazon CloudWatch to track MediaPackage activity, such as the counts of bytes that MediaPackage has received and sent, response times, and request counts. Metrics are grouped first by the service namespace, and then by the various dimension combinations within each namespace.

**To view metrics using the CloudWatch console**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Metrics**.

1. Under **All metrics**, choose the **AWS/MediaPackage** namespace.

1. Select the metric dimension to view the metrics (for example, choose `channel` to view metrics per channel). 

For a list of MediaPackage metrics, see [AWS Elemental MediaPackage VOD content metrics](metrics-vod.md).

## Step 7: Clean up
<a name="gs-clean-up"></a>

To avoid incurring extra charges, delete your VOD resources. If you want to make a specific output unavailable, delete the packaging configuration from the packaging group. If you want to make an asset no longer available for playback from any outputs, delete the asset.

**To delete an asset**

1. On the MediaPackage console, go to the **Assets** page, and then choose the **ID** of the asset.

1. On the asset's details page, choose **Delete**.

1. In the confirmation dialog box, choose **Delete**.

**To delete a packaging configuration**

1. On the MediaPackage console, go to the **Packaging groups** page.

1. Choose the **ID** of the group that has the configuration that you want to delete.

1. On the packaging group's details page, in the **Packaging configurations** section, locate the configuration and choose its **ID**.

1. On the packaging configuration's details page, choose **Delete**.

1. In the confirmation dialog box, choose **Delete**.