Configure your orchestrator

This guide covers the flags every orchestrator sets, and how to choose their values. It assumes go-livepeer is installed and your GPU is detected. For the full flag list, see the CLI flags reference.

The essential flags

These must be set every time the node starts as an orchestrator.

Flag	Purpose
`-network arbitrum-one-mainnet`	Join the production network (default is `offchain` — no protocol participation)
`-ethUrl <RPC>`	An Arbitrum One RPC endpoint for on-chain reads/writes
`-orchestrator`	Enable the on-chain protocol role (routing, reward calls, discovery)
`-transcoder`	Enable local GPU transcoding
`-nvidia <ids>`	Which NVIDIA GPUs to use (`0`, `0,1`, or `all`)
`-maxSessions <n>`	Max concurrent transcode sessions
`-pricePerUnit <wei>`	Price per pixel, in wei (see Pricing)
`-serviceAddr <ip:port>`	Public address gateways use to reach you

A complete combined-mode startup command:

livepeer \
  -network arbitrum-one-mainnet \
  -ethUrl https://arb-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -orchestrator \
  -transcoder \
  -nvidia 0 \
  -maxSessions 10 \
  -pricePerUnit 1000 \
  -serviceAddr YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8935

Add -v 6 while getting started for verbose logs (transcoding activity, RPC calls, sessions).

Choosing the GPU

nvidia-smi -L          # list device IDs first

-nvidia 0              # single GPU, device 0
-nvidia 0,1            # two GPUs
-nvidia all            # all available GPUs

Omitting -nvidia falls back to CPU transcoding, which is too slow to be competitive. For AI-only operation you still need -nvidia to expose the GPU to AI runner containers, even without -transcoder.

Setting the session limit

Set -maxSessions to the minimum of your hardware limit and your bandwidth limit:

session limit = min(hardware limit, bandwidth limit)

Hardware limit — the highest concurrent session count your GPU sustains at a real-time ratio ≤ 0.8 (benchmark with livepeer_bench).
Bandwidth limit — available symmetric Mbps ÷ 6 Mbps per stream × 0.8 margin.

Example: hardware limit 12, 100 Mbps bandwidth (~13) → use -maxSessions 12.

-maxSessions applies to video transcoding only. AI capacity is set per pipeline by the capacity field in aiModels.json — see Add AI inference.

Setting the service address

-serviceAddr is how the network finds you. Common mistakes that silently cost you all your jobs:

using an internal IP (192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x) — not routable from the internet
using 0.0.0.0 — binds locally but isn’t a network address
changing the IP without updating on-chain registration — gateways lose contact

Prefer a domain name (orch.yourdomain.com:8935): if the server IP changes, you update DNS instead of paying for a new on-chain registration transaction.

Deployment modes

Mode	Flags	Use when
Combined (most common)	`-orchestrator -transcoder`	One machine handles everything
Orchestrator-only	`-orchestrator`	Remote transcoders connect via `-orchSecret`
Transcoder-only	`-transcoder -orchAddr <host:port>`	Running a GPU worker that reports to a separate orchestrator process

In a split (O-T) setup, add -reward=false to all transcoder processes — only the orchestrator process should call reward(). Also drop -ethUrl from transcoders sharing the wallet so they don’t submit on-chain transactions.

Run it as a service

For production, supervise the process so it restarts on failure. A minimal systemd unit:

/etc/systemd/system/livepeer.service

[Unit]
Description=Livepeer Orchestrator
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/livepeer \
  -network arbitrum-one-mainnet \
  -ethUrl https://arb-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -orchestrator -transcoder -nvidia 0 \
  -maxSessions 10 -pricePerUnit 1000 \
  -serviceAddr YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8935
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable --now livepeer
journalctl -u livepeer -f

Activate on Arbitrum

Fund the wallet, stake LPT, and register on-chain.

Set pricing

Price so gateways actually select your node.

Get started

Tutorials

How-to guides

Explanation

Reference

Configure your orchestrator

The essential flags

Choosing the GPU

Setting the session limit

Setting the service address

Deployment modes

Run it as a service

Next

Activate on Arbitrum

Set pricing

​The essential flags

​Choosing the GPU

​Setting the session limit

​Setting the service address

​Deployment modes

​Run it as a service

​Next

Activate on Arbitrum

Set pricing

The essential flags

Choosing the GPU

Setting the session limit

Setting the service address

Deployment modes

Run it as a service

Next