Official production baseline
The current guide calls for a clean, dedicated 64-bit Ubuntu 22.04 server, Linux kernel 5.x, Docker, 16 GB RAM with swap, 8 CPU cores with strong single-thread performance, and 500 GB free disk when recordings are enabled (or 50 GB without recording).
Network and addressing
Plan at least 250 Mbit/s symmetrical bandwidth. TCP 80 and 443 and UDP 16384–32768 must be reachable, and a public hostname is needed for HTTPS. Browser microphone and camera access requires a valid secure origin.
Virtual servers need dedicated compute
The project recommends compute-intensive cloud instances with dedicated CPU. Core labels alone are insufficient when CPU time is heavily contended by unrelated tenants.
Capacity is workload-specific
Webcam count, screen sharing, recording, session size, client uplinks and software configuration all influence capacity. Use estimates for planning, then load-test and monitor before a critical rollout.
The operational reality
BigBlueButton capacity depends on how people use media. Hardware specifications help narrow the choice, but your own load test, monitoring and failure plan turn that choice into a production design.