Tomcat is an open-source implementation of the Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages, Java Expression Language, and Java WebSocket technologies.
This tutorial covers the steps required to install Tomcat 9.0 on CentOS 8. Refer to Apache Tomcat
for more information
Requirements
This post assumes the following:
- You have a CentOS Linux System
- You have admin permissions and privilleges
- The server is accessible via HTTP/HTTPS
Package Setup
This is optional if you already have your base package setup. If you don’t run the commands below:
sudo yum group install -y 'Development Tools'
sudo yum install -y libxml2 libxml2-devel libxslt libxslt-devel wget gcc \
libffi-devel openssl-devel make openssl-devel bzip2-devel java-11-openjdk-devel java-11-openjdk
Create Tomcat Service Account
You need a service account.
sudo groupadd --system tomcat
sudo useradd -s /bin/false -g tomcat -d /opt/tomcat tomcat
Download and Install Tomcat
Download and install Tomcat
cd /tmp
TVERSION="9"
TOMCAT_VERSION="9.0.39"
curl -O https://downloads.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-${TVERSION}/v${TOMCAT_VERSION}/bin/apache-tomcat-${TOMCAT_VERSION}.tar.gz
sudo tar xzvf apache-tomcat-${TVERSION}*tar.gz -C /opt/tomcat --strip-components=1
cd /opt/tomcat
sudo chgrp -R tomcat /opt/tomcat/conf
sudo chmod g+rwx /opt/tomcat/conf
sudo chmod g+r /opt/tomcat/conf/*
sudo chown -R tomcat /opt/tomcat/logs /opt/tomcat/temp /opt/tomcat/webapps /opt/tomcat/work
sudo chgrp -R tomcat /opt/tomcat/bin
sudo chgrp -R tomcat /opt/tomcat/lib
sudo chmod g+rwx /opt/tomcat/bin
sudo chmod g+r /opt/tomcat/bin/*
Create Tomcat Service
Create Systemd Service for tomcat
sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service
Make the entry below. NOTE: Update your Java Version as needed
[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre-11-openjdk
Environment=CATALINA_PID=/opt/tomcat/temp/tomcat.pid
Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat
Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat
Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC'
Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom'
ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh
User=tomcat
Group=tomcat
UMask=0007
RestartSec=10
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Enable and start tomcat
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable tomcat
sudo systemctl start tomcat
Update Firewall
Update firewall rules and reload
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Configure The Management Interface
Edit /opt/tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml with the update below:
<tomcat-users>
<!--
Comments
-->
<role rolename="admin-gui"/>
<role rolename="manager-gui"/>
<user username="admin" password="admin_password" roles="admin-gui,manager-gui"/>
</tomcat-users>
To enable web management interface outside localhost update /opt/tomcat/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml
with the entry below: Note: I have commneted this already
<Context antiResourceLocking="false" privileged="true" >
<!--
<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" />
-->
</Context>
Next edit /opt/tomcat/webapps/host-manager/META-INF/context.xml with the block below: Note: I have commneted this already
<!--<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" />-->
Restart Tomcat:
sudo systemctl restart tomcat
Test Tomcat
Open your browser and type the following
http://<Your IP Address>:8080
Hosting Application
To host your application, copy your war file to /opt/tomcat/webapps. Browse to your application context and you should be set.
when in doubt check your tomcat manager
Caution and Notes
The server status in the admin page should be your best friend. This is primarily for monitoring and resource utilization