Tomcat Installation

Installing Java

We’ll need a JDK to run GeoNetwork and Solr.

You may already have the OpenJDK package (java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel.x86_64) installed. Check and see if Java is already installed:

# java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_91"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_91-b14)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.91-b14, mixed mode)

# javac -version
javac 1.8.0_91

If it is not, check for available versions:

yum list *openjdk*

You’ll get a list like this one, probably with versions 1.6.0, 1.7.0, 1.8.0:

[...]
java-1.6.0-openjdk.x86_64                                                                                                   1:1.6.0.0-3.1.13.1.el6_5                                                                                           @rhel-x86_64-server-6
java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel.x86_64                                                                                             1:1.6.0.0-3.1.13.1.el6_5                                                                                           @rhel-x86_64-server-6
[...]
java-1.7.0-openjdk.x86_64                                                                                                   1:1.7.0.51-2.4.4.1.el6_5                                                                                           @rhel-x86_64-server-6
java-1.7.0-openjdk-devel.x86_64                                                                                             1:1.7.0.51-2.4.4.1.el6_5                                                                                           @rhel-x86_64-server-6
[...]
java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64                                                                                                   1:1.7.0.51-2.4.4.1.el6_5                                                                                           @rhel-x86_64-server-6
java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel.x86_64                                                                                             1:1.7.0.51-2.4.4.1.el6_5                                                                                           @rhel-x86_64-server-6

Go for the version 1.8.0:

yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

Once done, the command java -version should return info about the installed version.

Oracle JDK

Until recently, the Oracle JDK was a better performer than the OpenJDK, so it was the preferred choice. This is no longer true, anyway you may find info about installing it in Installing Oracle JDK.

Installing Tomcat

Create tomcat user

adduser -m -s /bin/bash tomcat
passwd tomcat

Install Tomcat files

Let’s download and install Tomcat first:

mkdir -p /root/download
cd /root/download
wget http://it.apache.contactlab.it/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.69/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.69.tar.gz
tar xzvf apache-tomcat-7.0.69.tar.gz -C /opt/
ln -s /opt/apache-tomcat-7.0.69 /opt/tomcat

Create base template

Prepare a clean instance called base to be used as a template for all tomcat instances:

mkdir -p /var/lib/tomcat/base/{bin,conf,logs,temp,webapps,work}
cp -r /opt/tomcat/conf/* /var/lib/tomcat/base/conf

And fix the permissions on the files:

chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/apache*
chown -R tomcat:tomcat /var/lib/tomcat

Instance manager script

To manage our Tomcat instances create the file /etc/systemd/system/tomcat\@.service with the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Tomcat %I
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=tomcat
Group=tomcat

Environment=CATALINA_PID=/var/run/tomcat/%i.pid
#Environment=TOMCAT_JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default
Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat
Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/var/lib/tomcat/%i
Environment=CATALINA_OPTS=

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh -force

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then make it executable:

chmod +x /etc/systemd/system/tomcat\@.service

and grant the user tomcat write access to the pid file:

mkdir /var/run/tomcat
chown tomcat: /var/run/tomcat