Download and Install

• Download Tomcat 7.0.x:

  wget http://tux.rainside.sk/apache/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.35/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.35.zip
  

• Unzip:

  unzip apache-tomcat-7.0.35.zip
  

• Copy to /opt:

  cp -t /opt apache-tomcat-7.0.35 -R 
  

• Create a softlink to the latest version:

  ln -s /opt/apache-tomcat-7.0.35 /opt/tomcat
  

Configure tomcat user

• Create an user and a group:

  useradd tomcat
  groupadd tomcat
  useradd -G tomcat tomcat
  

  Some variants of useradd may create a group along with user. In that case, you will see a warning and the useradd -G tomcat tomcat is not necessary.

  groupadd: group 'tomcat' already exists
  

• Check whether it’s working:

  id tomcat
  

  Output should be something along:

  uid=501(tomcat) gid=501(tomcat) groups=501(tomcat) context=root:system_r:unconfined_t:SystemLow-SystemHigh
  

Change ownerships

• Change the ownership of /opt/tomcat...

  chown -Rf tomcat:tomcat /opt/apache-tomcat-7.0.35
  

Configure init script

• Create and edit the init script:

  nano /etc/init.d/tomcat
  

• Add contents:

  #!/bin/sh
  #
  # Startup script for the Tomcat Java Servlets and JSP server
  #
  # chkconfig: 234 85 15
  # description: Tomcat Java Servlets and JSP server
  # processname: tomcat
  # pidfile: /var/run/tomcat.pid
  # config:
  
  CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat; export CATALINA_HOME
  TOMCAT_OWNER=tomcat; export TOMCAT_OWNER
  JAVA_OPTS="-Xms128M -Xmx512M"; export JAVA_OPTS
  
  start() {
    echo -n "Starting Tomcat:  "
    su $TOMCAT_OWNER -c $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
  
  }
  stop() {
     echo -n "Stopping Tomcat: "
     su $TOMCAT_OWNER -c $CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh
  }
  
  ##
  
  case "$1" in
  start)
    start
     ;;
  stop)
     stop
     ;;
  restart)
     stop
     start
     ;;
  *)
     echo $"Usage: tomcat {start|stop|restart}"
     exit
  esac
  

• Set executable permission:

  chmod +x /etc/init.d/tomcat
  

• Add to chkconfig

  chkconfig --add tomcat  
  chkconfig --level 234 tomcat on  
  

• Verify that the chkconfig went successfully.

  chkconfig --list tomcat 
  

  You will see:

  tomcat          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:off   6:off
  

Configure firewall

• Use system configuration GUI (text-based) to add 8080 and 8443 ports to iptables firewall.

  system-config-firewall-tui
  

Run the Tomcat

service tomcat start        

Optional Tasks

Symlink logs to /var/log

ln -s /opt/tomcat/logs /var/log/tomcat7

Disable unnecessary default web-apps

mkdir /opt/tomcat/webapps-disabled

cp -R -t /opt/tomcat/webapps-disabled /opt/tomcat/webapps/*
rm -rf /opt/tomcat/webapps/*