How to install apache tomcat on Linux RHEL 8 / CentOS 8

In this tutorial we will learn how to install Apache Tomcat 8 application container to RHEL 8 / CentOS 8. We will be using the zip package available to download from the Apache Tomcat website. As this package will not handle setting up the environment, we will create it from the command line.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to install Apache Tomcat from zip file
• How to create the environment for the Tomcat server from command line
• How to add basic service file to systemd
• How to enable autostart, start and stop the Tomcat server
• How to verify Tomcat is reachable

Examples page served by Apache Tomcat.

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

How to install apache tomcat on Linux Redhat 8 step by step instructions

We will install a Tomcat server not from an rpm package, but a zip file that we will download from the official site. Therefore the user that will be running the server, filesystem paths and rights must be set by hand. While installing from rpm is a much more convenient way, there may be situations where it is not an option.

The most trivial example would be that the rpm package is not available, another could be that the application that will run in the Tomcat container requires an exact version of tomcat, and by leaving the package manager out of the installation it is ensured that system updates will leave the Tomcat server untouched. Of course this may not be optimal from the security perspective.

For this installation to work you need to have Java 1.8 installed on the target system.

1. First, we’ll download and extract the zip package. By browsing the download site of Tomcat 8, we can copy the link we need, and use wget on the target system.We’ll use /opt as the base path of the installation, as it is a common place for software installed by hand. Let’s switch to this directory:

   # cd /opt

   And download the package directly to this path:

   # wget https://www-us.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.37/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.37.zip
   --2019-01-02 18:06:00--  https://www-us.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.37/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.37.zip
   Resolving www-us.apache.org (www-us.apache.org)... 40.79.78.1
   Connecting to www-us.apache.org (www-us.apache.org)|40.79.78.1|:443... connected.
   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
   Length: 10246390 (9.8M) [application/zip]
   Saving to: 'apache-tomcat-8.5.37.zip'
   
   apache-tomcat-8.5.37.zip                           100%[================================================================================================================>]   9.77M   280KB/s    in 23s     
   
   2019-01-02 18:06:24 (444 KB/s) - 'apache-tomcat-8.5.37.zip' saved [10246390/10246390]

   The mirror may vary by location, for optimal performance, use the mirror closest to your location.

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2. Next we extract the package with unzip in-place:

   # unzip apache-tomcat-8.5.37.zip

3. We create a symbolic link /opt/tomcat pointing to /opt/apache-tomcat-8.5.37:

   # ln -s /opt/apache-tomcat-8.5.37 /opt/tomcat

   This way installing yet another version, and switching to it is a matter of changing where the symlink is pointing to.

4. We delete the original /opt/tomcat/logs directory, and replace it with a symlink pointing to /var/log/tomcat:

   # mkdir /var/log/tomcat
   # rmdir /opt/tomcat/logs
   # ln -s /var/log/tomcat /opt/tomcat/logs

   The reason behind this is to store all logs under /var/log where the storage is handled with system load, and therefore logfile sizes in mind. It is a good practice to store data of the same type in one place, and /var/log is already the place of the system logfiles.

5. We create the user that will run the server, and set it as the owner of the required directories using the chown command:

   # useradd tomcat
   # chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/apache-tomcat-8.5.37
   # chown -R tomcat:tomcat /var/log/tomcat

6. We add execute rights to the scripts located in the bin directory:

   # chmod +x /opt/tomcat/bin/*.sh

7. We create a basic service file /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service for systemd with our favorite text editor, like vi or nano with the following content:

   [Unit]
   Description=Tomcat
   After=syslog.target network.target
   
   [Service]
   Type=forking
   
   User=tomcat
   Group=tomcat
   
   ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start
   ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh stop
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

8. We reload the systemd configuration, so systemd will notice the new service file:

   # systemctl daemon-reload

9. We will access Tomcat on port 8080. We open the port on the firewall
   :

   # firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8080/tcp --permanent

   And reload the firewall:

   # firewall-cmd --reload

10. We ask systemd about the new service:

    # systemctl status tomcatenable systemd service
     tomcat.service - Tomcat
       Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
       Active: inactive (dead)

11. As systemd now knows about the serice, we can start it:

    # systemctl start tomcat

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12. Finally, we verify our running server with systemd:

    # systemctl status tomcat
     tomcat.service - Tomcat
       Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
       Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-01-02 18:40:00 CET; 4s ago
      Process: 4854 ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Process: 5529 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Main PID: 5543 (java)
        Tasks: 47 (limit: 12544)
       Memory: 85.2M
       CGroup: /system.slice/tomcat.service
               ˪5543 /usr/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/opt/tomcat/conf/logging.properties [...]

    If we open up a browser, and type http://<name-or-ip-address-of-the-server>:8080/examples/ to the address bar, we should see the official examples shipped with the package that are served from our successfully installed Tomcat server.

13. If needed, we can enable systemd service to automatically start our server on boot:

    # systemctl enable tomcat