How to Install Tomcat in Ubuntu
Part 1 of 2:
Setting Up Tomcat
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Open a Terminal window on your Ubuntu machine. Click the Dash icon on the top-left, and click Terminal on the app list to open the Terminal.- Alternatively, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the Terminal.
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Type sudo apt-get update in Terminal. This command will update all your repositories, and make sure you have the latest software versions for new installations. -
Press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return on your keyboard. This will run the command, and update your repositories. -
Run sudo apt-get install default-jdk in Terminal. This will install the latest version of the official Java Development Kit on your computer.- Type or paste the command, and press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return to run it.
- You'll need Java installed on your computer to install and set up Tomcat.
- If you already have Java installed, this will update it to the latest version.
- You can skip this step if you already have the latest Java version installed.
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Run sudo useradd -r -m -U -d /opt/tomcat -s /bin/false tomcat in Terminal. This will create a new system user, and group with home directory opt/tomcat to run the Tomcat service.- You cannot run the Tomcat service under the root user for your server's security purposes.
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Open the Tomcat website in your internet browser. Type or paste http://tomcat.apache.org into your browser's address bar, and press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return on your keyboard. -
Click the Tomcat version you want under "Download" on the left sidebar. You'll find the available Tomcat version on a navigation menu on the left-hand side of the page. You can select Tomcat 9 or another version here.- If you want to see which versions are compatible with your system, click Which version? under the Download heading here.
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Right-click the blue tar.gz link under the "Core" heading. This will open your right-click options on a drop-down menu. -
Click Copy Link Address from the right-click menu. You can directly install Tomcat with the TAR file's link address here. -
Type wget into the Terminal. This will allow you to download the latest version of Tomcat to your computer from the official download link.- Replace with the link address you copied from the official Apache Tomcat website.
- If you're located in the US, you can use https://www-us.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.21/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.21.tar.gz as the link address.
- If you're in Europe, you can use https://www-eu.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.21/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.21.tar.gz as the link address.
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Press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return. This will run the download command, and download Tomcat on your computer. -
Run sudo tar xf /tmp/apache-tomcat-9*.tar.gz -C /opt/tomcat. Once your download is complete, run this command to extract the downloaded TAR file's contents, and move the files to the opt/tomcat directory.- Make sure to replace the version number in "tomcat-9*.tar.gz" with the Tomcat version you download.
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Run sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service. This will create a new file named "tomcat.service," and allow you to edit its contents with your default text editor. -
Paste the following configuration into the tomcat.service file.- Make sure to set "JAVA_HOME" to your system's Java directory in the following code.
[Unit] Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container After=network.target [Service] Type=forking Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.11.0-openjdk-amd64 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
Part 2 of 2:
Starting Tomcat Service
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Run sudo systemctl daemon-reload in Terminal. This will reload the SystemD deamon, and find your new service file. -
Run the sudo ufw allow 8080 command (optional). If your server is protected by a firewall, run this command in Terminal to allow traffic on port 8080.- This will allow you to access the Tomcat interface from outside of your local network.
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Run the systemctl enable tomcat command (optional). If you run this command, Tomcat service will automatically start on system boot. -
Run sudo systemctl start tomcat in Terminal. This will start the Tomcat service on your server.- You can use the sudo systemctl status tomcat command to verify the service status.
- You can now test Tomcat in your internet browser at http://ip-address:8080. Just change "ip-address" with your system's default IP address in the link.
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