The Apache Tomcat 5.5 Servlet/JSP Container

Tomcat Setup

This document introduces several ways to set up Tomcat for running on different platforms. Please note that some advanced setup issues are not covered here: the full distribution (ZIP file or tarball) includes a file called RUNNING.txt which discusses these issues. We encourage you to refer to it if the information below does not answer some of your questions.

Windows

Installing Tomcat on Windows can be done easily using the Windows installer. Its interface and functionality is similar to other wizard based installers, with only a few items of interest.

Installation as a service: Tomcat will be installed as a Windows NT/2k/XP service no matter what setting is selected. Using the checkbox on the component page sets the service as "auto" startup, so that Tomcat is automatically started when Windows starts. For optimal security, the service should be run as a separate user, with reduced permissions (see the Windows Services administration tool and its documentation).

Java location: The installer will use the registry or the JAVA_HOME environment variable to determine the base path of a J2SE 5 JRE.

Tray icon: When Tomcat is run as a service, there will be a tray icon visible. Note that when choosing to run Tomcat at the end of installation, the tray icon will be loaded at the same time.

Refer to the Windows Service HOW-TO for information on how to manage Tomcat as Windows NT service.

The installer will create shortcuts allowing starting and configuring Tomcat. It is important to note that the Tomcat administration web application can only be used when Tomcat is running.

If using a J2SE 1.4 JRE, the compatibility package must be downloaded and expanded inside the folder where Tomcat was installed.

Unix daemon

Tomcat can be run as a daemon using the jsvc tool from the commons-daemon project. Source tarballs for jsvc are included with the Tomcat binaries, and need to be compiled. Building jsvc requires a C ANSI compiler (such as GCC), GNU Autoconf, and a JDK.

Before running the script, the JAVA_HOME environment variable should be set to the base path of the JDK. Alternately, when calling the ./configure script, the path of the JDK may be specified using the --with-java parameter, such as ./configure --with-java=/usr/java.

Using the following commands should result in a compiled jsvc binary, located in the $CATALINA_HOME/bin folder. This assumes that GNU TAR is used, and that CATALINA_HOME is an environment variable pointing to the base path of the Tomcat installation.

Please note that you should use the GNU make (gmake) instead of the native BSD make on FreeBSD systems.
    cd $CATALINA_HOME/bin
    tar xvfz commons-daemon-native.tar.gz
    cd commons-daemon-1.0.x-native-src/unix
    ./configure
    make
    cp jsvc ../..
    cd ../..
Tomcat can then be run as a daemon using the following commands.
    cd $CATALINA_HOME
    ./bin/jsvc -Djava.endorsed.dirs=./common/endorsed -cp ./bin/bootstrap.jar \
        -outfile ./logs/catalina.out -errfile ./logs/catalina.err \
        org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
jsvc has other useful parameters, such as -user which causes it to switch to another user after the daemon initialization is complete. This allows, for example, running Tomcat as a non privileged user while still being able to use privileged ports. jsvc --help will return the full jsvc usage information. In particular, the -debug option is useful to debug issues running jsvc.

The file $CATALINA_HOME/bin/commons-daemon-1.0.x-native-src/unix/native/Tomcat5.sh can be used as a template for starting Tomcat automatically at boot time from /etc/init.d.

Note that the Commons-Daemon JAR file must be on your runtime classpath to run Tomcat in this manner. The Commons-Daemon JAR file is in the Class-Path entry of the bootstrap.jar manifest, but if you get a ClassNotFoundException or a NoClassDefFoundError for a Commons-Daemon class, add the Commons-Daemon JAR to the -cp argument when launching jsvc.