How to Install and Setup Apache Tomcat 8 on AIX 7.2

Introduction Apache Tomcat is an open-source and servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Tomcat implements several EE specifications including Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java EL, and WebSocket, and provides a "pure Java" HTTP web server environment for Java code to run in. The latest stable Tomcat release is 8.5 and in this article, we will see how to install and configure Tomcat 8.5 on AIX 7.2

Step 1: Install and Verify Java Tomcat is completely written in Java hence to run it on AIX we need not to compile it again. The only requirement is to have correct version of Java on AIX. To run Tomcat 8.5 we need to have Java 7 or later on AIX.

If you don’t have Java 7 or later already on your AIX system then download and install it. To install latest Java 8 on AIX please download IBM Java 8 for AIX from the following location https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/aix/service.html

Download 64bit version of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and Development Kit (SDK) Java8_64.jre.tar Java8_64.sdk.tar

I used wget to download the Java JRE and SDK on my AIX system. For ease of use I have installed yum from AIX toolbox and used yum to install wget.

Download/Copy Java8_64.jre.tar and Java8_64.sdk.tar to AIX system. Untar the files and install them using installp command or SMITTY.

# tar -xvf Java8_64.jre.tar # tar -xvf Java8_64.sdk.tar # installp -agXYd . Java8_64.jre Java8_64.sdk

Sample Output

Verify Java 8 is installed using lslpp command. Add Java8 path (/usr/java8_64/jre/bin:/usr/java8_64/bin) in your PATH environment variable and verify the version of Java on the system using “java –version” command.

# lslpp -l | grep Java8 # java -version

Sample Output

Step 2: Download and Install Latest Tomcat After installing and verifying Java8, download and install latest Tomcat. To download latest Tomcat 8 please visit http://Tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi

At the time this article is written most recent version of Tomcat available is 8.5.13.

Download the latest available Tomcat 8 on your system. I used wget to download apache- tomcat-8.5.13.tar.gz

# wget http://redrockdigimark.com/apachemirror/tomcat/tomcat- 8/v8.5.13/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.13.tar.gz

Sample Output

Unzip and untar the downloaded tomocat gzip file on the AIX system. As Tomcat is purely written in Java it does not require any special install process. After untar the Tomcat is available to run.

# gunzip apache-tomcat-8.5.13.tar.gz # tar -xvf apache-tomcat-8.5.13.tar

Sample output

Now we are all set to start Tomcat webserver. Go to apache-tomcat-8.5.13/bin directory and run ./startup.sh script to start Tomcat server.

# cd /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.13/bin # ./startup.sh

Sample output

Now you can open Tomcat from your web browser. By default, Tomcat starts on port 8080. So to open Tomcat using http://:8080

Step 3: Configuring Tomcat Web Management Interface By default, you can access only default Tomcat web page. To access web management interface “Server Status, Manager App and Host Manager” we need to add user with manager-gui and admin-gui role to our Tomcat server. You can have two users for these two roles or can create one single user to have both the roles. To add users, we need to edit /opt/tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml file and add users with role in this file. In this example only one user is created with both the roles.

# vi /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.13/conf/tomcat-users.xml

Sample output

Also, to access web interface we need to provide access to system from where the Tomcat server is getting accessed, this is the system where you have opened web browser to access Tomcat server. To add the system ip in access list edit the file /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat- 8.5.13/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml and /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat- 8.5.13/webapps/host-manager/META-INF/context.xml and add your system ip, for example my system ip is 10.10.10.11

# vi /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.13/webapps/manager/META- INF/context.xml # vi /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.13/webapps/host- manager/META-INF/context.xml

Sample output

Now everything is setup. Restart Tomcat and access web interface. To restart shutdown and start Tomcat server again.

# cd /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.13/bin # ./shutdown.sh # ./startup.sh

Sample output

Step 4: Access Tomcat Web Management Interface Now we have created a user and provided access to the system for accessing web management interface. Open the browser and enter your server's domain name or IP address with port 8080. Default Tomcat page will be shown, click on Manager App or other web management interface and it will ask username and password. Enter the username and password provided in the tomcat-users.xml.

It will show you

Congratulation!!! you have setup Tomcat server on AIX. You can start deploying you Java applications.