Ubuntu Tomcat Installation

It is recommended to install Tomcat from source using the latest version supported by PWM.

For this example, Tomcat will be installed to /opt/tomcat

Navigate to https://tomcat.apache.org/download-90.cgi and download the latest Tomcat 9.x distribution. Unzip this file into /opt/ and rename to tomcat so that it is /opt/tomcat. This just makes it easier to update down the road without using version numbers.

Step 1: Create tomcat user and add to group

sudo useradd -c "Apache Tomcat" -r -s /usr/sbin/nologin tomcat
sudo adduser tomcat tomcat

Step 2: Set permissions

sudo chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/tomcat
sudo chmod -R 0755 /opt/tomcat/bin/*.sh
sudo chmod -R 0664 /opt/tomcat/logs
sudo chmod -R 0755 /opt/tomcat/webapps

Step 3: Create either a (A) init.d or (B) systemd script, do not try and create both.

Step 3 (A): Create init.d startup script

Use the below script to create a new file under /etc/init.d/ named 'tomcat'. Please adjust the INST_PATH variable to where you have installed Tomcat

#!/bin/bash  
#  
# Startup script for Tomcat Servlet Engine  
#  
# chkconfig: 345 86 14  
# description: Tomcat Servlet Engine  
#  
### BEGIN INIT INFO  
# Provides:          tomcat  
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog $network  
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog $network  
# Default-Start:     3 4 5  
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6  
# Short-Description: Tomcat Servlet Engine  
# Description:       Tomcat Servlet Engine  
### END INIT INFO  
#  
  
# Directory where tomcat is installed  
INST_PATH=/opt/tomcat  
# User under which tomcat will run  
RUN_AS_USER=tomcat  
  
case "$1" in  
  start)  
        su $RUN_AS_USER -c "$INST_PATH/bin/startup.sh" -s /bin/bash  
        ;;  
  stop)   
        su $RUN_AS_USER -c "$INST_PATH/bin/shutdown.sh" -s /bin/bash  
        ;;  
  restart)  
        su $RUN_AS_USER -c "$INST_PATH/bin/shutdown.sh" -s /bin/bash  
        su $RUN_AS_USER -c "$INST_PATH/bin/startup.sh" -s /bin/bash  
        ;;  
  *)  
  echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"  
  exit 1  
esac  
  
exit $RETVAL  

Once you have saved the file, set permissions and make it executable
sudo chmod 0755 /etc/init.d/tomcat

Now register the service using
sudo update-rc.d tomcat defaults

Step 3(B): Create systemd script

Use the below script to create a new file under /etc/systemd/system/ named 'tomcat.service'. Please adjust the variables to where you have installed Tomcat and where your JDK is located.

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/var/run/tomcat.pid
User=tomcat
Group=tomcat

# Tomcat variables
Environment='JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdks/java-11-openjdk'
Environment='CATALINA_PID=/var/run/tomcat.pid'
Environment='CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat'
Environment='CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat'
Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms256M -Xmx2048M -XX:+UseParallelGC -server'

# Taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/58301082 
WorkingDirectory=/opt/tomcat/bin

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once you have saved the file, set permissions and make it executable
sudo chmod 0755 /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

Now register the service using
sudo systemctl enable tomcat.service

Step 4: Start Tomcat

Now you can startup Tomcat sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat start OR sudo systemctl start tomcat

Source installation complete!

Recommended: Harden Tomcat

Read the below guide and make the adjustments that you are able to for your environment. Remember, PWM can set passwords for any of your directory accounts so ensure it is secure and is using security best practices.

https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-9.0-doc/security-howto.html