Install Apache Tomcat9 in CentOS Stream, Oracle Linux 8

 

Create tomcat user and group

We need to add user dedicated to running tomcat service.

# groupadd --system tomcat

# useradd -d /usr/share/tomcat -r -s /bin/false -g tomcat tomcat

Install Tomcat 9 on Linux RHEL / CentOS 8

Check the latest release version of Tomcat 9. Save the version number to VER variable and proceed to download.

# dnf -y install wget

# export VER="9.0.XX"

# wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v${VER}/bin/apache-tomcat-${VER}.tar.gz

Extract downloaded file with tar.

# tar xvf apache-tomcat-${VER}.tar.gz -C /usr/share/

# ln -s /usr/share/apache-tomcat-$VER/ /usr/share/tomcat

If you download a newer version of Tomcat, just update the symbolic link to the new version folder.

Set proper directory permissions.

# chown -R tomcat:tomcat /usr/share/tomcat

# chown -R tomcat:tomcat /usr/share/apache-tomcat-$VER/

Configure Tomcat 9 Systemd service

Create a new systemd service to Tomcat.

# vim /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

With below configuration:

[Unit]

Description=Tomcat Server

After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]

Type=forking

User=tomcat

Group=tomcat

Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre

Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true'

Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/usr/share/tomcat

Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/usr/share/tomcat

Environment=CATALINA_PID=/usr/share/tomcat/temp/tomcat.pid

Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M'

ExecStart=/usr/share/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start

ExecStop=/usr/share/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh stop

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start and enable service.

# sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# sudo systemctl enable tomcat

# sudo systemctl start tomcat

Check service status with the following command:

# systemctl status tomcat

Configure Firewall

# sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp

# sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Access Tomcat Web interface

Open browser and type http://ip-or-hostname:8080