Tomcat RHE

[kris1351]

Anyone running Tomcat on RHE with Cpanel? We had it running great on 7.3/9.0, but have not started testing on RHE. Any info would be great.

[kris1351]

Anyone have any guides for just making it so plain jsp pages can be displayed? We need minimal Java functions on our servers.

[lup]

I'am also needing help on this.

[nghialy]

Hello!
I also need it. Anyone know how to install and configure. My server run redhatlinux 9 and cpanel.

[inspedium]

Come on guys.. someone must have some solution for this.

[dgbaker]

Nope not that I am aware, search around this forum and ours and you'll find that no-one has it fully working on RHE or Fedora.

[jsteel]

Tomcat runs just fine under RHE. Simply download the latest binaries from the Jakarta site and follow thier install instructions (don't use the cPanel installer).

If you can't handle following the Jakarta documentation for installing it, you really shouldn't be trying to offer Tomcat to your customers. Providing Tomcat functionality is vastly different from PHP, Perl, ASP, etc., and if you can't figure out how to install it, what are you going to do when it comes time to troubleshoot problems (and you will have them due to bad code from somebody or misconfigurations on your part); you'll just end up pissing off a lot of customers and ultimately losing them because you misled them into thinking you know how to operate Tomcat and understand how Java fucntions in a server environment. This is probably why cPanel hasn't released any updated version of their installer.

We offer Tomcat (on 7.3, 8.0, 9.0 and RHE3), but we also have Sun Java-certified Architects and Developers that also have years of Tomcat experience. If we didn't have them, we wouldn't be offering Tomcat. They are quite busy all of the time tweaking, monitoring, configuring custom settings for customers, etc. Managing a Tomcat server is a 24/7 job if you are doing it right.

I'm not trying to slam anybody here, I just want those of you unaware to realize that using Tomcat isn't just a matter of pointing and clicking and you are done. The issues you'll encounter could very well drive you to close up shop if you are a novice. I'd recommend you get a test server, get a good Tomcat book (thge Wrox book is pretty good for begineer to intermediate users), and play and experiment for about 3-6 months to gain a better understanding first. You'll also want to learn all you can about Java and about how to configure JVMs.

[dgbaker]

I know it works without integrating into cpanel (ie: running it on a seperate port) But I myself have not been able to get the connectors working for apache.

Care to share a howto?

[jsteel]

Just compile it according to the docs. They're actually quite clear.

[[herb]man]

I have used many different HOWTOs and am ending up in the same place with the connectors not working/crashing apache.

Tomcat is running fine standalone, but I need it in apache. I have tried with mod_jk2 and mod_jk, both cause problems. If anyone has some docs to suggest, that have worked for them (under RHE3) that would be great...

[kris1351]

Don't think it has anything to do with being "certified". DG has offered more help to this community on Tomcat than anyone else. Simply following the install docs does not help you setup connectors, if it did ours would have been setup last month. I am far from a novice, but there are some definate issues with RHE.

[getnetworks]

That's interesting then as even our junior engineers (with no Tomcat experience) have taken the Jakarta docs and compiled the connectors as outlined in the docs without a hitch. If you follow them step-by-step and don't just assume you know what you are doing and skip over things, you shouldn't have any issue (figuratively 'you'; we're not pointing fingers directly at you).

And yes, being certified does lend itself to structured knowledge rather than haphazard ability. When you get a OutOfMemory error, how do you troubleshoot it? Logs won't help you. You'll need to profile the JVM to find the culprit. What about headless servers? Most tools require a GUI. What tool will you use and how do you read it's output, especially in a remote environment? And let us not forget that profiling can render you box unusable while it is occuring and can take a bit of time. How will you handle this to ensure you have minimal impact on your customers' sites? How do you proactively monitor and tweak the servers to ensure you don't get common exceptions/errors? Are you aware of the major security vulnerabilities of using the cPanel Tomcat installer (should be pretty easy figure out even for an intermediate admin)? How about the fact that if you use the cPanel bundle you take down the JVM (impacting all customers) everytime you add a new customer with Tomcat support (a real quick way to piss off customers).

It just baffles us how many 'providers' are out there that really know very little about administering a server (just look at 80% of the posts in this forum), let alone running Tomcat commercially (if I only had a nickel for everyone that comments about how they can't get the cPanel Tomcat installer working, let alone installing something from Jakarta directly). If you can't install it, you shouldn't be running it (installing it is the easy part).

Far too many people treat WHM/cPanel as an end-all solution to managing a server; it may make some tasks easier, it also adds a lot of layers of additional required knowledge to understand exactly what the hell it's doing. If you don't have the knowledge of how to administer a server properly without the use of a cPanel, what makes you think you can manage one with those extra layers of potential pitfalls (once again figuratively, we're not saying you specifically)?

I'll take a Sun-certified Java Architect over anyone without the certification any day. That certification isn't easy and unlike other industry certifications, it really requires you to think out of the box, which in ours eyes is what is really neeeded in the hosting world as nothing is ever as it first appears due to the tremendous number of variables.

[getnetworks]

FYI, following the Jakarta docs to a 'T' takes us a whopping 20 minutes to have Tomcat up and running, and integrated with Apache using the connectors. This is on any of the flavors of RH, including Enterprise).

And once you get one done through compilation, it only takes about 10-15 minutes to deploy compiled binaries rather than recompiling on each server (assuming your servers are exact replicas).

[kris1351]

You can take the shots if you like, I worked for Sun for 2 years and have been a Sun certified engineer since 1996. I have supported the Java architects and most don't know their way around a box. Anyone can read/study and take a test. I think people are more complaining about the fact that without integration there is more handwork involved. I personally don't care to offer Tomcat on servers and limit those that just have to have it to one server. It is what it is there for and there are truly only a handful of people that use it.

[dgbaker]

Well stated Kris, I as well am no sloutch (sp?) when it comes to java, certified BEA WebLogic. My main stay of business is supporting WebLogic and CMS for major corps.

Most of the issues we have ran into have been with the NOC setup's of the servers, two datacenters both supplying broken JDK installs and no working java environment at all.

As for any that have to tweak constantly?? Hire better admins, Tomcat should not have to played with very often at all. ONLY when adding something new you may need to tune it. Sounds more like techs trying to do "make work" to justify their existence.

Anyway I am not going to get into a battle of wits on this. For those that have it working, good for you, glad your contributing to the community with knowledge (sarc).

As for the others we are beta testing a new installer for RHE and Fedora we put together, major pre-req is that you must be running j2sdk 1.4.2 and have glibc updated to 2.3 as well. Several NOC's are not installing to this level so you need to upgrade it yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Run java -version to see what version you're on. If you have glibc symbol error that means you need updating as well.