Configuring Tomcat5 and Apache2 with Virtual Hosts using mod_jk

Version 1.0

Author: C. Troy Popplewell

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Last edited: 02/10/2006

Overview

This tutorial explains how I was able to setup a web server in order to support Java Server Pages (JSP) and Servlets using virtually hosted websites. Although this setup worked for this particular environment, I can make no guarantees that it will work for yours, but it should with some tweaking. I’ll explain later on. I have spent a lot of time gathering several resources in order to get this to work. Many portions of these resources have been deprecated and required a few workarounds. It is my intention that this tutorial will help anyone that has attempted to install such a system without success. If you find any inconsistencies within this tutorial, please notify me at the email address above.

Outlook

The ultimate goal is to provide instructions on how to incorporate JSP/Servlet support on the ISPConfig web hosting software. I felt it was necessary to provide this first segment separately for those that do not wish to use the ISPConfig web hosting control panel.

System Details

The system used in this tutorial has the following installed:

Operating System: Debian Sarge (3.1) http://www.debian.org/

Webserver: Apache 2.0.54 http://www.apache.org/

JDK: JDK 5.0 http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp

Servlet Container: Tomcat http://tomcat.apache.org/

Tomcat Connector: Jakarta Tomcat Connector mod_jk (not mod_jk2)

Debian Sarge (3.1)

If you plan on utilizing ISPConfig to host your websites with Debian Sarge, I highly recommend the how-to provided by Falko Timme here: The Perfect Setup - Debian Sarge (3.1) which prepares your system to support ISPConfig. There are “Perfect Setup� tutorials for other distributions as well. Otherwise, you should be able to find many other resources on the internet for installing Debian. This tutorial is specifically based on configuring Apache and Tomcat to work on Debian using the mod_jk connector.

Apache2

Since installing Apache is beyond the scope of this tutorial, I will assume that you already have Apache 2.0.x installed and running. If you need instructions on installing and configuring Apache 2.0.x please refer to the documentation at the Apache website. Again, you can also find instruction here: The Perfect Setup - Debian Sarge (3.1).

Installing JDK (Java Development Kit)

In order to run Tomcat, you will need to install JDK and set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to identify the location of the JDK environment on your system. I have chosen to use JDK 5.0.

1. You can download JDK 5.0 at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp.

2. Click on Download JDK 5.0 Update 6 to go to the download page.

3. Click Accept to accept the license agreement.

4. Next choose the Linux self-extracting file. This is the download for the self-extracting binary file rather than the rpm.

5. Download to your preferred download directory. Change to that directory and make it executable by executing the following command:

6. Now execute the file:

7. You should now have a new directory called j2sdk1.5-sun. Now move this directory to the location where it should be run. I chose /usr/lib/.

8. Now create a symbolic link called jdk to JAVA_HOME by the following command. This allows you to easily switch back and forth between different jvms should you ever need to

8. Now we need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. Add the following at the end of /etc/profile just after export PATH.

/etc/profile is executed at startup and when a user logs into the system. In order to update the environment you will need to log out and log back in to the system.

10. Check to make sure JAVA_HOME is defined correctly by executing the command below. This should report the location of the Java SDK which should be /usr/lib/jdk.

11. Now test Java with the following command. You should be returned with /usr/bin/java. If so, you have successfully completed this section.

Installing Tomcat

In this section you will download and install Apache Tomcat 5.5.15. For this particular setup, there is no need to build the package from source, we will download the binary version.

1. Download the binary version to your preferred download directory from here: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-55.cgi. Choose the tar.gz from the core section for 5.5.15.

2. Now change to that directory and extract the files using the following command:

3. You should now have a new directory called apache-tomcat-5.5.15. Now move this directory to the location where it should be installed. Again, I chose /usr/lib/. Note that this location will be referred to as CATALINA_HOME in the Tomcat documentation.

4. Next change to the /usr/lib/ directory.

5. Now create a symbolic link called apache-tomcat to CATALINA_HOME by the following command.

This will save you from having to make changes to startup and shutdown scripts each time you upgrade Tomcat and if you so desire, it also allows you to keep several versions of Tomcat on your system and easily switch amongst them.

6. You should now be able to start and stop Tomcat from the CATALINA_HOME/bin directory. If you are using another shell other than the bash shell you will nee to add sh to the beginning of the command. You should now be able to test that Tomcat is installed by starting it and opening your browser and entering http://localhost:8080 into your browser. Port 8080 is the default port for Tomcat and can be easily changed in the /usr/lib/apache-tomcat/conf/server.xml file. (We will work with this file later on.) If you plan to access this page remotely, be sure to forward the respective port to your server’s IP address within your router. You should now see the Tomcat welcome page that contains links to Tomcat documentation as well as sample JSP/Servlet scripts. Verify that Tomcat is running by executing some of the examples found on the welcome page.

To shutdown the server, you will need to execute the following command. Feel free to try it, but for now we will leave Tomcat running.