Installation instructions for tomcat on CentOS 7

tomcat_install_steps.md

1. Install Java on the VM by running the command

   yum -y install java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64

2. Check the version of Java installed

   java –version

3. Create a dedicated user for Apache Tomcat. For security purposes, you need to create a dedicated non-root user "tomcat" who belongs to the "tomcat" group:

   groupadd tomcat
    useradd -s /bin/nologin -g tomcat -d /opt/tomcat tomcat

   Note: In this fashion, you created a user "tomcat" who belongs to the group "tomcat". You cannot use this user account to log into the system. The home directory is /opt/tomcat, which is where the Apache Tomcat program will reside.

4. Downloading apache tomcat from internet.

   wget http://www-us.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.0.41/bin/apache-tomcat-8.0.41.tar.gz

5. Unizip the file

   tar -zxvf apache-tomcat-8.0.41.tar.gz -C /opt/tomcat --strip-components=1

6. Set up the systemd unit file for tomcat for convenience (Enter the below content in the editor and then save and quit)

   vi /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
    After=syslog.target network.target
   
    [Service]
    Type=forking
   
    Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.8.0
    Environment=CATALINA_PID=/opt/tomcat/temp/tomcat.pid
    Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat
    Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat
    #Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC'
    Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom'
   
    ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
    ExecStop=/bin/kill -15 $MAINPID
   
    User=tomcat
    Group=tomcat
   
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    

7. Change the file permission on /opt/tomcat directory

   chmod -R 777 /opt/tomcat

8. Start tomcat service :

   systemctl start tomcat.service

9. Open firewall port 8080 on VM to access Apache webpage from host machine browser

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

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If firewalld is not installed, install by running "yum install firewalld" and then start the service using "systemctl start firewalld"

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10. Reload the firewall settings

    firewall-cmd --reload

I have installed tomcat in /apps/tomcat/ directory and was facing the issue:
SELinux is preventing /usr/lib/systemd/systemd from execute access on the file startup.sh.
Fixed it by using:
chcon -R -t bin_t /apps/tomcat/bin/