Installing Tcat Server

Tcat Server has been tested on the following operating systems:

You may download Tcat Server with or without a bundled JRE. If you install the installer package that comes with a bundled JRE, you do not need to install any other Java runtime. If you instead install the installer package that has no bundled JRE, you must install a separate Java runtime (JDK or JRE, either one works). On startup, Tcat Server uses the Java runtime that is pointed to by the JAVA_HOME or JRE_HOME environment variable. If neither of these environment variables points to a Java runtime, then Tcat Server automatically uses the bundled JRE. Check the value of the JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME variables on your server, since either or both may already point to a Java runtime that is already installed. Tcat Server tries to use JAVA_HOME first, and if Java runtime isn’t found, Tcat next tries JRE_HOME.

If you are installing and using your own JDK or JRE (instead of using the bundled JRE), ensure that you have a JDK or JRE 1.5.x or newere installed and that your JAVA_HOME or JRE_HOME environment variable is set correctly. For example, on Windows, choose the System utility from the Control Panel, click the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables, and then add the JAVA_HOME or JRE_HOME system variable.

By default, the Administration Console enables a user to edit files on any Tcat Server instance registered to it.

This property is set in the spring-services.xml file in the webapps/agent/WEB-INF/ directory: Below is the relevant snippet:

To disable this ability:

You may wish to rename your Tcat Server’s init script, either because you’re installing more than one copy of Tcat Server in a single operating system and you need to prevent an init script naming conflict, or because you want to invoke the init script using a different name. Tcat Server supports renaming the service.

First, make sure you shut down your Tcat/Tomcat instance whose service you want to rename:

Or, if you’re currently using a stock Tomcat package init script:

Switch to a root shell:

Set the new service name as an environment variable, along with the absolute path to the directory to the Tcat Server installation you’re changing the service name for:

Next, rename the init script symlinks to the new service name (copy and paste these commands – don’t type them in):

If any of the above "tcat6" files do not exist, it is because you installed Tcat Server’s agent webapp only, which is okay. You must pair the agent with the console before the agent unpacks its service scripts.

And, in your Tcat/Tomcat instance’s environment file, which is used for the JVM’s startup environment, change the service name setting (copy and paste this command – don’t type it in):

Exit from the root shell.

If you’re changing the service to install two or more Tcat Server installations in a single operating system, you should also ensure that the port numbers in Tomcat’s <tomcatHome>/conf/server.xml do not conflict, and also that the Tcat Server agent secure port number of each Tcat Server instance is unique (copy and paste these commands – don’t type them in):

Then inspect the agent.properties file to ensure the setting is correct.

The default agent secure port is 51443.

You’re now finished renaming the service. You can now start, stop, or restart Tcat Server using the service name you chose:

To start Tcat Server, navigate to the bin directory and enter the following at the prompt:

Or prefix tcat6 with the path to the bin directory to run the command from a different directory. To start the administration console, see below.

To stop Tcat Server, simply close the command window, or use:

You can also restart the server:

and get the server’s status and process ID:

By default, Tcat Server automatically starts after installation on Solaris 10 and newer, as part of the Solaris Service Management Framework (SMF). Or, without using SMF, you may also directly invoke Tcat Server’s init script, named “tcat6”. You may invoke the tcat6 script in Tcat’s bin/ directory, or in the path /etc/init.d/tcat6 if you installed Tcat with root privileges. By default you should use SMF, but if you have insufficient permissions to use SMF, then the tcat6 init script works. For any single Tcat Server installation, you should choose to invoke either SMF or the tcat6 init script, not both.

Using SMF, you may query the service to inspect its current state like this:

Or, if you’re not using SMF, you may query Tcat’s status like this:

To stop Tcat Server, disable its SMF service:

Or, if you’re not using SMF, you may stop Tcat Server like this:

To start Tcat Server from a disabled state, run:

Or, if you’re not using SMF, you may start Tcat Server like this:

You can also restart the server via SMF like this:

Or, if you’re not using SMF, you may restart Tcat Server like this:

Navigate to the Tomcat bin directory and enter the following command at the terminal prompt:

To stop a Tcat Server instance, enter the following command:

To run the administration console, enter http://localhost:8080/console` in your web browser, replacing localhost:8080 with the correct server name and port where the console is deployed. You can now select and register one or more of the unregistered servers, adding them to server groups as needed. For more details, see Working with Servers.