How to Install Apache Tomcat 10 on Ubuntu 20.04

The Apache Foundation’s Tomcat is a free and open-source web server that supports Java-based applications. Different java technology is supported by Apache Tomcat, including JavaServer Pages (JSP), JavaServlet, and Java Expression Language. Apache Tomcat may be installed from the Ubuntu software repository, which displays the latest, most stable version of Tomcat.

If you want to learn more about Apache Tomcat, visit:

http://tomcat.apache.org/.

The following article will demonstrate how to install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 20.04 with the Web Application Manager .

Step 1: Getting your system up and running

1. Sign in to your system or register a newly created one by logging in to your VPSie account. 
2. Connect by SSH using the credentials we emailed you.
3. Once you have logged into your Ubuntu instance, run these commands to update your system.

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Java

Java runtime environment (JRE) must be installed on your system. In order to install Tomcat 10, you need a JRE 8 or higher version on your system. Execute the following command. 

$ sudo apt update 
$ sudo apt install default-jdk -y

Check the JAVA verson:

# java -version
openjdk version "11.0.11" 2021-04-20
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.11+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.11+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Step 3: Set up a Tomcat user

It is recommended for production deployments to create a new user for security reasons. Using this command will create a new user and group in your system named “tomcat“.

sudo useradd -m -d /opt/tomcat -U -s /bin/false tomcat

Step 4: Install Tomcat 10

To download Tomcat 10, run the following command:

# sudo apt install wget
# wget https://downloads.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-10/v10.0.8/bin/apache-tomcat-10.0.8.tar.gz

Once the archive is downloaded, extract it as follows:

sudo tar xzvf apache-tomcat-10*tar.gz -C /opt/tomcat --strip-components=1 

Don’t forget to set the right file permissions.

# sudo chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/tomcat/ 
# sudo chmod -R u+x /opt/tomcat/bin

Now that you have the latest Tomcat application installed, you are ready to go.

Step 5: Create Tomcat User

Next, create user accounts to secure access to admin/manager pages. In order to do this, edit conf/tomcat-users.xml using your editor and paste the following code between the <tomcat-users> </tomcat-users> tags. This configuration should be changed to a more secure password.  

sudo nano /opt/tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml

Please enter the following values. Admin and manager passwords need to be changed and Close the file after saving.

<!-- user manager can access only manager section -->
<role rolename="manager-gui" />
<user username="manager" password="_SECRET_PASSWORD_" roles="manager-gui" />

<!-- user admin can access manager and admin section both -->
<role rolename="admin-gui" />
<user username="admin" password="_SECRET_PASSWORD_" roles="manager-gui,admin-gui" />

Step 6: Enable Remote Tomcat Access

Localhost is the only host accessible to Tomcat’s default manager and host manager. The following configuration files must be modified in order to allow remote access to this page.

sudo nano /opt/tomcat/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml

To allow connections from anywhere, remove the IP address restriction.

<Context antiResourceLocking="false" privileged="true" >
  <CookieProcessor className="org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Rfc6265CookieProcessor"
                   sameSiteCookies="strict" />
  <!-- <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
         allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" /> -->
  ...
</Context>

For the host manager application, edit context.xml as follows and Close the program after saving all files.

<Context antiResourceLocking="false" privileged="true" >
  <CookieProcessor className="org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Rfc6265CookieProcessor"
                   sameSiteCookies="strict" />
  <!--<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
         allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" /> -->
  ...
</Context>

Step 7: Create a Tomcat Systemd Unit File

To start and stop Tomcat, bash scripts are provided. But to make it easier, you can create a systemd startup script to manage Tomcat. The following content will be included in the tomcat.service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

 Unit]
Description=Tomcat
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking

User=tomcat
Group=tomcat

Environment="JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.11.0-openjdk-amd64"
Environment="JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/urandom"
Environment="CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat"
Environment="CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat"
Environment="CATALINA_PID=/opt/tomcat/temp/tomcat.pid"
Environment="CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC"

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then restart the systemd daemon and Launch the Tomcat application for the first time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

sudo systemctl start tomcat.service

Enable the Auto-start option for the Tomcat service

sudo systemctl enable tomcat.service

Execute the following command to check the service status,

sudo systemctl status tomcat.service

Execute the following command to check the service status,

tomcat.service - Tomcat
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since thu 2021-11-26 08:12:42 EST; 1h 31min ago
    Process: 481049 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 481056 (java)
      Tasks: 28 (limit: 4539)
     Memory: 268.2M

Step 8: Access Web Interface

Tomcat runs by default on port 8080. Your system can access the web interface after you have configured Tomcat on it. In your web browser, enter the IP address of your server or a domain name that points to the server, followed by port 8080:

http://{your ip/domain}:8080

Here is what your web experience will be like…