Apache Tomcat^®

Apache® and Apache Tomcat® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries.

TuxCare's Endless Lifecycle Support (ELS) for Apache Tomcat® provides security patches and selected bug fixes that are integral to the stable operation of applications running on these versions of Apache Tomcat® core components such as Coyote, Catalina, Jasper, etc. These components have either reached their end of standard support from vendors or have reached End of Life (EOL). Our ELS for Apache Tomcat® service is designed to provide solutions for organizations that are not yet ready to migrate to newer versions and that are seeking long-term stability for their legacy Apache Tomcat® applications.

This guide outlines the steps needed for Apache Tomcat® server setup and configuration.

Apache Tomcat® is also available for installation as a library for Maven and Gradle projects. You can find the corresponding instructions here.

Supported Versions

Apache Tomcat® 8.5.100, 9.0.46, 9.0.50, 9.0.75, 9.0.83, 9.0.87, 9.0.90, 9.0.100, 10.1.18, 10.1.42

Installation

Prerequisites

Java Development Kit (JDK) 7 or later installed (verify with java -version)
JAVA_HOME set to your JDK installation directory
Nexus repository access credentials (username and password) — contact sales@tuxcare.com
To browse available artifacts, visit TuxCare Nexus and click Sign in in the top right corner. You may need to refresh the page after logging in.

Linux Installation

Prepare a tomcat group
Create a tomcat group:
```
sudo groupadd tomcat
```
Create a tomcat user
Create a new user as a member of the tomcat group, with a home directory of /opt/tomcat and the login shell set to /bin/false.
```
sudo useradd -s /bin/false -g tomcat -d /opt/tomcat tomcat
```
Download the TuxCare build
Download from TuxCare using your credentials. For example, Apache Tomcat® 8.5.100:
```
curl -u USERNAME:PASSWORD -O https://nexus.repo.tuxcare.com/repository/els_java/org/apache/tomcat/tomcat/8.5.100-tuxcare.3/tomcat-8.5.100-tuxcare.3.tar.gz
```
Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with your actual credentials.
Create the installation directory and extract the archive
- Create the /opt/tomcat directory:
```
sudo mkdir -p /opt/tomcat
```
- Extract the archive into it:
```
sudo tar -xvzf tomcat-8.5.100-tuxcare.3.tar.gz -C /opt/tomcat --strip-components=1
```
Configure ownership and permissions
- Change to the installation directory:
```
cd /opt/tomcat
```
- Change ownership of the installation to the tomcat group:
```
sudo chgrp -R tomcat /opt/tomcat
```
- Give the tomcat group read access to conf and its contents, and execute access to the conf directory:
```
sudo chmod -R g+r conf
sudo chmod g+x conf
```
- Give the tomcat user write access to webapps, work, temp, and logs:
```
sudo chown -R tomcat webapps/ work/ temp/ logs/
```
Set CATALINA_HOME and reload the shell
- Add the following line at the end of your ~/.bashrc file, updating the path if needed.
```
export CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat
```
If you're using a different shell, you may need to edit ~/.bash_profile instead.
- Reload the shell configuration:
```
source ~/.bashrc
```
- Confirm the variable is set:
```
echo $CATALINA_HOME
```

Start Apache Tomcat®

sudo -u tomcat /opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh

Verify installation
- Go to http://localhost:8080/. You should see the default Apache Tomcat® homepage.
- Or check from the terminal (successful output is HTML from Tomcat®):
```
curl http://localhost:8080
```

Stop Apache Tomcat®

sudo -u tomcat /opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh

Windows Installation

Download Apache Tomcat®
Download the .zip archive from https://nexus.repo.tuxcare.com/repository/els_java/ using your credentials.
Extract the archive
Extract, for example, apache-tomcat-8.5.100-tuxcare.3.zip to the installation directory, e.g., C:\Tomcat.
Open Environment Variables
Right-click This PC → Properties → Advanced system settings → Environment Variables.
Set CATALINA_HOME
Add a new system variable with the value C:\Tomcat\apache-tomcat-8.5.100-tuxcare.3 (or your installation path).
Start Apache Tomcat®
Double-click C:\Tomcat\apache-tomcat-8.5.100-tuxcare.3\bin\startup.bat.
Verify installation
Go to http://localhost:8080/ in your browser. You should see the default Apache Tomcat® homepage.
Stop Apache Tomcat®
Double-click C:\Tomcat\apache-tomcat-8.5.100-tuxcare.3\bin\shutdown.bat.