Download Tomcat

The System Administrator should have set up a linked directory structure like [c:]/opt/tomcat. The details of this may differ between installations so from this point on, the “root” tomcat directory will be referred to as $TOMCAT.

Download the appropriate version of Tomcat from tomcat.apache.org and unpack (unzip/uncompress) into the $TOMCAT. (Refer to System Requirements and Compatibility for supported versions).

Install Tomcat

Some instructions are given here for installing Tomcat, and making it run as a service. You should ensure that any installation meets with your company standards.

• For Windows instructions, see Install Tomcat on Windows.
• For Unix/Linux instructions, see Install Tomcat on Linux.

Configure Tomcat

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configureTomcat configureTomcat

Having completed the basic Tomcat installation, stop the Tomcat service then make the following changes:

conf/context.xml: Configure the Cache

The default Tomcat cache settings are insufficient for PhixFlow:

Edit $TOMCAT/conf/context.xml:

Add <Resources ... /> to at the end of the <Context/> block so that the file looks something like this:

<Context>
    <!-- lines omitted -->
	<Resources allowLinking="true" cachingAllowed="true" cacheMaxSize="1000000" />
</Context>

conf/server.xml: Configure the Connector and

add user to access messages

To configure the connector: 

1. Edit $TOMCAT/conf/server.xml:
2. Find the line starting <Connector port="8080".
3. Edit the <Connector block:
   • to use the required port number (port="8080").
     Tomcat defaults to port 8080 for HTTP, but you may need to use a different port if you are running other web servers on the same host.
   • to enable compression (compression="on").
4. After editing, the <Connector/> block should look like this:

<!-- Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080 -->
<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
           connectionTimeout="20000"
           redirectPort="8443"
           maxPostSize="20971520"
           compression="on"/>

Remember to enable this port in the server’s firewall (if enabled).

Disable the AJP connection

For versions older than 8.5.50:

To add the user to the access messages:

• Find the Access Log Value message pattern. This is usually near the bottom of the file and looks like:

    <!-- Define an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 -->  pattern="%h %l %u <Connector%t port="8009%r" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8443%s %b" />

• Add %{username}s to the pattern to add the user into access messages - make sure you include the "s" character after the curly brackets. (These log messages appear in the system log files localhost_access_log.<date>.txt; for futher details, see Server Log Files). The pattern should now appear as:

    <!-- Define an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 -->  pattern="%h %l  <!-- <Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8443%u %t "%r" %{username}s %s %b" /> -->

web.xml: Configure Session Timeout and the Secure Flag on Cookies

Session timeout

The default session timeout period is 30 minutes. You can change this to a different period e.g. 12 hours (720 minutes) by doing the following:

1. Edit $TOMCAT/conf/web.xml
2. Find the line containing <session-timeout.
3. Change the session timeout period from its default value (30 mins). Once changed, it should look something like this (this example shows a 12-hour timeout).

<session-config>
	<session-timeout>720</session-timeout>
</session-config>

Secure flag on cookies

If you are going to set up an encrypted connection to PhixFlow, i.e. access via HTTPS (see /wiki/spaces/INTRANET/pages/97734787), you may also want to set the secure flag on cookies. This is a further security measure that reduces the risk of the cookies that PhixFlow creates being maliciously used to gain unauthorised access, and is a commonly used setting for web applications (https://www.owasp.org/index.php/SecureFlag). To do this, add a <cookie-config> block to the <session-config> block in the web.xml file, as in the example below.

<session-config>
    <session-timeout>720</session-timeout>
    <cookie-config>
       <http-only>true</http-only>
       <secure>true</secure> 
    </cookie-config>
</session-config>

Pre-installed Web Applications

These are the pre-installed web apps, in more detail.

Database JDBC Drivers

The drivers needed to connect to PhixFlow’s own database are included within the release pack and no action is needed.

If you want to connect, via a Datasource, to an external database, you can rely on the bundled drivers to connect to any database that is one of PhixFlow's supported technologies and versions for its own connection - see System Requirements and Compatibility. If the external database is not covered by these, you will need to install a JDBC driver to support these connections. These JDBC drivers are available from the database suppliers, and must be placed in:

[tomcat home]/lib

For information on using SQLServer with Integrated Authentication, see MS SQL Server Integrated Authentication.

Optional: apply recommended log management