Tomcat Installation

Download

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 Tomcat 8.0 from tomcat.apache.org and unpack (unzip/uncompress) into the $TOMCAT.

Installing on Unix / Linux

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.

Tomcat login scripts

Install the login scripts in tomcat login scripts into the tomcat user home directory. These scripts are correct as of Tomcat 8.0 but the PhixFlow consultant should confirm that no changes are needed because of environment differences or because of different version of Tomcat.

Installing on Windows

Run the tomcat installation program.

server.xml: Port Specification

Modify $TOMCAT/conf/server.xml to specify the port that PhixFlow will use (usually 8081). Find the following lines and change as needed:

<!-- Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080 -->
    <Connector
port="8081"
maxHttpHeaderSize="8192" …

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

web.xml: Session timeout

Modify $TOMCAT/conf/web.xml to change the Tomcat session timeout period from its default value (30 mins). Find the following lines and change as needed:

<session-config>
<session-timeout>1440</session-timeout>
</session-config>

Update <session-timeout> to the value you need, e.g. to 1440 (minutes i.e. 1 day).

Java and JVM Options

Download and install Java from java.com. Java JDK 1.8 is required (and version 1.8.0_74 or greater is recommended). The following JVM (Java Virtual Machine) options should be set to control (amongst other things) the amount of memory reserved for Tomcat and therefore made available for PhixFlow. The options are:

Option	Recommended Setting	Syntax
Initial Memory Pool	1024Mb on 32bit architecture. 40% of physical memory on x64 architecture. Consult your sys admin for recommended settings on virtual servers.	-Xms1024m
Max Memory Pool	As much as possible. 1024Mb on 32bit architecture. 75% of physical memory on x64 architecture. Consult your sys admin for recommended settings on virtual servers.	-Xmx1024m
Max PermGen Memory Pool	150Mb on 32bit. 1024Mb on x64.	-XX:MaxPermSize=150m
Garbage Collector Diagnostics	Enabled	-verbose:gc

To set JVM options:

Windows

Run the Tomcat Monitor
Open the Tomcat Monitor system tray Configure … menu
Select the Java tab
Set the Initial memory Pool (see table above)
Set the Max Memory Pool (see table above)
Add the following lines to the Java Options scrollable field:

-XX:MaxPermSize=150m
-verbose:gc
-Djava.awt.headless=true

Unix/Linux

If you have installed the scripts in Appendix A, these option will already be set however for clarity, these options are defined in the JAVA_OPTS environment variable set in the tomcat user’s shell startup file (e.g. .profile / .bash_profile / .cshrc in the user’s home directory – the actual startup file is determined by the user’s default shell settings).

JAVA_OPTS=’-Xms1024m -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=150m -verbose:gc -Djava.awt.headless=true’

Database JDBC Drivers

The drivers needed to connect to PhixFlow’s own database are now included in the release and do not have to be downloaded separately.

Drivers used to connect to external databases may still have to be downloaded.

For information on using SQLServer with Integrated Authentication, see SQLServer Integrated Authentication.

Start Tomcat

To start Tomcat:

Windows

Run the Tomcat Monitor.

Click on Right mouse menu -> Start Service

Unix

Login to the unix server as user tomcat.

unix> cd $TOMCAT
unix> startup.sh

Make tomcat run as a service

Windows

Run the Tomcat Monitor.
Right click on the Apache Tomcat icon in the system tray and select Configure …
On the ‘General’ tab:
Set Startup Type to Automatic.

Unix/ Linux

Note, in particular, that these instructions guide you to setting up tomcat to run as a service under the classic init mechanism on unix/ linux (System V) since this will be available on all platforms, but you should consider using Upstart, a more modern init mechanism that will be available on most modern unix/ linux distributions. Installation using upstart is widely covered on the web. Further, at some versions of tomcat, on certain unix/ linux distribution versions, tomcat can be installed with simply package commands - you can find these from a web search.

As the root user, install the “tomcat” script listed in in tomcat service scripts and create a softlink to it from the appropriate run-level directory. The actual run-level directories are specific to the particular unix variant.