Introduction:

Apache Tomcat is a popular open-source web server and servlet container that allows you to run Java-based web applications. In this blog post, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of installing and configuring Apache Tomcat on an AWS EC2 instance. Additionally, we’ll show you how to manage Tomcat using command-line tools and access the Tomcat web interface.

Step 1: Install Java on the Machine

• • SSH into your EC2 instance. 
  • Install Java using the amazon-linux-extras command.

#sudo amazon-linux-extras install java-openjdk11 -y

Step 2: Install Apache Tomcat

• • Switch to the root user.

#sudo su -

• • Navigate to the /opt directory.

#cd /opt

• • Download the Apache Tomcat binary.

wget https://dlcdn.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-10/v10.1.11/bin/apache-tomcat-10.1.11.tar.gz

• • Unzip the Tomcat binary.

tar -xvzf apache-tomcat-10.1.11.tar.gz

Step 3: Add Execute Permission to Startup and Shutdown Scripts

• • Change the current directory to the Tomcat bin folder.

cd apache-tomcat-10.1.11/bin

• • Add execute permission to the ‘startup.sh’ and ‘shutdown.sh’ scripts.

chmod +x startup.sh chmod +x shutdown.sh

Step 4: Create Links for Tomcat Server Start and Stop

• • Create symbolic links for easy Tomcat server startup and shutdown.

ln -s /opt/apache-tomcat-10.1.11/bin/startup.sh /usr/local/bin/tomcatup ln -s /opt/apache-tomcat-10.1.11/bin/shutdown.sh /usr/local/bin/tomcatdown

Step 5: Configure Tomcat

• • Find all the ‘context.xml’ files within the Tomcat directory.

cd /opt/apache-tomcat-10.1.11 find -name context.xml

• • Open each context.xml file using a text editor (vim) and comment the line with the RemoteAddrValve.

For Example:

<!-- <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve" allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" /> -->

Step 6: Update User Information in tomcat-users.xml

• • Open the ‘tomcat-users.xml’ file for editing.

cd /opt/apache-tomcat-10.1.11/conf vi tomcat-users.xml

• • Add the following lines between the <tomcat-users> tags to set up user roles.

<role rolename="manager-gui"/> <role rolename="manager-script"/> <role rolename="manager-jmx"/> <role rolename="manager-status"/> <user username="admin" password="admin" roles="manager-gui,manager-script,manager-jmx,manager-status"/> <user username="deployer" password="deployer" roles="manager-script"/> <user username="tomcat" password="s3cret" roles="manager-gui"/>

• • Save the file and exit the text editor.

Step 7: Start the Tomcat Server

• • Start the Tomcat server using the symbolic link.

tomcatup

Step 8: Access the Tomcat Web Interface

• • Open your web browser and navigate to <http://<your_server_public_ip>:8080.>
  • You will see the Tomcat web interface, and you can log in using the credentials you set up in the Tomcat-users.xml file.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Apache Tomcat on your AWS EC2 instance. Now you can start deploying Java-based web applications and use Tomcat’s management interface to monitor and control your applications.