Installing Tomcat on CentOS

Continuing in setting up my CentOS server, the next thing I need is to get Hudson setup. Before I can get Hudson up and running I’ll need to get Tomcat installed. I could of course use Winstone which will get me up and running, but I know I will need Tomcat soon for some other things as well so might as well get it setup now.

The Setup

Install some base packages

# yum install rpm-build gcc-java

Add jpackage repository to your yum repos

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
# wget https://jpackage.org/jpackage.repo
# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/jpackage.repo

set enabled = 1 on all repo files and save the .repo file. Next update yum.

# yum update

Download and install some SRPMs.

# cd /usr/local/src
# wget ftp://jpackage.hmdc.harvard.edu/mirrors/JPackage/1.7/generic/non-free/SRPMS/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.11-1jpp.nosrc.rpm
# wget ftp://jpackage.hmdc.harvard.edu/mirrors/JPackage/1.6/generic/non-free/SRPMS/jta-1.0.1-0.b.4jpp.nosrc.rpm

Download some required files to /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES:

# cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES

Download jta-1_0_1B-classes.zip here after agreeing to the license.
Download jdk-1_5_0_11-linux-i586.bin, again after agreeing to a license.
Build and install the rpms.

# rpmbuild --rebuild /usr/local/src/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.11-1jpp.nosrc.rpm
# rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0-11-1jpp.i586.rpm
# rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/java-1.5.0-sun-devel-1.5.0.11-1jpp.i586.rpm
# rpmbuild --rebuild --without javadoc /usr/local/src/jta-1.0.1-0.b.4jpp.nosrc.rpm
# rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/jta-1.0.1-0.b.4jpp.noarch.rpm

Now install tomcat

# yum install tomcat5 tomcat5-webapps tomcat5-admin-webapps

note: if you get a dependency error at this point, like I did at first, try this solution for updating your jpackage-utils http://blog.sixsigns.com/2008/07/11/java-142-gcj-compati386-update-problem-on-centos/ which basically is to install the http://dev.centos.org/centos/5/testing/i386/RPMS/jpackage-utils-1.7.5-1jpp.1.el5.centos.noarch.rpm package and update yum

At this point you should be able to navigate to your ip on port 8080 and see the default tomcat page