How to Install and Configure Apache Tomcat 9 in CentOS

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Apache Tomcat version 9.0 implements the Servlet 4.0 and JavaServer Pages 2.3 specifications from the Java Community Process, and includes many additional features that make it a useful platform for developing and deploying web applications and web services.

Update the System.

yum update && yum upgrade -y

Installing and Configure Java.

yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

Verify Installed Java version using below command,

java -version

Output:

[root@vps ~]# java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_302"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_302-b08)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.302-b08, mixed mode)

Create Tomcat system user.

sudo useradd -m -U -d /opt/tomcat -s /bin/false tomcat

Installing Apache Tomcat 9

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cd /usr/local

wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.21/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.21.tar.gz

Extract the Package and Rename package name using below command,

tar -xvzf apache-tomcat-9.0.21.tar.gz

mv apache-tomcat-9.0.21 /opt/tomcat

Change Permission and Owenership of the Tomcat directory,

chown -R tomcat: /opt/tomcat

chmod o+x /opt/tomcat/bin/

Configure CATALINA_HOME environment variable using below command,

echo "export CATALINA_HOME="/usr/local/tomcat9"" >> ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc

To run Tomcat as a service, Create tomcat.service file in the /etc/systemd/system directory.

Paste the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Tomcat 9 servlet container
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking

User=tomcat
Group=tomcat

Environment="JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre"
Environment="JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/"

Environment="CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-9.0.21"
Environment="CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-9.0.21"
Environment="CATALINA_PID=/opt/tomcat/latest/temp/tomcat.pid"
Environment="CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC"

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-9.0.21/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-9.0.21/bin/shutdown.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start and Enable the Tomcat service.

systemctl daemon-reload

systemctl enable tomcat

systemctl start tomcat

Check status of Tomcat service using below command,

systemctl status tomcat

Output:

[root@vps ~]# systemctl status tomcat
● tomcat.service - Tomcat 9 servlet container
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-09-27 11:05:34 EDT; 22min ago
  Process: 12490 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-9.0.21/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 12500 (java)
   CGroup: /system.slice/tomcat.service
           └─12500 /usr/lib/jvm/jre/bin/java -Djava.util.log...

Now open your browser, go to your IP or Domain with the 8080 port to see Tomcat dashboard,

http://Your_IP:8080

Done.