In the past, I haven't generally installed java and tomcat on linux machines in the standard ways, because when I started doing that, the easiest way to do the installs was to download the packages and install in /usr/local, setting up symlinks where necessary. But now I think would be a good time to start doing things the standard ways, which should in 2012 be much better than they were in 1998. At least, I hope so!
Note that I am doing all this using sudo. It is not always installed on debian systems, and you may prefer to do this as the root user.
Preferred versions of java and tomcat are Oracle's Sun java SE 6 (the JDK) and apache tomcat 5.5.35 respectively (even though end of life for 5.5.35 is September 2012). So to start with, install java from the debian packages, following the useful instructions at http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/09/how-to-install-java-on-ubunt-debiau/:
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package sun-java6-jdk is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package 'sun-java6-jdk' has no installation candidate
Looks as though the repository which contains sun-java6-jdk is missing. It's in the non-free repository, which can be added by adding "non-free" at the end of the first two uncommented lines in /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian squeeze main non-free deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian squeeze main non-free
(I used vi to do this.) Then update the list of packages:
$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
and indicate acceptance of the license which is displayed (press tab to select, return to activate it) - you should have to do this for two different screens. Check that this is now working, with:
$ java -version java version "1.6.0_26" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_26-b03) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.1-b02, mixed mode)
Success. Now set up the environment variables for to enable tomcat to find this java when started using sudo. Edit /etc/bash.bashrc and add
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/
export JAVA_HOME
as a new last line. (This method will also work if you wish to start and stop tomcat while logged in as root, but will only be picked up the next time you log in, not in the current session.) To make this value be set each time sudo is used, edit /etc/sudoers and add the line
Defaults env_keep += "JAVA_HOME"
after the existing Defaults line(s).
So now I need to install tomcat. The problem here is that the debian packages are now version 6, and Sakai 2.8 is not compatible with this version, despite an end of life date of September 2012. This is not the only problem, as according to http://www.crazysquirrel.com/computing/debian/servers/debian-tomcat-package.jspx, installation from the debian package is not recognised as valid by Eclipse, and this could well cause problems later if I want to use Eclipse for development - though I would be running Eclipse on my laptop, not on the server, hopefully. It's also worrying that the release notes for tomcat 5.5.35 indicate that it requires the Java JRE 5.0 by default, rather than Java 6 as recommended by the Sakai WIKI.
However, the strongest statement seems to me to be that Sakai 2.8 is not compatible with tomcat version 6. So I think that I'll need to install tomcat 5.5.35 from source. (The best option, given infinite time, would be to wait for the release of Sakai CLE 2.9, but my timetable does not permit that.) I'll follow the instructions on the crazysquirrel link already listed, as I can never keep the details of how to set up the Apache-to-tomcat connectors in my head.
Download the binary core distribution files from http://tomcat.apache.org/download-55.cgi?Preferred=http%3A%2F%2Fmirrors.ukfast.co.uk%2Fsites%2Fftp.apache.org%2F. The VM I'm using has been set up so that I can't connect from it to random sites on the Internet, so I download the file to my desktop and copy it to the VM.. I now have apache-tomcat-5.5.35.tar.gz sitting in my development space home directory. Actually installing tomcat is easy:
$ sudo mv apache-tomcat-5.5.35.tar.gz /usr/local
$ cd /usr/local $ sudo tar zxvf apache-tomcat-5.5.35.tar.gz $ sudo ln -s apache-tomcat-5.5.35 tomcat
$ cd
The symlink created in the last step is intended to make life easier: when upgrading tomcat, it shouldn't then be necessary to re-configure everything to point to the new location of tomcat.
As with java, system-wide environment variables should be set up. Edit /etc/bash.bashrc and add
CATALINA_HOME='/usr/local/tomcat' PATH=$PATH:$CATALINA_HOME/bin export JAVA_HOME CATALINA_HOME PATH
(The last line replaces the last line from the java installation step.)
Third step - set up mod_proxy_ajp. This is the simplest way to link apache and tomcat, though some people prefer mod_jk. mod_proxy_ajp is compiled into the debian apache2 package, but is not loaded. The same is true of the other proxy modules, some of which are needed for mod_proxy_ajp to work. To fix this, add symlinks for each proxy module configuration file from /etc/apache2/mods-available to /etc/apache2/mods-enabled:
$ cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled $ sudo ln -s ../mods-available/proxy* . $ cd
Now configure mod_proxy_ajp. There should already be a connector configured at the tomcat end listening on port 8009 (look in /usr/local/tomcat/conf/server.xml to check). Apache will also need to be configured. I decided that access to Sakai should be via the URL /sakai, so my extra configuration looks like this:
AddDefaultCharset Off Order deny,allow Allow from all ProxyPass /sakai ajp://localhost:8009/] ProxyPassReverse /sakai ajp://localhost:8009
This needs to go in /etc/apache2/sites-available/default between the last and the ErrorLog directive.
Finally, restart apache:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload Reloading web server config: apache2.
and start tomcat:
$ sudo /usr/local/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
The remaining component to the server environment (load balancing being unnecessary in the development context) which needs to be set up is the database. The Sakai 2.8 release notes give a choice of Oracle or MySQL, and in the development environment, MySQL is clearly the right choice. Run
$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
and all the needed mysql packages will be installed, including the command line client. You will be asked to change the root password for the installation as part of the installation process, and at the end of it the MySQL server will be started.
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