Starting Tomcat Service when starting CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

Question

I want to install tomcat 8 and run it at startup time

I am following these tutorials:

1. Install Tomcat 7 on CentOS, RHEL, or Fedora
2. How to install Tomcat 8 on a CentOS 6 VPS

I created the tomcat user:

# useradd -U -r -M -d /usr/local/ServerWeb/tomcat -s /sbin/nologin tomcat

The file was in /etc/init.d/tomcat

In the option 1:

#!/bin/bash  
# description: Tomcat Start Stop Restart  
# processname: tomcat  
# chkconfig: 234 20 80  
JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk
export JAVA_HOME
PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH
TOMCAT_HOME=/usr/local/tomcat
TOMCAT_USER=tomcat

case $1 in  
start)  
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh  
;;   
stop)     
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh  
;;   
restart)  
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh  
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh  
;;   
esac      
exit 0  

In the Option 2:

#!/bin/bash
#
# tomcat
#
# chkconfig: - 80 20
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: tomcat
# Required-Start: $network $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $syslog
# Default-Start:
# Default-Stop:
# Description: Tomcat 
# Short-Description: start and stop tomcat
### END INIT INFO

## Source function library.
#. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk
export JAVA_OPTS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 \
  -Dnet.sf.ehcache.skipUpdateCheck=true \
  -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
  -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled \
  -XX:+UseParNewGC \
  -XX:MaxPermSize=128m \
  -Xms512m -Xmx512m"
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
TOMCAT_HOME=/usr/local/tomcat
TOMCAT_USER=tomcat
SHUTDOWN_WAIT=20

tomcat_pid() {
  echo `ps aux | grep org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $2 }'`
}

start() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ] 
  then
    echo "Tomcat is already running (pid: $pid)"
  else
    # Start tomcat
    echo "Starting tomcat"
    ulimit -n 100000
    umask 007
    /bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh
  fi


  return 0
}

stop() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Stoping Tomcat"
    /bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh

    let kwait=$SHUTDOWN_WAIT
    count=0;
    until [ `ps -p $pid | grep -c $pid` = '0' ] || [ $count -gt $kwait ]
    do
      echo -n -e "\nwaiting for processes to exit";
      sleep 1
      let count=$count+1;
    done

    if [ $count -gt $kwait ]; then
      echo -n -e "\nkilling processes which didn't stop after $SHUTDOWN_WAIT seconds"
      kill -9 $pid
    fi
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi

  return 0
}

case $1 in
start)
  start
;; 
stop)   
  stop
;; 
restart)
  stop
  start
;;
status)
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Tomcat is running with pid: $pid"
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi
;; 
esac    
exit 0

I don't understand why this is needed in the start of option 2:

ulimit -n 100000
umask 007

I changed the ownership with chown -Rvh tomcat: /usr/local/tomcat/

Later

# chmod +x /etc/init.d/tomcat
# chkconfig --add tomcat`

But after restarting the CentOS 6.6, the service is not running.

Testing:

$ echo $JAVA_HOME
$ 

$ echo $PATH
/usr/lib/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/home/IntUser/bin
$

In other words $JAVA_HOME and $PATH aren't assigned!!!

Trying to start manually (I did not assign password to tomcat user, which password should I use?):

$ service tomcat start
Password: 
/bin/su: incorrect password
$ 

Running as root, I was checking:

# service tomcat start
This account is currently not available.
# 

Checking the account:

# finger tomcat
Login: tomcat                   Name: Tomcat User
Directory: /usr/local/tomcat    Shell: /sbin/nologin
Never logged in.
No mail.
No Plan.
# 


# more /etc/passwd | grep tomcat
tomcat:x:493:490:Tomcat User:/usr/local/tomcat:/sbin/nologin
# 

Checking the ownership:

# ls -al /usr/local/tomcat/
total 120
drwxr-xr-x.  9 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 09:29 .
drwxr-xr-x. 20 root   root    4096 Jun 27 09:29 ..
drwxr-xr-x.  2 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 09:29 bin
drwxr-xr-x.  3 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 11:04 conf
drwxr-xr-x.  2 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 09:29 lib
-rw-r--r--.  1 tomcat tomcat 56977 May 19 15:03 LICENSE
drwxr-xr-x.  2 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 11:04 logs
-rw-r--r--.  1 tomcat tomcat  1397 May 19 15:03 NOTICE
-rw-r--r--.  1 tomcat tomcat  6741 May 19 15:03 RELEASE-NOTES
-rw-r--r--.  1 tomcat tomcat 16204 May 19 15:03 RUNNING.txt
drwxr-xr-x.  2 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 09:29 temp
drwxr-xr-x.  7 tomcat tomcat  4096 May 19 15:00 webapps
drwxr-xr-x.  3 tomcat tomcat  4096 Jun 27 11:04 work
# 

Please help me.

Question 1: The script was created in: /etc/init.d/tomcat. Why were $JAVA_HOME and $PATH not assigned?

Question 2 Is there a method to install a service without root privileges, that starts at boot time without intervention (e.g., sudo, su, etc)?

Solution

Neither of the tutorials you mentioned suggest using useradd with all of those options. By setting the login shell to /sbin/nologin you encounter:

incorrect password 

and

This account is currently not available

The following command will cause tomcat to be a system account without a /home/tomcat directory:

useradd -r tomcat --shell /bin/false

And this command will create a non-system tomcat account with a /home/tomcat directory:

useradd tomcat --shell /bin/false

EDIT:

You are correct about the similarities of /sbin/nologin and /bin/false. The install instructions from Option #2 in the OP seem to be somewhat incomplete. I suggest using just one set of instructions until tomcat is working.

This is the Tomcat 8 version of Option #1 you provided. I suggest using only these instructions to get your installation working. (It looks like mixing and matching is causing some grief.) By doing this, you will avoid other issues like your $JAVA_HOME and $PATH not being exported (Question 1) and Question 2 will be answered as well.

Notice in your Option #1 script, you have lines like this:

/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh   
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh  
/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh

However the Option #1 link you provided has these lines:

sh $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh       
sh $CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh  
sh $CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh  
sh $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh 

Comments

[Lluís Alemany-Puig]

Thank you, Is bad idea to use --shell /bin/false ? and with creating the account -r is better to use System account or not?

[Timothy Martin]

This does a great job of explaining /sbin/nologin and /bin/false. As for -r or not, perhaps someone else can answer.

[Lluís Alemany-Puig]

I was check your link your post and it has the same effect (only the difference is the additional message for -s /sbin/nologin). And Option 2 uses # useradd -r tomcat8 --shell /bin/false ... In other words -s /sbin/nologin or --shell /bin/false will cause the same problem. This post shows this.