% TOMCAT-SERVER-MANAGER(8) Tomcat Server Manager % Sebastian Himberger % July 2, 2011
Name
tomcat-server-manager - Manages multiple Tomcat instances
Synopsis
tomcat-server-manager [command] [options]... /etc/init.d/tomcat-servers [command] [instance]
Description
Tomcat Server Manager is a package which helps you manage multiple Tomcat instances on a single Debian/Ubuntu host. It provides the following features:
- Providing an init-script for multiple Tomcat instances
- Running multiple Tomcat instances under different accounts
- A command line interface to manage instances (creation, deletion)
- A convention on how to structure the configuration files
Usage of the management script
The management script (tomcat-server-manager) provides an interactive help. The basic usage pattern is the following:
tomcat-server-manager <command> --param1=<value> --param2=<value>
For example:
tomcat-server-manager create-instance --instance-name=foo ...
Each command has required and optional parameters. It will fail if a required parameter is not specified. A full list of available commands including some description is available via interactive help:
tomcat-server-manager help
You can access the help for a single command in the following way:
tomcat-server-manager help --command=create-instance
Just substitute "create-instance" for the command name you want to access the help for.
Usage of the service wrapper
The service wrapper supports the usual options required for system services (start|stop|restart|cond-restart|status). But unlike other services there are multiple instances managed by this script. If you invoke the wrapper in the normal way the action is performed for all instances. For example:
/etc/init.d/tomcat-servers restart
Will restart all tomcat instances. You can specify the instance name after the main command to only affect one instance. For example:
/etc/init.d/tomcat-servers restart myinstance
Will only restart the instance named "myinstance".
Additionally to the standard command you can also invoke the "console" command. This command has to be invoked with an instance. Instead of starting a background service it will drop you right into the console of the started instance. This can be useful for debugging purposes. Example:
/etc/init.d/tomcat-servers console myinstance
This will start the instance "myinstance" and attach your current session to the console.
Adding a web app to an instance
The usual tomcat way is to put your applications inside the "webapps" directory of CATALINA_HOME. The way suggested by this application is to store your applications outside the CATALINA_HOME for example under "/srv/webapps" and add your webapps using a context XML file. To do so create a file like the following under "/etc/tomcat-servers/instances/$YOURINSTANCE/contexts-available/mywebapp.xml". The file should have the following content:
<Context path="/mywebapp" docBase="/srv/webapps/mywebapp" >
</Context>
This way you can add additional configuration parameters to the webapp. After creating the XML file create a symlink pointing to it in "/etc/tomcat-servers/instances/$YOURINSTANCE/contexts-enabled".
Directory Structure
The relevant directories for this application are:
- /var/lib/tomcat-servers: This is where the runtime instance information (temp files, logs, ...) is stored
- /etc/tomcat-servers/: This is where the application and instance configuration is stored
Environment Variables
You can add custom environment variables to an instance by editing it's conf/catalina.properties file with an entry in the following form.
env.MY_EVIRONMENT_VAR=my_value
The variable will be made available to the instance.
Options
The options are available via interactive help.
Contact
You can find more about this project at GitHub: https://github.com/shimberger/tomcat-server-manager