Install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04

This article will take you through how to install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04. Apache Tomcat software is an open-source implementation of the Jakarta Servlet, Jakarta Server Pages, Jakarta Expression Language, Jakarta WebSocket, Jakarta Annotations and Jakarta Authentication specifications.

How to Install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04

• Update your packages using the command below.

sudo apt update

• Install Java on your system.

sudo apt install default-jdk

Sample output

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  ca-certificates-java default-jdk-headless default-jre
  default-jre-headless fonts-dejavu-extra java-common
  libatk-wrapper-java libatk-wrapper-java-jni libice-dev
  libpthread-stubs0-dev libsm-dev libx11-dev libxau-dev
  libxcb1-dev libxdmcp-dev libxt-dev openjdk-11-jdk
  openjdk-11-jdk-headless openjdk-11-jre openjdk-11-jre-headless
  x11proto-dev xorg-sgml-doctools xtrans-dev
Suggested packages:
  libice-doc libsm-doc libx11-doc libxcb-doc libxt-doc
  openjdk-11-demo openjdk-11-source visualvm fonts-ipafont-gothic
  fonts-ipafont-mincho fonts-wqy-microhei | fonts-wqy-zenhei
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ca-certificates-java default-jdk default-jdk-headless
  default-jre default-jre-headless fonts-dejavu-extra java-common
  libatk-wrapper-java libatk-wrapper-java-jni libice-dev
  libpthread-stubs0-dev libsm-dev libx11-dev libxau-dev
  libxcb1-dev libxdmcp-dev libxt-dev openjdk-11-jdk
  openjdk-11-jdk-headless openjdk-11-jre openjdk-11-jre-headless
  x11proto-dev xorg-sgml-doctools xtrans-dev
0 upgraded, 24 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 261 MB of archives.
After this operation, 412 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://ke.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 java-common all 0.72build2 [6,782 B]

Install Apache Tomcat

• Start by downloading Apache Tomcat, you can get the latest download link from the Apache Tomcat download page

sudo apt install wget

VER="10.0.23"
wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-10/v${VER}/bin/apache-tomcat-${VER}.tar.gz

• After downloading, extract it using the following command.

tar xvf apache-tomcat-${VER}.tar.gz

• Next, move the extracted files to the /user directory.

sudo mv apache-tomcat-${VER} /usr/share/apache-tomcat

• Then create an Apache Tomcat user using the following command.

sudo useradd -M -d /usr/share/apache-tomcat tomcat

• Give the user permission using the command below.

sudo chown -R tomcat /usr/share/apache-tomcat

• Next, allow one IP to access Apache Tomcat by adding it to the configuration file.

sudo nano /usr/share/apache-tomcat/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml

sudo nano /usr/share/apache-tomcat/webapps/host-manager/META-INF/context.xml

• In the above config files, add your IP address such as 192.168.5.30 as shown below.

<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
         allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1|192.168.5.30" />

• For Tomcat to be accessed by any IP address you have to remove the added IP.

<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
         allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" />

Secure Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04

• Open the users’ configuration file using the command below.

sudo nano /usr/share/apache-tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml

Then above </tomcat-users> add the configuration below. Note, replace YourStrongPassword with your real password.

Configure Systemd for Apache Tomcat

• Run the command below to create systemd file for Apache Tomcat.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

Copy the content below and paste it into the file created above.

[Unit]
Description=Tomcat
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking

User=tomcat
Group=tomcat

Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/default-java
Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true'

Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/usr/share/apache-tomcat
Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/usr/share/apache-tomcat
Environment=CATALINA_PID=/usr/share/apache-tomcat/temp/tomcat.pid

ExecStart=/usr/share/apache-tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start
ExecStop=/usr/share/apache-tomcat/bin/catalina.sh stop

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Next, run the following command to reload systemd daemon.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

• Then restart tomcat using the command below.

sudo systemctl restart tomcat

• Add tomcat on system boot applications.

sudo systemctl enable tomcat

• If you are using a firewall add Apache Tomcat

sudo ufw allow 8080

Access Apache Tomcat Web

• Open your web browser and enter your IP address followed by port 8080 e.g. 192.168.5.30:8080

• To login into your Manager dashboard, click on the Manager app as shown below and enter your username and password.

• Sample manager dashboard.

• That concludes our tutorial on how to install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04.

Read more on Apache Tomcat Documentation

Other Tutorials

Install ClamAV on Rocky Linux 9

Install Django on Rocky Linux 9

Install PHP 8 on Rocky Linux 9