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Apache Tomcat is the recommended servlet container to use with uPortal 3.2. While uPortal 3.2 requires a Servlet 2.5-compatible servlet container and another servlet container may be used, most uPortal implementers deploy to Apache Tomcat. Choosing Tomcat 6.x will likely allow uPortal adopters to get the best advice from the community.

Installing Apache Tomcat

Linux/Unix Installation

1. Download Apache Tomcat 6.x

2. Untar the package as follows:

tar -xvf apache-tomcat-6.0.26.tar.gz

3.Rename your install to something more meaningful:

mv apache-tomcat-6.0.26 uportal-tomcat

4.Set your environment variables:

export JAVA_HOME=/path/to/your/java
export TOMCAT_HOME=/path/to/your/tomcat

5.Test your Tomcat installation

a. First, start tomcat

TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh

b. Go to http://localhost:8080/

You should see the Apache Tomcat Welcome screen

c. Shutdown tomcat

TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh
Windows Installation

1. Download Apache Tomcat 6.x for Windows

2. Unzip the download into a suitable direcoty. For example, you may unzip the file into the C:\ directory. This will create a directory like C:\apache-tomcat-6.x containing your Tomcat files.

3. You will need to create two environment variables CATALINA_HOME and JAVA_HOME

 CATALINA_HOME : C:\apache-tomcat-6.x
 JAVA_HOME : C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.x

For Windows (different versions may vary) you can create these environment variables by doing the following: right-click 'My Computer' select properties and then the Advanced tab. Then click Environment Variables and under System variables click New. From here, you can enter the name and value for CATALINA_HOME and again for JAVA_HOME if it's not already created.

4. Start tomcat. Try starting up tomcat by running the C:\apache-tomcat-6.x\bin\startup.bat batch file. Point your browser to http://localhost:8080 and you should see the default Tomcat home page (see above image). To shutdown the server run C:\apache-tomcat-6.x\bin\shutdown.bat batch file.

Further Tomcat Configurations

JVM settings
Fronting Apache Tomcat with Apache Http

Incomplete...work in progress

1. Download the Apache Tomcat connector

2. You will need to adjust the Apache Tomcat server.xml file to utilize the connector as follows:

  • Shutdown tomcat
  • Open server.xml for editing (/path/to/your/apache-tomcat/conf/server.xml)
  • Comment out the default connector as shown below:
<!-- Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080
    <Connector port="8080" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192"
               maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
               enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
               connectionTimeout="20000" disableUploadTimeout="true" URIEncoding="UTF-8"/> -->
  • Now, uncomment the following connector block: 
       <!-- Define an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 -->
    <Connector port="8009"
               enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" protocol="AJP/1.3" />
  • You may adjust the port (port="8009") if you wish.

3. Now, you need to do some configuring on Apache Httpd to connect to Tomcat. You have two options:

      Option #1 mod_jk

       Note: Configuring with IIS : http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/reference/iis.html

  • Navigate to your Apache config directory 
    cd /path/to/apache/config
  • Open httpd.conf for editing and locate the LoadModule section and make sure you have the mod_jk path defined (path may vary). 
    LoadModule jk_module "/usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_jk.so"
  • In the same file, httpd.conf, define the IfModule directive 
    <IfModule mod_jk.c>
  JkWorkersFile "/path/to/apache/config/workers.properties"
  JkLogFile "/path/to/apache/logs/mod_jk.log"
  JkLogLevel debug
  JkMount /*.jsp worker1
  JkMount /path/to/portal/* worker1
</IfModule>
JkMountCopy All
  • Now, we need to configure the workers.properties file ( You may include the workers.properties file in the apache config directory, but the path must match with the httpd.conf file where you defined the JkWorkersFile path above.) 
    #Below is an example of a workers.properties file.
# Define 1 real worker using ajp13
worker.list=worker1

# Set properties for worker1 (ajp13)
worker.worker1.type=ajp13
worker.worker1.host=<your host address>

# Set the port accordingly. You may adjust the port below
worker.worker1.port=8443

# Below may vary as these are just examples of what can be included.
worker.worker1.lbfactor=50
worker.worker1.cachesize=10
worker.worker1.cache_timeout=600
worker.worker1.socket_keepalive=1
worker.worker1.socket_timeout=300
    More information about workers.properties can be found here.
       Option #2 mod_proxy

       References

SSL configuration

uPortal Specific Notes

Shared Libraries

uPortal places libraries in CATALINA_BASE/shared/lib The default Tomcat 6.0 download does not enable libraries to be loaded from this directory. To resolve this you must edit CATALINA_BASE/conf/catalina.properties and change the line that begins "shared.loader=" to the following:

Enabling shared libraries in CATALINA_BASE/conf/catalina.properties
shared.loader=${catalina.base}/shared/classes,${catalina.base}/shared/lib/*.jar
Shared Sessions

Jasig portlets, as well as many other popular JSR-168 portlets, rely on the ability to share user session data between the portal web application and portlet applications. To enable this feature in Tomcat, you must add the emptySessionPath="true" parameter to the in-use connector.

Example Tomcat Connector Configuration
<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
    connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" emptySessionPath="true"/>
GZipping HTML

Browser-side performance may be improved somewhat by GZip-ping downloaded content where appropriate. uPortal 3.2 already GZips CSS and JavaScript. uPortal does not, however, GZip the uPortal page itself.

GZipping of HTML content can be performed via Tomcat. To enable this functionality, set compression="on" in the in-use tomcat connector, and set the list of compressable mime types. More information about this feature can be found in the Tomcat configuration page.

Example GZip Configuration
<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
    connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" emptySessionPath="true"
    compression="on" compressableMimeType="text/html,text/xml,text/plain"/>

Example Installations

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