Runing Tomcat as Linux service

Not big deal but I am bit tired to google for this script each time I setup new box. Now I know where to get it without spending two valuable extra minutes to google. First create /etc/rc.d/init.d/tomcatd :

#!/bin/bash  
#  
# Startup script for Tomcat  
#  
# chkconfig: 345 84 16  
# description: Tomcat jakarta JSP server  
TOMCAT_HOME=/usr/share/apache-tomcat-5.5.20  
TOMCAT_START=$TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh  
TOMCAT_STOP=$TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh  
#Necessary environment variables  
export JAVA_HOME=”/usr/share/jdk1.5.0_10?  
export CATALINA_HOME=”/usr/share/apache-tomcat-5.5.20?  
#export LD_KERNEL_ASSUME=”2.2.5?  
# Source function library.  
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions  
# Source networking configuration.  
. /etc/sysconfig/network  
# Check that networking is up.  
[ ${NETWORKING} = “no” ] && exit 0  
#Check for tomcat script  
if [ ! -f $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/catalina.sh ]  
then  
    echo “Tomcat not available…”  
    exit  
fi  
start() {  
    echo -n “Starting Tomcat: “  
    su - tomcat -c $TOMCAT_START  
    echo  
    touch /var/lock/subsys/tomcatd  
# We may need to sleep here so it will be up for apache  
    sleep 3  
#Instead should check to see if apache is up by looking for httpd.pid  
}  
stop() {  
    echo -n $”Shutting down Tomcat: “  
    su - tomcat -c $TOMCAT_STOP  
    rm -f /var/lock/subsys/tomcatd  
    echo  
}  
status() {  
    ps ax –width=1000 | grep “[o]rg.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap start” | awk ‘{printf $1 ” “}’ | wc | awk ‘{print $2}’ > /tmp/tomcat_process_count.txt  
   read line

Add user tomcat. Please note that it is normal user with his own home. Many times it was very useful.

adduser tomcat

Set JAVA_HOME for all users in /etc/profile.d/java.sh . When we run ’su – tomcat’ this script will set up our environment:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/share/jdk1.5.0_10

Give enough permissions to tomacat:

chown tomcat /usr/share/apache-tomcat-5.5.20/ -R

Now you are able to run tomcat with

service tomcatd start

The last thing is to run it when system boots:

chkconfig –add tomcatd  
chkconfig tomcatd on

Done