Setting up TomCat on uBuntu Dapper 6.06

A Definitive HOWTO - Newb friendly

Prerequisites

Useful links:

Install uBuntu 6.06

run easyubuntu and install any updates you need - install the sun java runtime
wget http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/files/easyubuntu-3.023.tar.gz

tar -zxf easyubuntu-3.023.tar.gz

cd easyubuntu

sudo python easyubuntu.in
Install the JAVA JDK, Apache and Tomcat

sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk, apache2, tomcat

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.06

cd /usr/share/tomcat5/bin

sudo ./startup.sh

All should be fine and you will see where tomcat is installed.
the following are defined for the rest of the tutorial.

CATALINA_BASE:      /usr/share/tomcat5
CATALINA_HOME:     /usr/share/tomcat5
CATALINA_TMPDIR:  /usr/share/tomcat5/temp
JAVA_HOME:           /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.06

open firefox

goto http://localhost:8180
pervey the goodness that is apache and tomcat

Tweak the Tomcat Users

sudo vi /usr/share/tomcat5/conf/tomcat-users.xml
Non vi users, substitute the word vi for gedit for the rest of the tutorial

You need to give the tomcat user permissions to use the admin area and change the default tomcat password.
Make the file look as follows: 

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<tomcat-users>
  <role rolename="tomcat"/>
  <role rolename="role1"/>
  <role rolename="manager" description=""/>
  <role rolename="admin"/>
  <user username="tomcat" password="yourpassword" fullName="" roles="admin,manager,tomcat"/>
  <user username="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1"/>
  <user username="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1"/>
</tomcat-users>

save the file, restart tomcat sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat5 restart

Connecting to MS SQL

Useful links:

database JDBC jar files go in $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib.  Looking here I could find no trace of the required .jar JDBC driver for MS SQL.

Go to The JDBC Download Page
or search for'SQL Server 2000 Driver for JDBC Service Pack 2'

Download the .tar file, setup instructions are there as well.

Use WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php ) to copy it to your java server if you did not download it from uBuntu.
You may need to do a sudo apt-get install ssh (ssh won't be installed by default and it must be to connect to the machine with winscp)

Follow the following instructions

Microsoft releases the script file as a korn shell script *nice one*
let's install ksh shall we sudo apt-get install ksh

1. Copy the mssqlserver.tar file to a temporary directory on your machine.
2. Change to the temporary directory and untar the contents of the file.
   Enter:  tar -xvf mssqlserver.tar
   The contents of the tar file will appear in the directory.
3. Run the installation script.
   Enter:  sudo ./install.ksh
   If you wish to exit the script at any time, press CTRL C.
4. You are asked if you want to view the license agreement.
   Press ENTER to proceed.
5. After viewing the license agreement, press ENTER to accept
   it or N to exit.
6. You are asked to specify an installation directory. Enter
   the full path to the directory.
7. The script displays a message when the installation is complete.

The files were copied to /opt/msSQLjdbc
the required .jar files are in /opt/msSQLjdbc/lib

Now we could ensure the above directory is in the CLASSPATH variable .... or ... we could copy the files to $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib, let's do that rather

sudo cp /opt/msSQLjdbc/lib/* /usr/share/tomcat5/common/lib

goto http://localhost:8180

log in to the admin area 

click on datasources in the left, in the right panel click create new datasource



Add the following items to the textboxes

JNDI NAME: myconnectionname
DATA SOURCE URL: jdbc:microsoft:sqlserver://yourserver:1433;databasename:dbname
JDBC DRIVE CLASS: com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver
USER NAME: username
PASSWORD: passwd

all these are variable depending on your database