CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME deployment

[Ch...@emc.com]

I'm trying to convert my app to use the preferred catalina base and home deployment.  I understand that this allows for easier migration between tomcat versions, etc.  As a point of reference, I'm reading about how to do this in Tomcat: The Definitive Guide.  Also, I'm dealing with 5.5.35, if that matters.

I have one question.  I understand that the separation of the core tomcat stuff from my instance stuff is good.  But the book says to copy the entire conf folder over to my instance folder ( CATALINA_BASE/myapp/conf ).  Isn't this copying a bunch of tomcat version specific stuff that I'll have to sift through when it's time to migrate?  Will I be able to just upgrade CATALINA_HOME and not upgrade all of that copied conf stuff as well?

Thanks,
Chad

Re: CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME deployment

[André Warnier <aw...@ice-sa.com>]

Chad.Davis@emc.com wrote:
> I'm trying to convert my app to use the preferred catalina base and home deployment.  I understand that this allows for easier migration between tomcat versions, etc. 

Maybe that is a slight misconception.  I think that the separation between catalina_base 
and catalina_home is /mainly/ directed at allowing someone to run multiple tomcat 
instances on the same host, with different configurations, but sharing the same (tomcat) code.

  As a point of reference, I'm reading about how to do this in Tomcat: The Definitive Guide.

That may be ok, but why not use the online tomcat documentation ?
Last time I looked - and with the exception of the part about logging ;-) - it was quite 
comprehensible.

   Also, I'm dealing with 5.5.35, if that matters.

Well yes. Why choose an old version that will soon become obsolete (or at least unsupported) ?
The current version is 7.0, and the version before that was 6.0.
If you are going to make this effort, do it with the latest released version. It will last 
longer.

> 
> I have one question.  I understand that the separation of the core tomcat stuff from my instance stuff is good.  

But the book says to copy the entire conf folder over to my instance folder ( 
CATALINA_BASE/myapp/conf ).

That's a strange-sounding location.
Maybe you are confused about the term "instance" ? It means "an instance of tomcat", not 
of your application.
The correct folder is catalina_base/conf.
The default location for applications running under that separate tomcat instance would be 
catalina_base/webapps/, with your apps below that one (like catalina_base/webapps/myapp).

Isn't this copying a bunch of tomcat version specific stuff that I'll have to sift through 
when it's time to migrate?
   Will I be able to just upgrade CATALINA_HOME and not upgrade all of that copied conf 
stuff as well?
> 

Definitely not.  The files in the "conf" folder are quite likely to change between 
versions (old tags being retired, new tags being added, attributes changing in tags, etc..).
The recommended practice when you ugrade to another version is to install a "vanilla" new 
version in a new directory, with the vanilla conf files of that new version.
Then check that it is working.
And then, bring over your modifications to the old vanilla version, into these new conf 
files, one by one and carefully, consulting the docs at every step to see what's changed.
Then when it all works with the new version, remove the old one.

Under the catalina_home/catalina_base directory (by default they are the same), there have 
been (and will be) changes between versions, such as some sub-directories disappearing or 
being renamed, other ones added, and some stuff that used to be in one place being moved 
to another.  If you try to keep the same directory structure and the same conf files 
between versions, you are looking for trouble.

Note: I am talking about upgrading between major versions, like from tomcat 5.5.x to 
tomcat 6.0.x, or from 6.0.x to 7.0.x.
If you are talking about upgrading from 7.0.x to 7.0.y, then things are a bit different.


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Re: CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME deployment

[Christopher Schultz <ch...@christopherschultz.net>]

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Chad,

On 5/25/12 3:31 PM, Chad.Davis@emc.com wrote:
> I'm trying to convert my app to use the preferred catalina base
> and home deployment.

I dunno about /preferred/, but it certainly is flexible.

> I understand that this allows for easier migration between tomcat
> versions, etc.

Absolutely!

> As a point of reference, I'm reading about how to do this in
> Tomcat: The Definitive Guide.  Also, I'm dealing with 5.5.35, if
> that matters.

CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME have worked (roughly) the same way
since at least as far back as Tomcat 4.1.

> I have one question.  I understand that the separation of the core 
> tomcat stuff from my instance stuff is good.  But the book says to 
> copy the entire conf folder over to my instance folder ( 
> CATALINA_BASE/myapp/conf ).  Isn't this copying a bunch of tomcat 
> version specific stuff that I'll have to sift through when it's
> time to migrate?

Yes and no. First, you *must* have a separate conf/server.xml file
otherwise all your instances will conflict with their port numbers,
etc. Same thing with conf/tomcat-users.xml -- that would be a security
issue to share that configuration.

Technically, you can leave catalina.policy, catalina.properties,
context.xml, and logging.properties in CATALINA_HOME/conf and Tomcat
will pick them up.

You'll have to check, but you may be able to leave web.xml out of
CATALINA_BASE/conf and Tomcat will pick-up the one from
CATALINA_HOME/conf.

> Will I be able to just upgrade CATALINA_HOME and not upgrade all of
> that copied conf stuff as well?

When upgrading between major versions of Tomcat (say, 5.5 -> 7.0 which
you should do at your earliest possible convenience), you *will* have
to ditch your server.xml. You will also have to replace your
conf/web.xml file with the one that comes with the version of Tomcat
that you are using. I think everything else left over (assuming you
have left out catalina.policy, etc. as I described above) then you
should be good to go after a new server.xml has been installed.

When I upgrade from one version to the next, I usually just do a diff
of my server.xml and the one that is in CATALINA_HOME/conf of the
version I'm /leaving/. Then, I get a fresh copy of server.xml from the
*new* version of Tomcat, stick it in CATALINA_BASE/conf/ and apply
basically the same changes to it. That way, I don't break things like
logging, standard Listener configuration, etc.

Hope that helps,
- -chris
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