There are two parts to this blogpost – the first part talks about how to install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu by yourself, and the second part talks about the best hosting platforms available to host Tomcat applications.
What is Apache Tomcat?
Apache Tomcat is an open-source web/application server from the Apache foundation. It was formerly called Jakarta. It is an HTTP server and a servlet container. By default, it runs on port 8080. Tomcat implements the java servlets and the Java server pages specifications. It provides a Java web server environment for Java code to run in. Apache Tomcat includes configuration and management tools. It can also be configured directly by editing the XML configuration file. Here is a step by step guide to install Tomcat 9 on Ubuntu 18.04.
Prerequisite
To install Tomcat, you need to have java installed on your system. Update the repository and install Java 8. Choose Java 8 you just installed as the current Java version. Check the Java version.
Install Tomcat 9
Download the latest package of Tomcat 9 version, currently its tomcat-9.0.27. You can always refer to the official download link for the latest version. The below example is for 9.0.27.
Download the Tomcat package
Extract the Tomcat 9 package
For security reasons, we will create a separate system user for Tomcat.
The tomcat user should have complete access to the Tomcat installation directory. This command changes the installation directory ownership to the tomcat user.
All the scripts inside the bin directory of tomcat must be executable, so add the executable permission.
Create a file tomcat.service inside /etc/systemd/system/ to run tomcat as a service.
Copy-paste the content below in the file. Change the JAVA_HOME path according to your java installation path.
Run the below command to tell the system about the new service file you just created.
Start the tomcat service.
Check if the tomcat service is in the running mode or not.
You can ask the system to automatically start tomcat at boot time by running the command below.
Make sure your firewall does not stop Tomcat from running. Open port 8080 on which tomcat runs.
Edit the tomcat-users.xml file where all the users and roles are defined for the tomcat web management interface.
I am giving a tomcat user manager-gui role also, which allows it to access the web management interface with a different credential.
Open your favorite browser and access http://localhost:8080.
Now go to http://localhost:8080/manager/html, where the web dashboard of tomcat is present. You will be asked to log in, use username tomcat and password admin to login. Using this interface, you can start, stop, reload, deploy an application with a click of a button.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Tomcat 9 on Ubuntu 18.04. Now the second part about the hosting platforms and their features.
A2 Hosting
A2 hosting platform claims its Tomcat hosting to be the fastest, easiest, and most reliable. On A2, you can run 20X faster using A2’s Turbo boost VPS. They offer 24×7 support with any hosting issue you come across on their platform with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. That makes A2 a very reliable hosting platform. It gives you enough options to customize the resources you need on the platform. A2 is developer-friendly and gives you the root access to all server’s files, which you are free to edit as per your need. There is a risk-free Anytime Money Back Guarantee in case you do not like the hosting platform and want to stop the usage.
Kamatera
Kamatera is a popular cloud hosting platform. It helps you set up, configure, and launch tomcat in seconds. You can choose the tomcat version you want to host and also the zone (region) where you want to host from a straightforward user interface. Pricing is very attractive. You can get it started from as low as $4 per month. Depending on the configuration you choose, there is a wide range of pricing options offered by Kamatera. You can choose from a monthly pricing option or even hourly pricing option. The best part is the first 30 days are entirely free.
Virtuozzo
Virtuozzo offers a multi-cloud configuration where you can host applications on different clouds for extra high availability. Here, you can get a combination of PaaS (Platform as a Service) and CaaS (Container as a Service) models. With its simple user interface, you can easily select the tomcat application and its version. Then, launching only takes a few seconds. Automatic Tomcat Clustering in Virtuozzo offers a high availability feature. So, if any tomcat instance fails, another instance gets started automatically. Your tomcat cluster can automatically scale vertically and horizontally in Virtuozzo. However, you can manually scale your cluster horizontally as well. Some other features that Virtuozzo offers are:
Support for microservices and legacy applications Integrated CI and CD tools for automation Quick setup of clustered applications Built-in monitoring system with alert notification Integrated IDE Plugins: IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, NetBeans Automated traffic distribution for deployment without any downtime Sharing environment and account collaboration with different access levels Marketplace with a rich set of preconfigured applications for one-click installation
JavaPipe
Another hosting platform is Java Hosting Service for Tomcat. It contains built-in plugins for hibernate, Spring MVC, Servlets and JSPs, Grails, Play, and many more. With JavaPipe, you can start with as low as $ 5.40 per month, which gives you dedicated Tomcat instance versions 7, 8, or 9 with JDK 7, 8, 10, or 11 support. It gives you 128 MB to 2 GB dedicated RAM and unlimited access to MariaDB. You also get 200 GB of monthly traffic and 5 GB of SSD storage. There are other pricing options also with Java Hosting platform offering more monthly traffic and SSD storage. Also, you get 40% off if you pay for three years. So, if can think of a long term hosting plan, this could be beneficial. Conclusion That was all about Tomcat installation and hosting platforms. If you are interested in hosting Tomcat yourself but on the cloud, then check out these platforms.
