Linux: MySQL and Tomcat(for J2EE) and Setup

Recently, I configured Tomcat and MySQL on Oracle Linux 7 to fix issues reported in a legacy application developed in JSP & Servlets.

Here are the steps, I followed.

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MySQL 5.1.71: 

• Download following RPM packages for Linux x64 platform
• MySQL-server-community-5.1.71-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
• MySQL-client-community-5.1.71-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
• MySQL-devel-community-5.1.71-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

• Login as root and check for existing setup of MySQL --> rpm -qa | grep -i mysql
• If not exists, install MySQL server and client packages as shown below
• rpm -ivh MySQL-server-community-5.1.71-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm MySQL-client-community-5.1.71-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

• Install the Header and Libraries , which are part of MySQL-devl package
• rpm -ivh MySQL-devel-community-5.1.71-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

MySQL Configuration:

• Set password for root user in MySQL DB:
• /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'password'

• Run mysql_secure_installation script (/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation) that will take care of all the typical security related items. On a high level this does the following items:
• Change the root password
• Remove the anonymous user
• Disallow root login from remote machines
• Remove the default sample test database        

• Verify the MySQL setup --> mysql -V
• Connect to the MySQL database using the root user and make sure the connection is successful.
• mysql -u root -p

• Follows the steps below to check status, stop and start MySQL.
• Check status --> service mysql status
• Stop DB --> service mysql stop
• Start DB --> service mysql start

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JDK 1.7.0_80:

• Download archive binary file(jdk-7u80-linux-x64.tar.tz) for Linux x64 platform
• Go to installation folder --> cd /home/lkakarla/java
• Uncompress archive file --> tar zxvf jdk-7u80-linux-x64.tar.tz
• Copy JDK & JRE paths
• JDK --> /home/lkakarla/java/jdk1.7.0_80/bin
• JRE  --> /home/lkakarla/java/jdk1.7.0_80/jre/bin

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Tomcat 6.0.44:

• Download archive binary file (apache-tomcat-6.0.44.tar.gz) for Linux x64 platform
• Go to installation folder --> cd /home/lkakarla/tomcat
• Uncompress archive file --> tar zxvf apache-tomcat-6.0.44.tar.gz
• Copy Tomcat home directory path --> /home/lkakarla/tomcat/apache-tomcat-6.0.44

Tomcat Configuration:

• Open file  /etc/environment as a root user and set CATALINA_HOME variable 
• CATALINA_HOME=/home/lkakarla/tomcat/apache-tomcat-6.0.44

• Set JAVA_HOME --> Create a file named setenv.sh in $CATALINA_HOME/bin folder and add below lines.
• JAVA_HOME=/home/lkakarla/java/jdk1.7.0_80
• JRE_HOME=/home/lkakarla/java/jdk1.7.0_80/jre
• CATALINA_PID="$CATALINA_BASE/tomcat.pid"

• Backup existing tomcat-users.xml file in $CATALINA_HOME/conf folder --> $CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml. 
• Edit ‘tomcat-users.xml’ file and following lines at EOF :
• <user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,standard,manager"/>

• Download and place MySQL JDBC driver(mysql-connector-java-5.1.36-bin.jar) in $CATALINA_HOME/lib folder
• Configure JDBC -->  $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml. 
• <Resource name="jdbc/automationDB" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
                     maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000"
                                    username="root" password="password" driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
                                                   url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/<databasename>"/>

• Start Tomcat --> $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
• Tomcat test URL --> http://localhost:8080

• Tomcat Manager URL --> http://localhost:8080/manager/status  -- tomcat/tomcat

• Shutdown Tomcat --> $CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh

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Virtual Box: Mount Host Shared Folders in Guest

I installed Oracle VM Virtual Box v 5.1.14 on Windows 7 Professional (64 bit) PC and installed Oracle Linux (OEL) 7.2 as a guest OS.

However, I was not able to share folders between host & guest. I received following error in Guest OS, when I clicked on shared folder mount.

Error: "The folder contents could not be displayed. You do not have the permissions necessary to view the contents of sf_temp."

I followed below steps to resolve the issue and mount shared folder in Guest OS.

• Download and Install Oracle VM Virtual Box Extension Pack
• Restart Virtual Machine
• Install Guest Additions. Go to Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image...

• Restart Virtual Machine
• Add the shared folder to the virtual machine using Virtual Box graphical interface. Make sure to select 'Auto-mount' and 'Make Permanent'

• Restart Virtual Machine

Try to access /media/sf_your_shared_folder_name. If you still don't have access, that means you don't belong to the vboxsf group.

• Login to the virtual machine using a root account
• Check vboxsf group exists

          ~$ grep vboxsf /etc/group

          vboxsf:x:983:

• Check user is not already in vboxsf group

          ~$ id lkakarla
          uid=1000(lkakarla) gid=1000(lkakarla) groups=1000(lkakarla)

• Add user lkakarla to vboxsf group

          ~$ sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf lkakarla

• Check again user groups

          ~$ id lkakarla
          uid=1000(lkakarla) gid=1000(lkakarla) groups=1000(lkakarla),983(vboxsf)

• Restart Virtual Machine and login as lkakarla
• Shared folder is now accessible in desktop and /media/sf_temp (temp is the name I gave to the share)

Click Here for more info.