Pivotal/tcserver

tcserver Installation

Overview

https://content.pivotal.io/blog/part-one-comparing-apache-tomcat-and-pivotal-tc-server
Pivotal tc server builds on top of Apache Tomcat and adds a few key features:

• Enterprise support (with purchased license)
• Multi-instance support with shared binaries - individual runtime instances allows a separation between the binaries and the applications/configuration, allowing one set of binaries to power multiple instances.
• Variable substitution within server.xml - allows for consistent configuration and port management

Note: Pivotal tcserver 3.x is available through the pivotal repo, however to get the latest version, 4.x, you need to download and install the RPM from pivnet manually.
https://tcserver.docs.pivotal.io/4x/docs-tcserver/topics/whats-new-4.0.0.html#rpm-packaging

Installing tcserver 3.x - Linux

references: https://tcserver.docs.pivotal.io/3x/docs-tcserver/topics/install-getting-started.html
https://tcserver.docs.pivotal.io/4x/docs-tcserver/topics/tutwebapp.html

In this example we will be installing tcserver 3.x on a CentOS 7 vm using the pivotal repo.

Adding the Pivotal Repo and installing the package

Accept the EULA

~$ wget -q -O - http://packages.pivotal.io | sudo sh

Verify you see the new package

~$ sudo yum search pivotal-tc-server-standard

Install tcserver, ant, and java

~$ sudo yum install pivotal-tc-server-standard ant java-1.8.0-openjdk

Setting the user variables

To discover your Java home variable, you need to find the executable location and then use that to discover JAVA_HOME. You will need to omit /jre if it appears in your java_home results.

~$ which java
/bin/java
~$ /bin/java -XshowSettings:properties -version 2>&1 > /dev/null | grep 'java.home'
java.home = /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64/jre

Ant HOME should always be /usr/share/ant

With both the JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME found, we can set the following in our bash profile. Make sure to omit /jre from your JAVA_HOME:

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64"
export ANT_HOME="/usr/share/ant"
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin

You can use the following to append the variables in your bash profile, make sure to update the variables to match your versions.

~$ echo -e export JAVA_HOME='"'/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64'"'"\n"export ANT_HOME='"'/usr/share/ant'"'"\n"export PATH='$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin' >> ~/.bash_profile

NOTE: I would set the user variables to both your sudo capable user AND the tcserver user.

tcserver user

When you installed tcserver, it created a user called tcserver. We will want to replicate the steps above for setting the user variables for JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME for this user, tcserver, as well. When you log in as tcserver, you will want to use the -E flag in order to maintain user variables.

~$ sudo -E su -l tcserver

If you forget to use the -E flag, you can set the variables for your current session like this:

~$ source ~/.bash_profile

Testing with Hello World app

With tcserver installed and its dependencies configured, we can test it with a simple hello world java app.
Before we begin, lets log in as the user tcserver

~$ sudo -E su -l tcserver

git clone and ant build

tcserver recommends that all instances be placed in /var/opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard instead of the default executable directory.

~$ git clone https://github.com/carefreepineapple/hello-world-war.git

Now lets build the WAR file.

~$ cd ~/hello-world-war/
~$ ant all

The important file we want from this is the WAR file, which will be located in the ./dist/ folder.

~$ ls ~/hello-world-war/dist/
hello.war

create instance, copy war, and start

To create a new instance, we need to use the tcruntime-instance.sh script.

~$ /opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard/tcruntime-instance.sh create hello-world-war -i /var/opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard/

Now that we've created a new instance called hello-world-war, we can copy the WAR file we generated earlier into it.

~$ cp ~/hello-world-war/dist/hello.war /var/opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard/hello-world-war/webapps/

Finally lets try to start the instance.

~$ /opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard/tcruntime-ctl.sh hello-world-war start -i /var/opt/pivotal/pivotal-tc-server-standard/

firewalld

In case you need a quick reference on how to open the needed port(s) in firewalld

~$ sudo firewall-cmd --get-active-zone
public
  interfaces: eth0 enp0s3
~$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8080/tcp
~$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-ports
22/tcp 8080/tcp

uninstall tcserver 3.x

In the event you want to remove tcserver 3.x, you can do the following:

~$ sudo yum erase pivotal-tc-server-standard

However, that will leave a few things

~$ sudo rm -rf /var/opt/pivotal/
sudo userdel -r tcserver

Installing tcserver 4.x - Linux

references: https://tcserver.docs.pivotal.io/3x/docs-tcserver/topics/install-getting-started.html
https://tcserver.docs.pivotal.io/4x/docs-tcserver/topics/tutwebapp.html

In this example we will be installing tcserver 4.x on a CentOS 7 vm using the pivotal RPM package.

Downloading and the RPM package

Easy way

There are (2) files that you need:

• pivotal tc server rpm
• pivotal tc server runtimes rpm

use a GUI browser > https://network.pivotal.io > login > download RPM for tcserver 4.x and runtime > SCP to your tcserver

Hard way

You can download the RPM directly if you utilize the pivnet UAA API token and get an access token to obtain the package.

UAA API Token

Go to https://network.pivotal.io > Edit Profile > UAA API Token > Copy the UAA API Token to your clipboard or temp file. This UAA API Token is good until you request a new token.

UAA API Token example: 2c97607c2fc14e9cac26de4ba0c10340-r

Obtain Access Token

With the UAA API Token, you can now obtain a short lived Access Token.

~$ curl -H "Accept: application/json" \
> -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
> -X POST \
> -d '{"refresh_token":"2c97607c2fc14e9cac26de4ba0c10340-r"}' \
> https://network.pivotal.io/api/v2/authentication/access_tokens
{"access_token":"eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6InNoYTItMjAxNy0wMS0yMC1rZXkiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.BN3g9cNcLu5Yo5qX-lYpkUYUq7-xcNNJ3n7hdy4nefrX7ruGx6i6u_qoNMiF4fGgCbXu4xdaXix0Dvxvo1tOG0X_8Gh5uFgD6bVqRN1__r38gNfZTrYlYZIBWegKVm40IvHHHlT_GhK4A6jA7SM-aTfZ8Auwo6VrCvzHRgggdVUg8N2xz9ZyEzku1gtFZVLLqxcDpLEw9DZiVY8yFptQZd7DJjE66GZtNWO8zqT08NND7_6_CpE4uqtSjV-_FRih-aRGXLNKdMlSd6kGi_nmO4wNGn05mwzAzOgPlaeIkU0OMdqjw-Sj8g5fzgr_QzArVrVj1xkGWH5AuiIAyA50Vg"}

Test the access token. Using the -v flag, you can see the 200 response from the server.

~$ curl -v -H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6InNoYTItMjAxNy0wMS0yMC1rZXkiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.BN3g9cNcLu5Yo5qX-lYpkUYUq7-xcNNJ3n7hdy4nefrX7ruGx6i6u_qoNMiF4fGgCbXu4xdaXix0Dvxvo1tOG0X_8Gh5uFgD6bVqRN1__r38gNfZTrYlYZIBWegKVm40IvHHHlT_GhK4A6jA7SM-aTfZ8Auwo6VrCvzHRgggdVUg8N2xz9ZyEzku1gtFZVLLqxcDpLEw9DZiVY8yFptQZd7DJjE66GZtNWO8zqT08NND7_6_CpE4uqtSjV-_FRih-aRGXLNKdMlSd6kGi_nmO4wNGn05mwzAzOgPlaeIkU0OMdqjw-Sj8g5fzgr_QzArVrVj1xkGWH5AuiIAyA50Vg" \
-X GET https://network.pivotal.io/api/v2/authentication

...
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK

NOTE: The hard way method is still being researched and is not complete.

Installing the RPM packages

With the RPM packages on your host, we can install them

~$ sudo yum localinstall ./pivotal-tc-server-4.0.2-RELEASE.noarch.rpm ./pivotal-tc-runtime-9.0.10.A-RELEASE.noarch.rpm -y 

Verify they are listed as installed

~$ sudo yum list | grep pivotal
pivotal-tc-runtime-9.noarch                 9.0.10.A-RELEASE           installed
pivotal-tc-server.noarch                    4.0.2-RELEASE              installed
pivotal-tc-server-standard.noarch           3.2.11-RELEASE             pivotal-app-suite

We also need to install a couple of dependencies.

~$ sudo yum install ant java-1.8.0-openjdk -y

Setting the user variables

To discover your Java home variable, you need to find the executable location and then use that to discover JAVA_HOME. You will need to omit /jre if it appears in your java_home results.

~$ which java
/bin/java
~$ /bin/java -XshowSettings:properties -version 2>&1 > /dev/null | grep 'java.home'
java.home = /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64/jre

Ant HOME should always be /usr/share/ant

With both the JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME found, we can set the following in our bash profile. Make sure to omit /jre from your JAVA_HOME:

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64"
export ANT_HOME="/usr/share/ant"
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin

You can use the following to append the variables in your bash profile, make sure to update the variables to match your versions.

~$ echo -e export JAVA_HOME='"'/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64'"'"\n"export ANT_HOME='"'/usr/share/ant'"'"\n"export PATH='$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin' >> ~/.bash_profile

NOTE: set the user variables to your sudo capable user.

tcserver executable

If you want to set the tcserver executable to accessible from any directory for your sudo capable user, also add this to the bash_profile:

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard
~$ echo -e export PATH='$PATH:/opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard' >> ~/.bash_profile

tcserver user

When you installed tcserver, it created a user called tcserver, however unlike 3.x, 4.x does NOT create a home directory for the tcserver user.
When you log in as tcserver, you will want to use the -E flag in order to maintain user variables.

~$ sudo -E su -l tcserver

tcserver bash_profile

If you want to be able to run the tcserver executable as the tcserver user without specifying the full path, you'll need to create a bash_profile for the tcserver user. By default, tcserver is set to have a home directory of:

~$ cat /etc/passwd | grep tcserver
tcserver:x:1001:995:tc Server User:/var/opt/pivotal/tcserver:/bin/bash

Copy the template .bash_profile and update it

~$ sudo cp /etc/skel/.bash_profile /var/opt/pivotal/tcserver

Add the following to the .bash_profile, make sure to update the paths
export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64"
export ANT_HOME="/usr/share/ant"
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard

or
~$ echo -e export JAVA_HOME='"'/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64'"'"\n"export ANT_HOME='"'/usr/share/ant'"'"\n"export PATH='$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin' "\n"export PATH='$PATH:/opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard' | sudo tee --append /var/opt/pivotal/tcserver/.bash_profile

Don't forget to set the permissions on the .bash_profile if you used a sudo user to perform the above (2) commands.

~$ sudo chown tcserver:pivotal /var/opt/pivotal/tcserver/.bash_profile

tcserver.properties

New in 4.x, you can configure default values in the file, tcserver.properties which is located:

${TCSERVER_HOME}/conf/tcserver.properties
ie. /opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard/conf

Most of these values are populated with default values during installation, but some like JAVA_HOME are not. This is not needed if you already set your user environment variables up, but is still good practice to do.

~$ vim /opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard/conf/tcserver.properties
java.home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.181-3.b13.el7_5.x86_64

Testing with Hello World app

With tcserver installed and its dependencies configured, we can test it with a simple hello world java app.
Before we begin, lets log in as the user tcserver

~$ sudo -E su -l tcserver

git clone and ant build

tcserver recommends that all instances be placed in /var/opt/pivotal/tcserver/instances instead of the default executable directory. With 4.x though, you do not need to worry about specifying this, it will automatically be done for you through the tcserver executable.

~$ cd /tmp/
~$ git clone https://github.com/carefreepineapple/hello-world-war.git

Now lets build the WAR file.

~$ cd /tmp/hello-world-war/
~$ ant all

NOTE: You may need to update the file build.xml with the tomcat bin location (referred to in the file as tcserver.home. The tomcat bin location will be in the runtime files, ie: /opt/pivotal/tcserver/runtimes/tomcat-9.0.10.A.RELEASE. You do not need to define bin in the path.
The important file we want from this is the WAR file, which will be located in the ./dist/ folder.

~$ ls /tmp/hello-world-war/dist/
hello.war

create instance, copy war, and start

To create a new instance, we need to use the tcserver executable

~$ /opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard/tcserver create hello-world-war

Now that we've created a new instance called hello-world-war, we can copy the WAR file we generated earlier into it.

~$ cp /tmp/hello-world-war/dist/hello.war /var/opt/pivotal/tcserver/instances/hello-world-war/webapps/

Finally lets try to start the instance.

~$ /opt/pivotal/tcserver/standard/tcserver start hello-world-war

firewalld

In case you need a quick reference on how to open the needed port(s) in firewalld

~$ sudo firewall-cmd --get-active-zone
public
  interfaces: eth0 enp0s3
~$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8080/tcp
~$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-ports
22/tcp 8080/tcp

uninstall tcserver 4.x

In the event you want to remove tcserver 3.x, you can do the following:

~$ sudo yum erase pivotal-tc-server.noarch pivotal-tc-runtime-9.noarch -y

However, that will leave a few things

~$ sudo rm -rf /var/opt/pivotal/
sudo userdel tcserver