How to automatically restart Tomcat7 on system reboots?

Question

I have installed Tomcat 7 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS which runs on an Amzon EC2 instance. Now I wish tomcat should restart automatically on system reboot.

I read this blog which suggest adding below script to /etc/init.d/tomcat7:

# Tomcat auto-start
#
# description: Auto-starts tomcat
# processname: tomcat
# pidfile: /var/run/tomcat.pid

case $1 in
start)
sh /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/startup.sh
;;
stop) 
sh /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/shutdown.sh
;;
restart)
sh /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/shutdown.sh
sh /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/startup.sh
;;
esac 
exit 0

and issue the following commands:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tomcat7

sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/tomcat7 /etc/rc1.d/K99tomcat

sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/tomcat7 /etc/rc2.d/S99tomcat

sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat7 restart

My Questions

1. The tomcat7 already has script in it, where do we have to paste the suggested script?
2. Is the suggested procedure correct?

Answer 1

Create the init script in /etc/init.d/tomcat7 with the contents as per below (your script should work too but I think this one adheres more closely to the standards).

This way Tomcat will start only after network interfaces have been configured.

Init script contents:

#!/bin/bash

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:        tomcat7
# Required-Start:  $network
# Required-Stop:   $network
# Default-Start:   2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:    0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start/Stop Tomcat server
### END INIT INFO

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

start() {
 sh /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/startup.sh
}

stop() {
 sh /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/shutdown.sh
}

case $1 in
  start|stop) $1;;
  restart) stop; start;;
  *) echo "Run as $0 <start|stop|restart>"; exit 1;;
esac

Change its permissions and add the correct symlinks automatically:

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tomcat7
update-rc.d tomcat7 defaults

And from now on it will be automatically started and shut down upon entering the appropriate runlevels. You can also control it with service tomcat7 <stop|start|restart>

Answer 2

#!/bin/bash
#
# Author : subz
# Copyright (c) 2k15
#
# Make kill the tomcat process
#
TOMCAT_HOME=/media/subin/works/Applications/apache-tomcat-7.0.57
SHUTDOWN_WAIT=5

tomcat_pid() {
  echo `ps aux | grep org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $2 }'`
}

start() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ] 
  then
    echo "Tomcat is already running (pid: $pid)"
  else
    # Start tomcat
    echo "Starting tomcat"
    /bin/sh $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh
  fi


  return 0
}

stop() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Stoping Tomcat"
    /bin/sh $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh

    let kwait=$SHUTDOWN_WAIT
    count=0;
    until [ `ps -p $pid | grep -c $pid` = '0' ] || [ $count -gt $kwait ]
    do
      echo -n -e "\nwaiting for processes to exit";
      sleep 1
      let count=$count+1;
    done

    if [ $count -gt $kwait ]; then
      echo -n -e "\nkilling processes which didn't stop after $SHUTDOWN_WAIT seconds"
      kill -9 $pid
      echo  " \nprocess killed manually"
    fi
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi

  return 0
}
pid=$(tomcat_pid)

 if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Tomcat is running with pid: $pid"
    stop
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
    start
  fi
exit 0

Answer 3

Cant this be added to the /etc/rc.local

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

sleep 10
/usr/share/tomcat7/bin/startup.sh

Answer 4

Digital Ocean provides a very handy guide for using Tomcat 8.x and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and systemd scripts.

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-apache-tomcat-8-on-ubuntu-16-04

Answer 5

apache tomcat does not ship any init script with it.

1. Install the prepackaged version maintained by Ubuntu from the Ubuntu package manager this version ships its own init script.

2. Follow the steps in the blog you refered to which provide you with a kickstart init script.

Answer 6

I tried the accepted answer, which did not work.

What ended up working was to remove the service, and add the service back:

sudo update-rc.d -f tomcat7 remove
sudo update-rc.d tomcat7 defaults