Tomcat 8 on CentOS 7 does not start as service (bu

Question

I've installed Tomcat (apache-tomcat-8.5.37), on a CentOS VM (using bento/centos-7).

Tomcat is installed in

/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37

and Java 8 is installed in

/usr/java/jre1.8.0_192-amd64

Before to install Tomcat I've created a tomcat user in this way

sudo useradd tomcat
sudo passwd tomcat
sudo mkdir /opt/tomcat
sudo chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/tomcat
su – tomcat

If I try to start Tomcat manually using

/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin/startup.sh

all works fine and I can test Tomcat ad its examples from the url

http://192.168.33.10:8080

(note: 192.168.33.10 is the IP of my virtual machine ...)

I can also shutdown Tomcat using

/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin/shutdown.sh

I'd like to start Tomcat like e service so I've stopped Tomcat and then I've edited a file

/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

with this content

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking

Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_192-amd64
Environment=CATALINA_PID=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/temp/tomcat.pid
Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/
Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/
Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC'
Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom'

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/bin/kill -15 $MAINPID

User=tomcat
Group=tomcat
UMask=0007

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

and

sudo systemctl start tomcat

Tomcat does not responding now invoking the url

http://192.168.33.10:8080

and the output of

sudo systemctl status tomcat

is the follow

● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2019-01-01 09:34:46 UTC; 13min ago
  Process: 14438 ExecStop=/bin/kill -15 $MAINPID (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
  Process: 14425 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 14436 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting Apache Tomcat Web Application Container...
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain startup.sh[14425]: Existing PID file found during start.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain startup.sh[14425]: Removing/clearing stale PID file.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application Container.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: tomcat.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit tomcat.service entered failed state.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: tomcat.service failed.

The output of

journalctl -xe

is the follow

Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain sudo[14418]:   tomcat : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/temp ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/systemctl start tomcat
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain polkitd[635]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:14419:1135902 (system bus name :1.85 [/usr/bin/pkttyagent --notify-fd 5 --fallb
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting Apache Tomcat Web Application Container...
-- Subject: Unit tomcat.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit tomcat.service has begun starting up.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain startup.sh[14425]: Existing PID file found during start.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain startup.sh[14425]: Removing/clearing stale PID file.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain startup.sh[14425]: Tomcat started.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain polkitd[635]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:14419:1135902 (system bus name :1.85, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application Container.
-- Subject: Unit tomcat.service has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit tomcat.service has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is done.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: Usage:
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: kill [options] <pid|name> [...]
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: Options:
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -a, --all              do not restrict the name-to-pid conversion to processes
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: with the same uid as the present process
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -s, --signal <sig>     send specified signal
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -q, --queue <sig>      use sigqueue(2) rather than kill(2)
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -p, --pid              print pids without signaling them
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -l, --list [=<signal>] list signal names, or convert one to a name
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -L, --table            list signal names and numbers
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -h, --help     display this help and exit
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: -V, --version  output version information and exit
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain kill[14438]: For more details see kill(1).
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: tomcat.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit tomcat.service entered failed state.
Jan 01 09:34:46 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: tomcat.service failed.
Jan 01 09:34:59 localhost.localdomain sudo[14451]:   tomcat : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/temp ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/systemctl status tomcat
Jan 01 09:48:45 localhost.localdomain sudo[15115]:   tomcat : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/systemctl status tomcat

The output of catalina.out is the follow

01-Jan-2019 09:09:21.585 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.init Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:21.602 INFO [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool.getSharedSelector Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
01-Jan-2019 09:09:21.614 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load Initialization processed in 2829 ms
01-Jan-2019 09:09:21.697 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal Starting service [Catalina]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:21.697 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.5.37
01-Jan-2019 09:09:21.738 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/ROOT]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:22.777 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/ROOT] has finished in [1,038] ms
01-Jan-2019 09:09:22.795 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/docs]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:22.847 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/docs] has finished in [70] ms
01-Jan-2019 09:09:22.847 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/examples]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.468 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/examples] has finished in [621] ms
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.469 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/host-manager]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.522 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/host-manager] has finished in [54] ms
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.522 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/manager]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.569 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/webapps/manager] has finished in [47] ms
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.592 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.601 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start Starting ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"]
01-Jan-2019 09:09:23.604 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in 1990 ms
01-Jan-2019 09:12:38.830 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.await A valid shutdown command was received via the shutdown port. Stopping the Server instance.
01-Jan-2019 09:12:38.831 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.pause Pausing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"]
01-Jan-2019 09:12:38.870 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.pause Pausing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"]
01-Jan-2019 09:12:38.878 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.stopInternal Stopping service [Catalina]
01-Jan-2019 09:12:39.117 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.stop Stopping ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"]
01-Jan-2019 09:12:39.123 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.stop Stopping ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"]
01-Jan-2019 09:12:39.131 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.destroy Destroying ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"]
01-Jan-2019 09:12:39.137 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.destroy Destroying ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"]

????

Suggestions are appreciated!!

Answer 1

I found related bug reports:

Bug 63063

Bug 63041

This bug will be fixed in next version.

Answer 2

A common problem, when you start tomcat once manually (using your own user account), the temporary files, logs etc. are owned by you, not by the daemon user (tomcat, according to the quoted tomcat.service file. Subsequent starts with the daemon user can't overwrite those files due to missing permissions - this might also prevent proper logging of those problems.

Fix those permissions (or rather: file ownerships) and try again. My daemon start scripts typically have a chown for the relevant files, just to make sure that I'm not running into those problems in case someone has manually started using a wrong user account.

Answer 3

I've solved changing this line

ExecStop=/bin/kill -15 $MAINPID

in

ExecStop=sudo /bin/kill -15 $MAINPID

in my /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service file.

Its new content is now

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking

Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_192-amd64
Environment=CATALINA_PID=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/temp/tomcat.pid
Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/
Environment=CATALINA_BASE=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/
Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC'
Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom'

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=sudo /bin/kill -15 $MAINPID

User=tomcat
Group=tomcat
UMask=0007

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now tomcat service start with

sudo systemctl start tomcat

and the output of

sudo systemctl status tomcat

is

[vagrant@localhost system]$ sudo systemctl status tomcat
● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: activating (auto-restart) since Tue 2019-01-08 20:28:25 UTC; 1s ago
  Process: 14447 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.37/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 14458 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Answer 4

NOTE: As of OCT 2019

1. I followed the BUG https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=63063, still it did not resolve the issue.
2. I did little trial and error and got the issue resolved. It works smooth and works completely fine as per standards. Even if you kill the tomcat service gracefully or using kill -9 and then start the tomcat service using systemctl as mentioned below, it works like charm.

I am using Ubuntu 16.04, tomcat 8.5.37, Java 1.8.0_222

I used below systemd script, kept it at location: /etc/systemd/system/

# Systemd unit file for tomcat
[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container for ShopWorx
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
WorkingDirectory=/usr/local/tomcat/bin

ExecStart=/bin/bash /usr/local/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start
ExecStop=/bin/bash /usr/local/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh stop

User=emgda
Group=emgda

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

and ran below command sequentially

systemctl daemon-reload

systemctl start tomcat

ssytemctl status tomcat

Below is output for status of tomcat service.

● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container for ShopWorx
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-10-09 14:52:08 IST; 1min 46s ago
  Process: 3713 ExecStart=/bin/bash /usr/local/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 3720 (bash)
   CGroup: /system.slice/tomcat.service
           ├─3720 /bin/bash /usr/local/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh start
           └─3722 /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/usr/local/tomcat/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.

Oct 09 14:52:08 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting Apache Tomcat Web Application Container ...
Oct 09 14:52:08 ubuntu bash[3713]: Tomcat started.
Oct 09 14:52:08 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application Container.

IMPORTANT: WorkingDirectory, ExecStart, ExecStop must be taken care with, their values are crucial.

Answer 5

Some time it would be your java heap memory exceed as your current server memory. You can set it in your setenv.sh file in tomcat8 and then restart the server.

I have face same kind of issue when I have downgrade the system configuration after that tomcat could't be restart so I have just adjust the heap memory in tomcat/bin/setenv.sh file and /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service file according to system configuration then I have restart the tomcat. Now it's working fine.

Answer 6

at an old CentOS 6.10 the solution was changing /etc/init.d/tomcat8

to use runuser instead of su or sudo so changing

/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER -c $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh

to

/sbin/runuser -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh