Installing the HTTP Module for Tomcat

This topic describes how to install the HTTP session management module for Tomcat.

1. If you have not already installed Tomcat, download the desired version from the Apache Website and install it.

2. Following the Apache Tomcat convention, this page assumes the CATALINA_HOME environment variable is set to the root directory of the “binary” Tomcat distribution. For example, if Apache Tomcat is installed in /usr/bin/apache-tomcat-10.0.0 then

   CATALINA_HOME=/usr/bin/apache-tomcat-10.0.0
   

   Define $CATALINA_HOME if it is not already defined.

3. (Optional) For development purposes, you may find it helpful to establish manager-level access to Tomcat. To do so, edit the file $CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml. Uncomment the following line, and replace the <must-be-changed> placeholder with a password of your own choosing:

     <user username="admin" password="<must-be-changed>" roles="manager-gui"/>
   

   This creates an admin/password credential you can use to view system information when following links from the Tomcat home page.

4. The HTTP Session Management Module for Tomcat is included in the GemFire installation package. After you install VMware GemFire, you will find the module in the tools/Modules directory of the installation with a name of the form vmware-gemfire-modules-tomcat<TOMCAT-VERSION>-<SERVER-VERSION>.zip, where TOMCAT-VERSION is the version of Tomcat and SERVER-VERSION is the GemFire version number.

   Tomcat Version	Location of .zip file
   Tomcat 8.5	$GEMFIRE_HOME/tools/Modules/Tomcat8
   Tomcat 9	$GEMFIRE_HOME/tools/Modules/Tomcat9
   Tomcat 10	$GEMFIRE_HOME/tools/Modules/Tomcat10

5. Set your current working directory to $CATALINA_HOME/lib and unzip the HTTP Session Management Module into the $CATALINA_HOME/lib directory. This adds JAR files to the lib subdirectory. For example, for Tomcat 10.0:

   cd $CATALINA_HOME/lib
   unzip $GEMFIRE_HOME/tools/Modules/Tomcat10/gemfire-modules-tomcat10-10.0.0.zip
   

6. Copy the Session Module configuration files from the ‘lib’ directory of your Tomcat installation into the Tomcat ‘conf’ directory. This can be done with a command similar to the following:

   cd $CATALINA_HOME
   cp -a lib/conf/*.xml conf
   

Proceed to Setting Up the HTTP Module for Tomcat to complete your Tomcat configuration.