Ubuntu + Jenkins + Gradle + Embedded Tomcat + Port 80

Port 80 is a privileged port and normal users cannot listen on this port. I had a recent requirement to run some test cases on an embedded tomcat running on Port 80 during Jenkins build. Here is the steps worked for me to achieve this.

Gradle File

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'war'

buildscript {
  repositories {
    jcenter()
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.bmuschko:gradle-tomcat-plugin:2.2.2'
  }
}

apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.tomcat'

tomcat {
  httpPort = 80
  contextPath = "/"
}

Setup authbind

authbind will allow non-root user to listen on privileged ports.

sudo apt-get install authbind
sudo touch /etc/authbind/byport/80
sudo chmod 500 /etc/authbind/byport/80 
sudo chown jenkins /etc/authbind/byport/80

Configure Jenkins

Modify the Jenkins run command (last line in do_start routine)to the following

$SU -l $JENKINS_USER --shell=/bin/bash -c "$DAEMON $DAEMON_ARGS -- authbind --deep $JAVA $JAVA_ARGS -jar $JENKINS_WAR $JENKINS_ARGS" || return 2

Apache Load Balancing & Fail Over with mod_proxy

Apache mod_proxy and the extension mod_proxy_balancer can be used for load balancing and fail over. The following setup is used for two downstream Tomcat servers with a candidate web app deployed at the root.

httpd.conf (On Mac OS, Mavericks)

LoadModule proxy_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_ajp_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_ajp.so
LoadModule proxy_balancer_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_balancer.so
ProxyRequests Off
<Proxy balancer://cluster>
    BalancerMember ajp://localhost:8009  loadfactor=1 ping=10
    BalancerMember ajp://localhost:18009 loadfactor=2 ping=10
</Proxy>
ProxyPass          /status   !
ProxyPass          /balancer !
ProxyPass          /         balancer://cluster/
ProxyPassReverse   /         balancer://cluster/

ProxyStatus On
<Location /status>
    SetHandler server-status
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from all
</Location>

<Location /balancer>
    SetHandler balancer-manager
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from all
</Location>

Confluence + Tomcat + Ubuntu + MySQL

To install the EAR/WAR version of Confluence follow these steps. This assumes basic knowledge on Ubuntu, MySQL, Tomcat etc.

1. Download the latest EAR/WAR version
2. Unpack the distribution
   

       % sudo tar xvf confluence-3.4.6.tar -C /opt
   

3. Create symlink wiki for the confluence distribution
   

       % cd /opt
       % sudo ln -s confluence-3.4.6 wiki
       % sudo chown -R tomcat6:tomcat6 wiki
     

4. Create the data directory
   

       % sudo mkdir /var/data/wiki
       % sudo chown -R tomcat6:tomcat6 /var/data/wiki
     

5. Edit the /opt/wiki/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties and set the value of variable confluence.home to /opt/wiki/confluence
6. Edit /etc/default/tomcat6 and adjust the JVM settings
   

   JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Xmx640m -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
   

7. Modify /opt/wiki/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties so that the log files will be produced under /var/log/tomcat6
   
   • Comment the line for ConfluenceHomeLogAppender
   • Uncomment the line for RollingFileAppender
   • Set the log location to /var/log/tomcat6/atlassian-confluence.log
   • Set the debug threshold to WARN
8. Create a confluence database
   

       % mysqladmin -u root -p create wiki
       % mysql -u root -p
       % mysql> grant all privileges on wiki.* to 'wikiuser'@'localhost' identified by 'wikipass' with grant option;
       % mysql> commit;
       % mysql> flush all privileges;
     

9. Setup the confluence context: In the /var/lib/tomcat6/conf/Catalina/localhost directory, create a file called confluence.xml with the following contents:
   

   <Context path="/wiki" docBase="/opt/wiki/confluence" debug="0" reloadable="0"/>
   

10. Restart tomcat
    

        % sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat6 restart
    



11. Point the browser to localhost:8080/wiki and follow the instructions

Installing Apache + Tomcat on Ubuntu

1. Install the packages
   

       sudo apt-get update
       sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
       sudo apt-get install apache2
       sudo apt-get install tomcat6
       sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-jk
     

2. Adjust the startup parameters like heap space, permgen etc. by modifying the file /etc/default/tomcat6
3. Uncomment the AJP connector from the server configuration by modifying /var/lib/tomcat6/conf/server.xml
4. Add the jk worker properties file by creating a new file /etc/apache2/jk_workers.properties with the following content:
   

       # List of workers
       worker.list = local, status
   
       # Local worker
       worker.local.type=ajp13
       worker.local.host=localhost
       worker.local.port=8009
   
       # Status worker
       worker.status.type=status
     

5. Add a new file /etc/apache2/mods_available/jk.conf with the following content:
   

       JkWorkersFile /etc/apache2/jk_workers.properties
       JkShmFile     /var/log/apache2/mod_jk.shm
       JkLogFile     /var/log/apache2/mod_jk.log
       JkLogLevel    info
       JkLogStampFormat "[%a %b %H:%M:%S %Y]"
     

6. Enable the mods
   

         % cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
         % sudo ln -s ../mods-available/jk.conf jk.conf
       

7. Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default and add the JK Mount points. At the end of the file, in the same virtual host definition, add the following:
   

       JkMount /servlet* local
       JkMount /tomcat-status status
     

8. Reboot the server
   

         % sudo reboot now