Date: 09/09/2009 - minor updates without fully testing: 07-11-2013

Running GeoNetwork under Tomcat

GeoNetwork can be run under Tomcat.

There are two web applications (webapps) in GeoNetwork; you will find them in the web directory of the installation: geonetwork and geoserver. For GeoNetwork to function correctly in Tomcat (or in any servlet container, for that matter), you must publish at least geonetwork; the following instructions publish both webapps.

1. Install Tomcat.
2. Prepare GeoNetwork. You can either:
   1. Use the installer.
   2. Download and build from source. See HowToWorkWithGit for help with downloading, and HowToCompile for help with building.
3. Copy or link to the webapps. Either:
   1. From your GeoNetwork build (or installation), copy all of the subdirectories of the web directory to the webapps directory of Tomcat. (So you will have webapps/geonetwork, etc., in your Tomcat installation.)
   2. In the directory $CATALINA_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost of your Tomcat installation, create a configuration file for each webapp. You will have files geonetwork.xml, and geoserver.xml. In the file geonetwork.xml put the following, adjusting the docBase path as necessary:

      <Context docBase="/...path_to_GeoNetwork_installation_goes_here.../web/geonetwork"
               privileged="true" antiResourceLocking="false" antiJARLocking="false">
      </Context>
      

      Same story with geoserver.xml.
4. Make sure Tomcat is the owner of the following directories:
   1. /...path_to_GeoNetwork_installation_goes_here.../web
   2. /...path_to_GeoNetwork_installation_goes_here.../data (If this step or the next one is missing, metadata upload and GeoServer won't work. As a consequence also the little map in the search box won't be displayed.)
5. Change the path of the GeoServer data directory:
   1. In /...path_to_GeoNetwork_installation_goes_here.../web/geoserver/WEB-INF/web.xml set the value of the parameter 'GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR' to '/...path_to_GeoNetwork_installation_goes_here.../data/geoserver_data'.
6. Turn off Tomcat security:
   1. In /etc/default/tomcatXXX set 'TOMCATXXX_SECURITY' (XXX = Tomcat version) parameter to 'no'.
7. Make sure you allocated enough Java heap space:
   1. In /etc/default/tomcatXXX set 'JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx768M"' if you get an error like this: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
8. Edit Tomcat's server.xml to set parameters as you wish.
9. If you can't find your log files, make sure you edit /...path_to_GeoNetwork_installation_goes_here.../web/geonetwork/WEB-INF/log4j.cfg:
   1. Change 'log4j.appender.jeeves.file' to '/var/log/tomcatXXX/geonetwork.log' (XXX = Tomcat version) or wherever you want to have your logs.
10. Start Tomcat.

Running the Z39.50 server

You'll encounter problems if you enable the Z39.50 server, because Tomcat is missing a JAR file that is included with the Jetty installation bundled with GeoNetwork.

In short, you'll need this additional step:

1. From your GeoNetwork build, locate the file jetty/ext/xercesImpl.jar, and copy it into your Tomcat's webapps/geonetwork/WEB-INF/lib.