Installing tomcat7 with Tomcat Cookbook

Question

Using vagrant-berkshelf on my CentOS 6.5 box, I tried to specify 7 as the version of Tomcat to install:

    "tomcat" => {
      "base_version" => "7"
    }

However, when I tried to run vagrant provision, I ran into an error:

[2014-03-21T18:23:50+00:00] ERROR: package[tomcat7] (tomcat::default line 45) 
       had an error: Chef::Exceptions::Package: No version specified, 
       and no candidate version available for tomcat7

This Opscode "Add Support for Tomcat7" bug is marked as "Fixed", but it's only shown as tested for Ubuntu 12.04. I'm not sure if that means that (a) it wasn't tested for CentOS or (b) it was never broken for CentOS.

How can I use tomcat7 on my vagrant box with Chef?

Answer 1

It seems that tomcat7 is not in the standard/epel repositories for centos6.5 yet.

[root@secure36 rfridman]# cat /etc/issue
CentOS release 6.5 (Final)

[root@secure36 rfridman]# yum search tomcat
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.atlanticmetro.net
 * epel: mirror.symnds.com
 * extras: mirror.es.its.nyu.edu
 * updates: mirror.cogentco.com
==================================================================== N/S Matched: tomcat =====================================================================
tomcatjss.noarch : JSSE implementation using JSS for Tomcat
apache-tomcat-apis.noarch : Tomcat Servlet and JSP APIs
jakarta-commons-collections-tomcat5.noarch : Jakarta Commons Collection dependency for Tomcat5
jakarta-commons-dbcp-tomcat5.noarch : DBCP dependency for Tomcat5
jakarta-commons-pool-tomcat5.x86_64 : Pool dependency for Tomcat5
jglobus-ssl-proxies-tomcat.noarch : Globus Java - SSL and proxy certificate support for Tomcat
tomcat-admin-webapps.noarch : The host-manager and manager web applications for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-docs-webapp.noarch : The docs web application for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-javadoc.noarch : Javadoc generated documentation for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-jsp-2.2-api.noarch : Apache Tomcat JSP API implementation classes
tomcat-jsvc.noarch : Apache jsvc wrapper for Apache Tomcat as separate service
tomcat-lib.noarch : Libraries needed to run the Tomcat Web container
tomcat-native.x86_64 : Tomcat native library
tomcat-servlet-3.0-api.noarch : Apache Tomcat Servlet API implementation classes
tomcat-webapps.noarch : The ROOT and examples web applications for Apache Tomcat
tomcat6.noarch : Apache Servlet/JSP Engine, RI for Servlet 2.5/JSP 2.1 API
tomcat6-admin-webapps.noarch : The host-manager and manager web applications for Apache Tomcat
tomcat6-docs-webapp.noarch : The docs web application for Apache Tomcat
tomcat6-javadoc.noarch : Javadoc generated documentation for Apache Tomcat
tomcat6-jsp-2.1-api.noarch : Apache Tomcat JSP API implementation classes
tomcat6-lib.noarch : Libraries needed to run the Tomcat Web container
tomcat6-servlet-2.5-api.noarch : Apache Tomcat Servlet API implementation classes
tomcat6-webapps.noarch : The ROOT and examples web applications for Apache Tomcat
glite-security-trustmanager-tomcat6.noarch : Java trustmanager interface supporting a GSI grid name space
tomcat.noarch : Apache Servlet/JSP Engine, RI for Servlet 3.0/JSP 2.2 API
tomcat-el-2.2-api.noarch : Expression Language v1.0 API
tomcat6-el-2.1-api.noarch : Expression Language v1.0 API

You should try to compile the tomcat7 from the source, or try to find the repository with tomcat7 included and add it to your cookbooks configuration.

Answer 2

There are 2 issues:

1. On CentOS, the tomcat 7 package (7.0.33-3.el6) is in the EPEL and is simply called 'tomcat'.
2. This package is, currently, buggy. [See: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1080195] A newer version (7.0.33-4.el6) fixes this but, for now, it's in the epel-testing repository.

See: https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/tomcat/pull/34

My temporary solution was to write a wrapper Chef recipe which installs the EPEL repo and the bug-fix tomcat7 package via the package manager. Something like:

# BERKSHELF
cookbook "yum", "~> 3.2.0"
cookbook "yum-epel", "~> 0.3.6"


# CHEF
override['yum']['epel-testing']['enabled'] = true
package 'tomcat'

Answer 3

Tomcat 7 is in the list you show there.

yum info tomcat
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: centos.mirror.ndchost.com
 * epel: mirror.vcu.edu
 * extras: centos.sonn.com
 * updates: mirror.atlanticmetro.net
Available Packages
Name        : tomcat
Arch        : noarch
Version     : 7.0.33
Release     : 3.el6
Size        : 86 k
Repo        : epel
Summary     : Apache Servlet/JSP Engine, RI for Servlet 3.0/JSP 2.2 API
URL         : http://tomcat.apache.org/
License     : ASL 2.0
Description : Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference
            : Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies.
            : The Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications are developed by
            : Sun under the Java Community Process.
            : 
            : Tomcat is developed in an open and participatory environment and
            : released under the Apache Software License version 2.0. Tomcat is intended
            : to be a collaboration of the best-of-breed developers from around the world.

The issue is in the tomcat cookbook. It is looking for a tomcat7 package.

Answer 4

Running into the same issue; My 'quick-fix': use JPackage repo for tomcat 7 (it's called tomcat7 like the recipe requires)