Installing Apache Tomcat on Windows

This guide refers to Apache Tomcat 7.0 and uses the Java Server JRE (also version 7).

Preparation

• Download the Tomcat 7.0 .zip file (32-bit or 64-bit) from: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi
• Download the Java Server JRE from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/server-jre7-downloads-1931105.html

Setup Java

• Unzip to the directory <C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.x.y_ab>
• Set the environment variable JAVA_HOME = C:\Program Files\Java\jdk_1.x.y_ab

Setup Tomcat

• Unzip, e.g. to the directory D:\Apache-Tomcat\
• Set the environment variable CATALINA_HOME = D:\Apache-Tomcat
• Create an inbound firewall rule for %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\tomcat7.exe
• Test the installation: run %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\tomcat7.exe on the command line. No error messages may occur when the server starts.
• Run the service installer: %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\service.bat install
• Set the service “Apache Tomcat 7” to “start automatically”: sc config tomcat7 start= auto
• Start the Tomcat service.
• Check that opening http://localhost:8080/ shows the Tomcat start page (“If you’re seeing this, you’ve successfully installed Tomcat. Congratulations!”).
• Put a shortcut for the Tomcat Service Manager ("%CATALINA_HOME\bin\tomcat7w.exe //MS//") in the All Users Startup folder.

Tomcat Service Security

For security reasons, the Apache Tomcat service should run under a user with limited privileges.