[Centos] tomcat where ?

[Troy Engel]

Hi Matt,

We'll agree to disagree. :) Tomcat and java are sometimes a little iffy 
from version to version, since you're dealing with a lot of seperate 
jarballs from different places (ie mysql connectors, axis, struts, 
xalan/xerces, etc) and there are a number of times when you need to do a 
lot of independant things outside of an RPM construct, upgrading and 
downgrading to get around bugs or apply a performance enhancement.

It's all about good design, which can overcome any "splatterings" (man 
do I hear you there! ugh) all over the filesystem. By the rigid use of 
symlinks, proper ant build scripts (ie to deploy new jarballs of, say, 
Axis into tomcat's home) and a full understanding of how to use tomcat 
(ie keeping server.xml in CVS, using -config to grab it) and mod_jk you 
can actually have a much more powerful setup than an RPM that "someone 
else" designed for you.

It also makes for testing/deploying new tomcats (sic) and downgrading in 
an emergency a real piece of cake, something that you can't do in 11 
seconds with an RPM version. Ie:

   /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.4/
   /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/
   /opt/tomcat -> /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7

There have been numerous times where issues burried deep down inside 
tomcat have only surfaced in production scenarious, no matter how much 
testing we do on the development servers. (That good old fashioned 
random user input is what it takes to find them. :)) Dropping back a 
tomcat version is slick, fast, and easy when you're symlinking.

Anyone who's ever spent time at the systems level trying to debug some 
completely obscure java memory leak or improper use of a synchronized 
class in a mutlithreaded situation will know my pain.

-te

Matt Bottrell wrote:
> Gotta disagree with you Troy....
> 
> A well managed system is one that is all RPMed...   
> 
> Nothing worse than application code splattered over a file system
> (what's that... you installed to /usr instead of /usr/local/app or
> /opt/app).
> 
> Particularly when you have 100 odd servers... and you only spend a few
> hours a month on each....
> 
> I do believe this is why we have: http://www.jpackage.org/
> 
> :)
> 
> Peace to all....
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Matt.
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:04:38 -0500, Jim Bartus <jbartus at advance.net> wrote:
> 
>>Troy Engel wrote:
>>
>>>As someone who deploys a lot of tomcat/mod_jk instances, I agree 100%.
>>>Certain things are better off non-RPM'd for easier up/down/crossgrades,
>>>and the java tools (jdk, ant, tomcat, etc) are great examples.
>>>
>>>-te
>>
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-- 
Troy Engel | Systems Engineer
Fluid, Inc | http://www.fluid.com