Fresh Lucee install on a server

[Michael Vornkahl]

Hi,

I want to install a new web server.

It's a windows 2012 R2 server, IIS is not active.

I downloaded the windows installer from the lucee.org page.

Do I have to install anything before I install lucee?

Do I need apache web server or java?

Thank you for your tipps.

Michael

[Robert Munn]

I think someone mentioned the other day that the installer includes Tomcat and a JRE, but you can always download them if they are not present. 

Lucee uses Tomcat/Jetty by default as the web server, so you don’t need a separate web server. You can run IIS, Apache, Nginx and maybe other web servers in front of Lucee, but it isn’t a requirement for installation.  

 

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[Michael Vornkahl]

thank you Robert,
So I first have to install Apache and then Lucee.

Greetings

Michael

[Bilal]

As far as I know the installer assumes that you use IIS as webserver on Windows. It will connect the two for you.

If you want to use Apache http instead of the built in tomcat webserver (coyote) you will have to connect tomcat and Apache via a connector like mod_proxy.

[Risto]

The download page for the installer should mention requirements, options, and what exactly is happening. Many of us know what happens and how it works, but it might be a mystery to first timers.
For example, it doesn't mention that it uses mod_cfml (its purpose) or it will configure another web server in front of Tomcat for you. Doesn't mention if it needs JRE or not. Right now there is only a link that goes straight to the download.

It could be as simple as a link to Lucee's own updated version of this:

https://github.com/getrailo/railo/wiki/Installation-InstallerDocumentation

[Risto]

Actually, it could just be a few bullet points of what the installer is capable of doing. When a more detailed installer page is available then a link to that could be added.

[Risto]

I did not write the following. I don't know if the versions are the latest in the installer. I copied it from the respective sites just as a suggestion of what I feel could be a short helpful blurb on download page.

The Installer creates a stand-alone instance of Lucee, Tomcat, and Oracle's JRE specifically for use with Lucee. It can be run "by itself" or it can be connected to a pre-installed web server: IIS on Windows and Apache on Linux. This installer also performs the web-server to Tomcat server connections for you, which can be customized at any point after the install to meet your own unique needs. It uses Mod_cfml (link to details - http://www.modcfml.org/index.cfm/documentation/) which is a community-driven suite of programs that automatically configures Tomcat hosts to match hosts created in Apache or IIS. Mod_cfml removes the need to configure web sites twice - once in your web server and again in Tomcat - and performs this task automatically for you.

If you wish to use Apache or IIS, install the web server before running the Lucee installer.

Installer will install the following:
- Lucee 4.5.0.42
- JRE 1.7.0_67
- Tomcat 7.0.56
- mod_cfml 1.0.14

Eventually if there is a detailed installation wiki or pages on the Lucee site add a link.

[denstar]

The bundles that I have created are explicit about things like mod_cfml
(it's in the bundle name, as is "jre" if it has one), tomcat, nginx,
etc, and have README files included, which we can mirror in the wiki.

Every bundle comes with a script to install that bundle as a windows
service or Linux/OS X daemon, and a script to remove it, optionally
adding/removing a user as well (except for windows, though I want to
encourage using specific users for services for every OS). (The GUI
installer just calls these scripts, which makes everything pretty
standard and easy to test.)

We need to discuss some options about standardizing setups-- for
instance I like the idea of having a root "logs" directory where lucee
and tomcat logs are kept by default (if you use the nginx bundle it
would be nice to have them there too) versus say tomcat/logs and
nginx/logs and /WEB-INF/lucee/logs | lib-lucee/lucee-server/context/logs
and it would be kind of cool to keep the web and server context configs
in something like conf/server and conf/web/someWebHash instead of with
the libs | under WEB-INF...

All of the bundles (except for the Plain-Jane war bundle) could be
configured to use these defaults, which would standardize documentation
as well. Then we wouldn't have to say "for the WildFly bundle, look in
dir X for logs, for the Tomcat bundle, look in dir Y for logs, if you're
using nginx, look in dir Z, etc.).

I'm kinda torn on the idea, as I like being able to say "hey, look at
that projects documentation to figure out what's going on", but I do
like the idea of Lucee being it's "own thing", vs. just something that
is running on something else (which everything is, really =]).

-Den

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[denstar]

On 3/15/15 12:40 PM, Risto wrote:
> I did not write the following. I don't know if the versions are the
> latest in the installer. I copied it from the respective sites just as a
> suggestion of what I feel could be a short helpful blurb on download page.

I think that text is too long to be included in the downloads page
itself, unless we restructure the downloads page. Having a link to docs
about it would be better I think. (As well as being sure that the
download artifacts themselves have README files too-- Adam C. can
manually keep them all in sync! j/k =])

The goal we last discussed was having the bare-minimum of downloads
available directly from the lucee.org site, and then providing links to
"community supported" bundles, so we don't imply that lucee.org is
responsible for anything beyond the core.

A grip of these community supported bundles should start rolling out
tomorrow, fresh off the presses, for testing and comment.

I'd like to get some feedback on the ideas of, say, putting logs in one
logs directory (with sub-directories, but under one root log dir), as I
think those ideas might make maintenance easier, and we're already doing
some customization for lucee-tomcat-modcfml-jre (<-- this bundle is the
same-ish as what the current installer installs).

One major new option is the NGINX bundle, which provides the whole
stack, as well as opening up a bag of worms about where the webroot for
the app and web server should be... currently both point at the
tomcat/webapps/ROOT/, but I'd rather use
tomcat/conf/Catalina/hostName/ROOT.xml and have a custom location (maybe
lucee/weboot)

Even better, but unrealistic I think, would be lucee/apps/[name] for the
app root and lucee/apps/[name]/web or lucee/apps/[name]/pub for the web
server root.

Although splitting the app code from the pub code may be "too much" for
folks to handle, if we at least used a custom directory for the app
host, we could standardize that location across the bundles too-- for
example, this structure:

TOMCAT:
lucee
/tomcat
/lib-lucee
/apps/defaultHost

WILDFLY:
lucee
/wildfly
/lib-lucee
/apps/defaultHost

So, say, manually upgrading the lucee libs is easy, as is switching
containers... and if we kept the server and web context config
directories under lucee/ as well, along with logs, there would be a
standard location to look for stuff, regardless of chosen flavor.

The tradeoff is that we have to configure* the various underlying
technologies (tomcat, etc.), vs. using their defaults, but we're already
doing this for the current installer bundle.

*Not configure manually, I mean if an end-user wanted to mimic how the
installer sets up tomcat with a "vanilla" tomcat, they'd have to edit
server.xml, setenv.sh, etc. to achieve the same structure.

-Den

[Risto]

This all sounds great and I look forward to it.

[Michael Vornkahl]

Hi everyone!
I love this community 😊.
Thank you for your help.

Michael

[Bill Tindal]

Anyone have some direction on setting up the following:

Ubuntu

Nginx

Lucee

I have the Ubuntu server running fine, Nginx is working however I cannot seem to get Nginx to connect to Lucee correctly. Simply times out.

If anyone has an example of the following it would be great:

nginx sites-available .conf file

lucee server.xml (example)

lucee web.xml (example)

I've often wondered why it is so hard for a simple installation article to be written on this when releasing software. For example:

OS > Apache > Lucee

OS > Nginx > Lucee

Various other configs like SSL...

cheers,

Bill

[mmm mmm]

This might help.

http://dnando.github.io/blog/2015/01/05/advantages-of-nginx/

[Robert Munn]

Have you verified that Lucee is running by going to http://host:8888/ (or whatever port you assigned to Tomcat/Jetty). If you can get to Lucee directly via the servlet container, your problem is with the proxy pass configuration in Nginx.

Give this code block a go. It should be inside your xml config for your site, e.g. inside a server{} block. See Nando’s blog post for more detailed info. 

        # Main Lucee proxy handler

        location ~ \.(cfm|cfml|cfc|jsp|cfr)(.*)$ {

    proxy_connect_timeout       100000;

 proxy_send_timeout          100000;

 proxy_read_timeout          100000;

 send_timeout                100000;

          proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8888;

          proxy_redirect off;

          proxy_set_header Host $host;

          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;

          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;

          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;

        }

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[Bill Tindal]

Thanks for the help all.

I do have Lucee working on :8888 and I have Nginx working on :80

I can get Nginx to point to Lucee as long as my site files (and nginx root) are located in /opt/lucee/tomcat/webapps/ROOT

As soon as I alter the nginx root to point to say /var/www/mysite and then add a virtual host xml block in the /opt/lucee/tomcat/conf/server.xml the server becomes unresponsive.

This was a piece of cake in Railo to add virtual hosts, why does it not work in Lucee?

[Robert Munn]

Have you tried copying the /opt/lucee/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF folder to /var/www/mysite? I have sometimes had to copy the WEB-INF folder manually to get it running.

And check permissions on /var/www/mysite, make sure Tomcat has permissions on the folders.

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[Bill Tindal]

Got the site working finally.

However I'm still confused as to what Lucee/Tomcat is doing as it just becomes unresponsive.

I have 1 site working fine, then add another with ONE .cfm page and it chokes the chicken.

If I run a 'service lucee_ctl restart' in the midst of it churning the page appears and this is seen in the console:

SEVERE: Could not contact localhost:8005. Tomcat may not be running.

I've done nothing to the LUCEE install apart from editing the server.xml to add some hosts.

[Bill Tindal]

Looks like I'm having problems with the PID file. Anyone encountered this? Is there a patch to install?

[Bill Tindal]

Cannot even revert to the original site that was working. Now nothing works with Lucee just sits and spins in the browser.

All I did was add another site, why would the previous working site now bomb ?

I'm amazed at how unstable this product is. The last version of Railo doesn't do this.

[Jordan Michaels]

Are you trying to offend the people that make the product, give it to you for free, then offer to help you with issues you have with it for free? Doesn't seem very wise in my humble opinion.

Have you checked your logs? The Tomcat catalina.out file specifically? From the little factual information you've provided, it sounds like your tomcat is crashing. Again, based on the little factual information you've provided, this is most likely caused by a typo in your most recent edits to the Tomcat server.xml file. You can find out for sure by reviewing your catalina.out log file.

Hope that helps. Please try to have respect for the people you're asking for help from and that *donate* their time and attention to this community.

Kind regards,
Jordan Michaels

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[Igal @ Lucee.org]

All I did was add another site

good chance that Tomcat's server.xml is now malformed.

follow Jordan's advice and check the Tomcat logs.

Igal Sapir
Lucee Core Developer
Lucee.org

[Bill Tindal]

Respect? I understand why you'd say that but to be honest how many years have gone by with Railo and now Lucee and installation is still a nightmare.

Yes I've checked the logs and there is nothing in the catalina.out file except this:

INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: /usr/java/packages/lib/amd64:/usr/lib64:/lib64:/lib:/usr/lib

Again adding this to the server.xml should not blow it up especially after I already had a fully running and functioning website.

<Host name="domain" appBase="webapps">

   <Context path="" docBase="/var/www/path/" />

</Host>

My frustration is getting the better of me I'll admit but after rebuilding the server 5 times, finally getting a functioning website then adding another website with ONE .cfm file and the entire installation is now borked for no apparent reason you'll forgive me.

@Igal, if the server.xml was malformed I'd be seeing that in the catalina.out file? If so, then I don't.

[Bill Tindal]

Just an update for everyone interested.

I switched my VPS to CentOS 6.5 x64 from Ubuntu 14.04 x64 and everything is good (and faster). I have no idea why :)

Used the same configurations for Nginx and Lucee.

So I would recommend not using Ubuntu 14.04 based on my experience.

An important nugget I picked up from Pete Freitag's ubuntu-nginx-railo repository is to use the following in the proxy configuration for nginx to tomcat: proxy_set_header X-Tomcat-DocRoot $document_root;

I believe that it enables mod_cfml to work without any other configuration on the nginx side.

[Robert Munn]

In an earlier discussion about distros, several people recommended CentOS over Ubuntu, primarily for security and reliability. In that thread I suggested not using the 14.04 release and linked to a blog post with several factoids about 14.04 that may or may not be of concern. See this post about 14.04:

https://tim.siosm.fr/blog/2014/04/25/why-not-ubuntu-14.04-lts/

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[Jonathan van Zuijlekom]

We have this setup running.

We use:
Tengine nginx fork. It features load balancing.
Tomcat7 from ubuntu repository for (security) updates
Java 8 from Webup8 repository
mod_cfml

Ive attached an install script with the config files.