Updated install guide for LCA collaboration server

Question

Hi!

We have tried for a long time to get LCA colab server running on both Ubuntu and Windows, with no luck.
The posted install guide is very outdated due to changes in java licensing, removal of ppa +++
Are there any updated guides for running this on-prem?

Answer 1

I reran the installation process and there was an error in the database creation, I updated the installer and it should now work

Instead of Oracle Java we now recommend to use the openJDK 8, instead of following the commands in step 2 just run "apt install openjdk-8-jdk"

I added the updated installation guide as a separate page on the openLCA website, with easier copy paste function than in the PDF: https://www.openlca.org/collaboration-server-installation-guide

Comments

Edit: tomcat starts if I use the default server.xml.
If I create an empty server.xml and paste the content from the guide, it fails to start.

I tried using this today, and the java -jar installer completed without errors.
However, tomcat8 is not starting, and I can't find any logs that actually points to the root cause

I just get this:

root@lcacolab:/etc/tomcat8# service tomcat8 start
Job for tomcat8.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status tomcat8.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.


● tomcat8.service - LSB: Start Tomcat.
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/tomcat8; generated)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2020-03-19 11:12:52 UTC; 33s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 9107 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/tomcat8 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 9362 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/tomcat8 start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Mar 19 11:12:47 lcacolab systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start Tomcat....
Mar 19 11:12:47 lcacolab tomcat8[9362]:  * Starting Tomcat servlet engine tomcat8
Mar 19 11:12:52 lcacolab tomcat8[9362]:    ...fail!
Mar 19 11:12:52 lcacolab systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Mar 19 11:12:52 lcacolab systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 19 11:12:52 lcacolab systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Start Tomcat..

-jannis

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If the startup fails, you usually can find the error in {tomcat_dir}/logs/catalina.{date}.log - Application errors after successful startup appear in catalina.out

---

It looks like the issue is the server.xml.
Should it only contain this:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<Server port=”8005″ shutdown=”SHUTDOWN”>
<Listener className=”org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener” />
<Listener className=”org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener” SSLEngine=”on” />
<Listener className=”org.apache.catalina.core.JreMemoryLeakPreventionListener” />
<Listener className=”org.apache.catalina.mbeans.GlobalResourcesLifecycleListener” />
<Listener className=”org.apache.catalina.core.ThreadLocalLeakPreventionListener” />
<GlobalNamingResources>
<Resource name=”UserDatabase” auth=”Container” type=”org.apache.catalina.UserDatabase” description=”User database that can be updated and saved” factory=”org.apache.catalina.users.MemoryUserDatabaseFactory” pathname=”conf/tomcat-users.xml” />
</GlobalNamingResources>
<Service name=”Catalina”>
<Connector port=”80″ protocol=”HTTP/1.1″ connectionTimeout=”20000″ redirectPort=”443″ compression=”on” compressionMinSize=”2048″ noCompressionUserAgents=”gozilla, traviata” compressableMimeType=”text/html,text/xml,text/plain,text/css, text/javascript,text/json,application/x-javascript, application/javascript,application/json” />
<Connector port=”443″ SSLEnabled=”true” maxThreads=”200″ scheme=”https” secure=”true” keystoreFile=”/var/lib/tomcat8/keystore.jks” keystorePass=”gH3Dx8yA” clientAuth=”false” sslProtocol=”TLS” compression=”on” compressionMinSize=”2048″ noCompressionUserAgents=”gozilla, traviata” compressableMimeType=”text/html,text/xml,text/plain,text/css, text/javascript,text/json,application/x-javascript, application/javascript,application/json” />
<Engine name=”Catalina” defaultHost=”localhost”>
<Realm className=”org.apache.catalina.realm.LockOutRealm”>
<Realm className=”org.apache.catalina.realm.UserDatabaseRealm” resourceName=”UserDatabase” />
</Realm>
<Host name=”localhost” appBase=”webapps” unpackWARs=”true” autoDeploy=”true”>
<Valve className=”org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve” directory=”logs” prefix=”localhost_access_log” suffix=”.txt” pattern=”%h %l %u %t &quot;%r&quot; %s %b” />
<Context path=”” docBase=”ROOT” reloadable=”true”>
<Parameter name=”app.database” value=”/opt/collab/database” />
</Context>
</Host>
</Engine>
</Service>
</Server>

I renamed the original server.xml, and created an empty file and pasted this into it

-jannis

---

Can you check the permissions of the new file:
  4 -rw-r-----  1 root tomcat8   2018 Mar 19 10:44 server.xml

---

-rw-r----- 1 root tomcat8   2427 Mar 19 11:53 server.xml

-jannis

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letsencrypt is also not possible it seems on internal domains.
(I did not have the keystore.jks file)

Do you have an example server.xml without the SSL requirement?

-jannis

---

You can just remove the <connector 443>  tag

---

That did nothing, unfortunately.
Do I have to remove redirectPort=”443″ from the connector for port 80?

-jannis

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No, that should not be necessary but you can try to be sure. Can you delete the logs and restart the server and then see if there is any error log in catalina.out or catalina.2020-03-19.log ?

---

I figured it out.
The formatting when you copy/paste from the webpage is wrong.
" is not ", so the xml file does not validate at all.

-jannis

---

Only thing not working, is login to the lca colab webpage.
when I input the user@domain.tld and password I specified during the java -jar install, I get
"Invalid credentials"

-jannis

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Thank you, I will update the website. The initally created login is "admin" and the password specified in the installer

---

Were you able to login with the "admin" credentials or do you need further support?

Answer 2

Hi, 

I had similar problems when I tried to install the server on Ubuntu. Instead of following the instructions in the manual I followed these web pages: 

https://www.fosstechnix.com/install-oracle-java-8-on-ubuntu/

https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-elasticsearch-on-ubuntu-18-04/

https://www.fosstechnix.com/install-tomcat-8-on-ubuntu/

Then I downloaded the old LCA CS jar/war files (1.1.0 versions as the newest one did not work for me) and installed it according to the manual. This included editing the server.xml, imprint.html, index.html and login.html files. I did not bind the port 80, only used the 8080.  

Hope this helps, I just got my server working yesterday :)

- Christina 

Comments

thank you for your reply Christina, it led us to update the install guide..