Tutorial: Using Tomcat with Apache (mod_jk)

[sebpayne]

Introduction

As standard, Zimbra runs itself on port 80. However, this means you can't use Apache or access any other website through that server. If you are using your server only as a groupware box, this is no bother. But if you are using it in the situation I am with other servers, this is no good. This tutorial will:

a.) Configure Tomcat to host on Port 7070 (as in M1)
b.) Download and install the mod_jk RPM
c.) Configure mod_jk to access Zimbra on /zimbra/
d.) Configure Apache to start on system boot

All this has been done on CentOS 4.2 but should work with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 but may need to be adjusted for Fedora Core 4 or SUSE.

Step 1: Removing iptables rule

nano /opt/zimbra/tomcat/conf/server.xml

Find the line that says "<!-- user services connector, no SSL -->"
Replace

<Connector port="80"' with
'<Connector port="7070"'

Save and Close

nano /opt/zimbra/tomcat/webapps/zimbra/WEB-INF/web.xml

Find

<env-entry-name>httpPort</env-entry-name>
		 <env-entry-value>80</env-entry-value>

and replace it with:

<env-entry-name>httpPort</env-entry-name>
 		 <env-entry-value>7070</env-entry-value>

Restart Tomcat:

/opt/zimbra/bin/tomcat restart

Step 2: Downloading and Installing mod_jk

wget http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/jpackage/1.6/redhat-el-3.0/free/RPMS/mod_jk-ap20-1.2.14.1-2jpp.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh mod_jk-ap20-1.2.14.1-2jpp.i386.rpm

Step 3: Configure Tomcat to allow access to AJP

Since M2, you need to configure Tomcat to allow mod_jk access to it by AJP 1.3.

nano /opt/zimbra/conf/server/server.xml

Add this line:

<!-- Define an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 -->
<Connector port="8009"
enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" protocol="AJP/1.3" />

before

<Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost">

Save and close the file

Step 4: Configuring mod_jk and Tomcat

 cp /usr/share/doc/mod_jk-ap20-1.2.14.1/workers.properties.sample /etc/httpd/conf.d/
nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Add these lines to the bottom of the file

# Load mod_jk module
LoadModule    jk_module  modules/mod_jk.so
# Where to find workers.properties
JkWorkersFile /etc/httpd/conf.d/workers.properties
# Where to put jk logs
JkLogFile     /var/log/httpd/mod_jk.log
# Set the jk log level [debug/error/info]
JkLogLevel    debug
# SHM info
JkShmFile   /etc/httpd/logs/jk.shm
JkShmSize   10M
# Select the log format
JkLogStampFormat "[%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y] "
# JkOptions indicate to send SSL KEY SIZE,
JkOptions     +ForwardKeySize +ForwardURICompat -ForwardDirectories
# JkRequestLogFormat set the request format
JkRequestLogFormat     "%w %V %T"
# JkMount points
JkMount /zimbra/mail ajp13
JkMount /zimbra/auth/ ajp13
JkMount /zimbra/js/*.jgz ajp13
JkMount /zimbra/ ajp13
JkMount /service/* ajp13

Alias /zimbra/img/ /opt/zimbra/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/webapps/zimbra/img/
Alias /zimbra/js/ /opt/zimbra/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/webapps/zimbra/js/
Alias /zimbra/public/ /opt/zimbra/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/webapps/zimbra/public/
Alias /zimbra/skins/ /opt/zimbra/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/webapps/zimbra/skins/
Alias /zimbra/test/ /opt/zimbra/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/webapps/zimbra/test/
Alias /zimbra/zimlets/ /opt/zimbra/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/webapps/zimbra/zimlets/

Save and close the file

nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/workers.properties

Find these lines in the file and replace them with the ones below:

workers.tomcat_home=/opt/zimbra/tomcat
workers.java_home=/opt/zimbra/java

Save and close the file

Step 4: Starting Apache

service httpd restart
chkconfig httpd on

Well, there you go. I have also posted it on my blog at http://sebpayne.blogspot.com which should also contain some Zimbra goodness! You should be able to access Zimbra at http://www.yourdomain.com/zimbra/ (the trailing slash is important)

[marcmac]

the iptables port forwarding has been removed from the latest (M2) release.

[renzochavez77]

Hello.. Y did all and my server works with zimbra in 7070 port...!.. Thaks, but i have a problem: I opened a port in my router the 7070 to the zimbra server host, because i have another server hosting the web site in port 80. So the users access from outside something like these: http://www.mydomain.com:7070
My problem is.. when i reboot the server or restart the zimbra service, the archives server.xml , and web.xml return to the original way, whith the 80 port so, my users can't acces from outside the network.. they have to call me and i have to do the changes in these archives already. Do you know wath can i do, to these archives dont return to the original way an all can loggin from outside in the 7070 port after a rebooting.? (My network sometimes have electrical accidents..!)..

Renzo Chavez

[phoenix]

Here's some instructions for changing the web port.

[bbska]

I followed these instructions and have an interesting problem:

I can connect to zimbra, and it starts to load, but then comes up with "A network service error has occured"

It's a little box in the zimbra window before anything else loads.

I can choose to send error report or just click ok. I can also view the details of the error which are:

msg - Csfe service error
code - service.FAILURE
method - ZmCsfeCommand.prototype.invoke
detail - system failure: request not allowed on port 80


I changed the ports that zimbra runs on to 7070 with zmprov and the config files all show them setup correctly as per these instructions.

I'm running CentOS 4.2 as well, so it's not a distro issue that I can tell.

Anyone have any ideas?

[KevinH]

Did you see:

http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...Apache_(mod_jk)

This post may be out of date.

[bbska]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Did you see:

http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...Apache_(mod_jk)

This post may be out of date.

I did use
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...e_%28mod_jk%29
(that had some minor errors in calling JkMount. it had ajp13 as the last argument in the jkmount command, but the last argument should be the worker to mount to ).

I came to this post to see if the wiki post was missing something critical. I can see that the majority of the stuff in both is the same. The error persists regardless of which instruction set I follow, so for now I'm following the wiki instructions.

[KevinH]

If you find any errors or things that need to be changed in the wiki please fix them.

[bbska]

Originally Posted by KevinH

If you find any errors or things that need to be changed in the wiki please fix them.

will update the wiki with the fixes.

Anyone have any ideas about this one? I'm at a loss as to what the issue is, it seems like it's freaking out about traffic going on port 80. why would this be a problem?

[bbska]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Did you see:

http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...Apache_(mod_jk)

This post may be out of date.

so very nice to see somebody completely hosed that wiki entry...