Deploying with Apache Tomcat

For the Apache Tomcat installation procedure, please refer to the documentation of the application server itself: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-9.0-doc/setup.html.

The installation of a dedicated Apache Tomcat application server can be done on the physical server of your choice. It is advised to perform this installation on a different server than the one hosting the Neo4j database.

For optimal use of SECollab, especially reporting capabilities and the publication of large models, it is necessary to allocate a sufficient amount of memory to Tomcat (6 Go). To do this, update the environment variables of your Tomcat application server according to the instructions in Wiki Tomcat by applying the following minimal values:

-Xms128m -Xmx6144m

Deploying via the Tomcat Manager

Follow these steps to complete the installation using the Deployment Web Interface of the Tomcat Container

1. Go to https://tomcat.acme.com:8443/manager/html
2. Click on the web archive deployment administration page to install an archive from file.
   • Look for "Select WAR file to upload"
3. Click on the "Choose file" button and select the file secollab.war on the local machine.
4. Click on the button "Deploy"
   • Depending on the bandwidth, this may take 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Update the Tomcat manager in your browser until you see the WAR filesecollab.war among available services [*]. You can also confirm the correct deployment of the WAR file by checking in the filecatalina.log the presence of a message of the type : Apr 18, 2015 7:41:03 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployWAR INFO: Deploying web application archive /.../apache-tomcat/webapps/secollab.war
6. Configure the "context parameters" as described in the section Configuring the context parameters
7. Depending on the configuration of Tomcat, it may be necessary to restart the Tomcat server.

[*] If the Tomcat Manager fails to deploy the WAR file, visit the Tomcat website for more information on the resolution of this incident. If the diagnosis indicates that there is a problem with the secollab.war file, please contact the Sodius technical support.

Deploying via the file system

Follow these steps to install SECollab directly on the local server hosting the Tomcat server.

1. Use Secure Shell (Ssh) or Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect to the host tomcat.acme.com
2. Copy the file secollab.war into the "webapps" subfolder of the Tomcat.
3. Depending on the configuration of Tomcat, it may be necessary to restart the Tomcat server.

Editing context parameters

SECollab requires the configuration of certain parameters:

1. Use Secure Shell (Ssh) or Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect to the host hosting the Tomcat server and go to the folder: <apache-tomcat>/conf
2. Determine the context.xml file to use:
   • Edit the file <apache-tomcat>/conf/context.xml, if you want to add parameters to the general configuration file.
   • Create the file <apache-tomcat>/conf/Catalina/localhost/secollab.xml, if you want to set the parameters so that they are only visible to the application secollab.war. This file must contain the syntax of the file <apache-tomcat>/conf/context.xml.
3. Edit the file context.xml to add context parameters necessary, as defined in the section Configuring the context parameters.

A parameter is defined in the Tomcat context by the following statement:

<Context>
  ...
  <Parameter name="parameterName" value="parameterValue" override="1"/>
  ...
</Context>

Setting up the SameSite value

If you are using Chrome 80+ or a recent version of Firefox, you will probably face problems when trying to achieve basic OSLC interactions. This is because of a security related feature in modern browsers. To ensure proper compatibility, you should update context.xml file as follows:

<Context>
  ...
  <CookieProcessor sameSiteCookies="none" />
  ...
</Context>

Note: This feature is only available starting with Apache Tomcat 9.0.28.