Skip to main content

Installing as an executable war

Installing as an executable war

Use the executable war as an alternative to a system package:

  1. Download the executable war (Java) file.
  2. Define RDECK_BASE environment variable to the location of the install
    export RDECK_BASE=$HOME/rundeck; # or where you like it
  3. Create the directory for the installation.
    mkdir -p $RDECK_BASE
  4. Copy the executable war to the installation directory.
    cp rundeck-5.8.0-20241205.war $RDECK_BASE
  5. Change directory and run the WAR.
    cd $RDECK_BASE
java -Xmx4g -jar rundeck-5.8.0-20241205.war
  6. Wait for the Started message.
    Grails application running at http://ecto1.local:4440 in environment: production
  7. Update your shell environment
    PATH=$PATH:$RDECK_BASE/tools/bin
MANPATH=$MANPATH:$RDECK_BASE/docs/man

If you get an error message that resembles the one below, you probably are using an unsupported Java version.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file

See the startup and shutdown section for
instructions on using the rundeckd shell tool to manage the
rundeck server process.

Logging in for the first time

  1. Navigate to http://localhost:4440/ in a browser
  2. Log in with the username admin and password admin

Rundeck is now up and running!

Next, learn how to create your first project

Updating

When you need to update rundeck and you can not find the relevant section on the docs you are probably on a quite recent version.

  • Stop rundeck
  • download the new war
  • open a prompt, optionally setting RDECK_BASE and launch --installonly
    java -jar rundeck-5.8.0-20241205.war --installonly
  • copy over your customizations
  • don't forget, e.g., sqljdbc41.jar in %RDECK_BASE%\server\lib
  • start rundeck

Executable War Options

The executable war can take a number of options to specify how the server should start. If you execute with a "-h" you will see the usage information:

java -Xmx4g -jar rundeck-5.8.0-20241205.war -h
usage: java [JAVA_OPTIONS] -jar rundeck.war  [-c PATH] [-d]
       [--installonly] [-s PATH] [-b PATH] [-p PATH] [-h] [-x PATH]
       [--skipinstall] [--serverdir PATH] [--datadir PATH]

Run the rundeck server, installing the necessary components if they do not exist.
    --skipinstall         Skip the extraction of the utilities from the launcher.
    --installonly         Perform installation only and do not start the server.
 -b,--basedir <PATH>      The basedir
 -c,--configdir <PATH>    The location of the configuration.
 -d                       Show debug information
 -h,--help                Display this message.
 -p,--projectdir <PATH>   The location of Rundeck's project data.
 -s,--sbindir <PATH>      The install directory for the tools used by administrators.
 -x,--bindir <PATH>       The install directory for the tools used by users.

These options can be used to customize the directories used by the executable war.
By default all the directories are organized by convention within the current
working directory where the executable war is located.

System Properties

See Rundeck Configuration - System Properties Configuration

For more information about using SSL, see Configuring Rundeck for SSL.