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Rundeck as a Tomcat servlet

Rundeck as a Tomcat servlet

Running Rundeck on Tomcat is a popular choice for deploying and hosting this powerful workflow automation platform. Tomcat, an open-source Java servlet container, provides a robust and reliable runtime environment for running Java-based web applications like Rundeck. By utilizing Tomcat, users can leverage its scalability, stability, and extensive ecosystem to ensure optimal performance and efficient management of Rundeck instances. Running Rundeck on Tomcat offers a streamlined deployment process, as Tomcat handles the servlet execution and manages the web application lifecycle. In this guide, we will explore the steps required to set up and run Rundeck on Tomcat, enabling you to take advantage of the combined strengths of Rundeck's workflow automation capabilities and Tomcat's reliable web application hosting environment.

Installation on Linux

Note

Rundeck 3.3.x requires a new system property to define the destination for your Rundeck logs to be set in your Tomcat launch JAVA_OPTS.
Ensure you have set the rundeck.server.logDir to the directory that will hold your Rundeck logs.

  • Install Tomcat on your environment, as a service or just using the binaries (as for this example).
  • Downloadopen in new window the latest version of Rundeck war file and place it in $tomcat.base/webapps/ as e.g. rundeck.war
  • Create $tomcat.base/bin/setenv.sh
$ cat setenv.sh
   JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Xmx2048m -Xms512m -server -Drdeck.base=/path/to/rundeck.base -Drundeck.config.location=/path/to/rundeck.base/server/config/rundeck-config.properties -Drundeck.server.logDir=/path/to/rundeck.base/server/logs"
  • Create /path/to/rundeck.base
  • Start Tomcat
  • Go to http://localhost:8080/rundeck, then at login screen: stop Tomcat
  • Edit $rdeck.base/server/config/rundeck-config.properties to match Tomcat's url:
grails.serverURL=http://localhost:8080/rundeck
server.servlet.context-path=/rundeck
  • Edit $rdeck.base/etc/framework.properties to match Tomcat's url:
framework.server.name = localhost
framework.server.hostname = localhost
framework.server.port = 8080
framework.server.url = http://localhost:8080/rundeck
  • Start Tomcat
  • Go to http://localhost:8080/rundeck and login.

Installation on Windows

  • Install Tomcat on your environment, as a service or just using the binaries (as for this example).
  • Downloadopen in new window the latest version of Rundeck war file and place it in tomcat.base\\webapps\\ as e.g. rundeck.war
  • Create tomcat.base\\bin\\setenv.bat
setenv.bat content:
   set "JRE_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_181"
   set "JAVA_OPTS=-XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Xmx2048m -Xms512m -server -Drdeck.base=C:\path\to\rundeck.base -Drundeck.config.location=C:\path\to\rundeck.base\server\config\rundeck-config.properties -Drundeck.server.logDir=C:\path\to\rundeck.base\server\logs"
  • Create C:\\path\\to\\rundeck.base
  • Start Tomcat
  • Go to http://localhost:8080/rundeck, then at login screen: stop Tomcat
  • Edit rdeck.base\\server\\config\\rundeck-config.properties to match Tomcat's url:
grails.serverURL=http://localhost:8080/rundeck
server.contextPath=/rundeck
  • Edit rdeck.base\\etc\\framework.properties to match Tomcat's url:
framework.server.name = localhost
framework.server.hostname = localhost
framework.server.port = 8080
framework.server.url = http://localhost:8080/rundeck
  • Start Tomcat
  • Go to http://localhost:8080/rundeck and login.

Custom JNDI

Using JNDI Resource Database Connection

This setting allow Rundeck to use JNDI database connections instead of the default grails settings.

  • Add the Resource link on $tomcat.base/conf/context.xml
  <Resource name="jdbc/rundeckdb" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
               maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000"
               username="rundeckuser" password="rundeckpassword" driverClassName="org.mariadb.jdbc.Driver"
               url="jdbc:mariadb://mysql.rundeck.local:3306/rundeck"/>
  • on $rundeck.base/server/config/rundeck-config.properties add the dataSource.jndiName entry:
dataSource.jndiName=java:/comp/env/jdbc/rundeckdb

This will replace the dataSource.* entries

Using JNDI Database to manage the authentication

To use a custom authentication method using database tables:

  • It is necessary to have tables like this:
create table users (
user_name varchar(15) not null primary key,
user_pass varchar(15) not null
);

create table user_roles (
user_name varchar(15) not null,
role_name varchar(15) not null,
primary key (user_name, role_name)
);

insert into users('samuel','samuel');
insert into user_roles values('samuel','user');
insert into user_roles values('samuel','admin');
  • Define the Resource connection in $tomcat.base/conf/server.xml:
<!-- Global JNDI resources
      Documentation at /docs/jndi-resources-howto.html
 -->
 <GlobalNamingResources>
   <!-- Editable user database that can also be used by
        UserDatabaseRealm to authenticate users
   -->
   <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" />

    <Resource name="jdbc/testDB"
                       auth="Container"
                       type="javax.sql.DataSource"
                       maxActive="100"
                       maxIdle="30"
                       maxWait="10000"
                       username="rundeckauth"
                       password="password"
                       driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
                       url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/userauthdb?autoReconnect=true"/>

  </GlobalNamingResources>
  • Define the JNDI entry in $tomcat.base/conf/server.xml:
<!-- Use the LockOutRealm to prevent attempts to guess user passwords
     via a brute-force attack -->
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.LockOutRealm">
  <!-- This Realm uses the UserDatabase configured in the global JNDI
       resources under the key "UserDatabase".  Any edits
       that are performed against this UserDatabase are immediately
       available for use by the Realm.  -->
  <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.UserDatabaseRealm"
         resourceName="UserDatabase"/>
</Realm>
 <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.DataSourceRealm"
             dataSourceName="jdbc/testDB"
userTable="users"
userNameCol="user_name"
userCredCol="user_pass"
userRoleTable="user_roles"
roleNameCol="role_name"/>

Further information:

Users authentication

Note for Linux and Windows installations: users are no longer in Tomcat's configuration files, at this point, users should be configured as in a launcher installation and java options should be append to the setenv.sh or setenv.bat file.