Today I finished a successful fresh install of Portal. Below is the process I followed.

Versions

  • Portal — 2.7.2 (bundled with AS 4.2.3)
  • JavaSE — 5.0 Update 19
  • — 5.1.34 (Community Edition)
  • Flavor — Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.2 (64 bit)

Step 1 – Downloads

  1. I grabbed the installer from here http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp. The downloaded file was called jdk-1_5_0_19--amd64-rpm.bin
  2. I grabbed the Portal binaries from here http://www.jboss.org/jbossportal/download/index.html. The downloaded file was called -portal-2.7.2-bundled.zip
  3. I grabbed the binary from here http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.1.html#linux-rhel5-x86-64bit-rpms. I downloaded the server (-server-community-5.1.34-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm) and the client (-client-community-5.1.34-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm) RPMs
  4. I grabbed the JDBC driver from this page http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/5.1.html. The downloaded file was called -connector--5.1.7.tar.gz

Step 2 – Install JavaSE

  1. I made the installer executable

    $ chmod +x jdk-1_5_0_19--amd64-rpm.bin
  2. Then executed the installer

    $ ./jdk-1_5_0_19--amd64-rpm.bin
  3. I paged through endless legal boilerplate and accepted it by typing yes and hitting enter (hopefully I didn’t sell my soul)
  4. The installer extracted the RPM file and installed it.
    I double checked the package was installed by querying the RPM database:

    $ rpm -q jdk
    jdk-1.5.0_19-fcs
    $

    This RPM installed all of the files into /usr//jdk1.5.0_19

  5. I edited the /etc/profile file to make the JAVA_HOME environment variable and binaries available to everyone on the box. I added the following lines to achieve this

    export JAVA_HOME=/usr//jdk1.5.0_19
    export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
  6. I double checked it all worked

    $ source /etc/profile
    $ echo $JAVA_HOME
    /usr//jdk1.5.0_19
    $

Step 3 – Deploy Portal Binaries

  1. I am never sure the correct place in a distribution to put 3rd party stuff, but I went with /usr/local this time

    $ pwd
    /usr/local
    $ unzip ~/-portal-2.7.2-bundled.zip

    This created the directory /usr/local/-portal-2.7.2

  2. Once again, I edited the /etc/profile file to add the environment to it by adding the following line

    export JBOSS_HOME=/usr/local/-portal-2.7.2

    Then I tested it

    $ source /etc/profile
    $ echo $JBOSS_HOME
    /usr/local/-portal-2.7.2
    $

Step 4 – Change Default Port (Optional)
For my install I have no need to run Apache in front of , so I want to listen (or more correctly, have Tomcat listen) directly on port 80 – by default it listens on 8080.

  1. I opened the $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/-web.deployer/server.xml file, (which is a standard Tomcat configuration file) in an editor.
  2. I changed the port of the HTTP connector to 80 (you can find it by searching for 8080). I also change the HTTPS connector to use 443 (you can find this one by searching for 8443). I then changed the value of the redirectPort attribute of the HTTP connector to match.

Step 5 – Change Portal to be the root web app. (Optional)
For my install, the Portal will be the main application on the server, so I want it to be accessible from the root of the server, and not have to enter the portal context path all of the time.

  1. First, I disabled the current root application

    $ mv $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/-web.deployer/ROOT.war $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/-web.deployer/ROOT.war.old
  2. I opened the $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/-portal.sar/portal-server.war/WEB-INF/-web.xml file, in an editor.
  3. I found the <context -root> tag and changed the vallue to be just a single forward slash character.

    <context-root>/</context-root>
  4. I saved the file and exited the editor.

Step 6 – Install
By default, Portal will use a Hypersonic database for all of its internal data. My environment will be a production environment, so I want to use something more robust.

  1. I Installed the binaries by using a normal RPM install

    $ rpm -ivh -server-community-5.1.34-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
    $ rpm -ivh -client-community-5.1.34-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

    The process started the mysqld service automatically. It also installed as a service automatically.

  2. I checked that it was running

    $ mysqladmin version
    mysqladmin Ver 8.42 Distrib 5.1.34, for unknown--gnu on x86_64
    Copyright 2000-2008 AB, 2008 Microsystems, Inc.
    This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
    and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL license

    Server version 5.1.34-community
    Protocol version 10
    Connection Localhost via UNIX socket
    UNIX socket /var/lib//.sock
    Uptime: 5 hours 29 min 16 sec

    Threads: 1 Questions: 5 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 15 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 8 Queries per second avg: 0.0
    $

There are a lot of things you might want to do to a base install before putting it into production, but that is beyond the scope of this document. I would start with this link for some of the things you need to consider: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/unix-post-installation.html

Step 7 – Point the Portal at

  1. I connected to the server running on localhost, as the current user (which happened to be root in my case).

    $
    Welcome to the monitor. Commands end with ; or g.
    Your connection id is 15
    Server version: 5.1.34-community Community Server (GPL)

    Type ‘help;’ or ‘h’ for help. Type ‘c’ to clear the current input statement.

    >

  2. I created a Database instance for the Portal to use

    > CREATE DATABASE jbossportal;
    Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
  3. Then I created a user for the Portal to connect as

    > CREATE USER ‘portal’@'localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘portalpassword’;
    Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
  4. Then I granted all privileges for the jbossportal Database to the user I just created

    > GRANT ALL ON jbossportal.* TO ‘portal’@'localhost’;
    Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

    At this point I quit the interpreter.

  5. Next, I untared the JDBC driver

    $ tar zxvf -connector--5.1.7.tar.gz
  6. Then I copied the driver jar file to the $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/lib/ directory

    $ cp -connector--5.1.7/-connector--5.1.7-bin.jar $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/lib
  7. Next I disabled the original Hypersonic datasource

    $ mv $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/portal-hsqldb-ds.xml $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/portal-hsqldb-ds.xml.bak
  8. Then I deployed a datasource descriptor for . There is an example datasource descriptor in the Portal binary distribution

    $ cp $JBOSS_HOME/setup/portal-mysql5-ds.xml $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy

    I double checked the username, password and database name settings in the file were correct

Step 9 – Check Your Work
Now I checked my handy work before moving on to the next step.

  1. I made the run script executable
    $ chmod +x $JBOSS_HOME/bin/run.sh
  2. Next I ran the script
    $ $JBOSS_HOME/bin/run.sh

    It will take a while but, eventually the server will finish booting.

  3. Now I hit the basic AS home page at this URL: http://myserver/ and made sure it looked OK.
  4. Then I hit the Portal page at this URL: http://myserver/portal and checked it as well.

If you have trouble accessing your URL, there could be an issue with the address that is listening on. This can be caused by various issues with your server setup (hostname, hosts file etc.). One quick thing to try is to pass -b 0.0.0.0 as an argument to the run.sh script – this tells to listen on all addresses, which might help you figure out where the issue is.

Step 10 – Setup Portal as a Service

  1. I opened the file $JBOSS_HOME/bin/jboss_init_redhat.sh in an editor.
  2. First I double checked the environment variables set at the top of the file (particularly JBOSS_HOME and JBOSS_USER) were correct.
  3. Then at the very top of the file, below the shebang line, I added the following 3 lines to make the script compatible with the chkconfig system

    # Comments to support chkconfig
    # chkconfig: 2345 80 40
    # description: Portal

    I saved the file and exited the editor.

  4. Then I made it executable

    $ chmod +x $JBOSS_HOME/bin/jboss_init_redhat.sh
  5. Next I linked the script into the init.d directory

    $ ln -s $JBOSS_HOME/bin/jboss_init_redhat.sh /etc/init.d/
  6. Then I ran chkconfig to register the script for the correct run levels

    $ chkconfig –add
  7. I then started the server by hand to double check my work and also just to get the server up and running without having to do a reboot

    $ service start
  8. Then I hit the Portal page once again and checked that it came up properly

Step 11 – Have A
It is always appropriate to reward yourself with a craft, micro-brewed or home-brewed !

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