Difficulties getting Tomcat 10 to run on boot, Rasp pi.

[John Peders]

Hi,

I want Tomcat 10 to run when my Pi boots up.  I've found all kinds of scripts that I've copied and pasted to try to get things running, and am partially enlightened by this excellent find: https://jdebp.uk/FGA/systemd-house-of-horror/tomcat.html

I'm still getting the horrors though - due to my ignorance of Linux.

Following the recommendations of the link above, I made a tomcat.service file like this:

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
 
[Service]
User=tomcat
Group=tomcat
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/tomcat
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env ${JAVA_HOME}/java \
$JAVA_OPTS $CATALINA_OPTS \
-classpath ${CLASSPATH} \
-Dcatalina.home=${CATALINA_HOME}/bin \
-Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS} \
-Djava.io.tmpdir=${CATALINA_TMPDIR} \
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=${CATALINA_BASE}/conf/logging.properties \
-Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager \
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap \
start
ExecStop=/usr/bin/env ${JAVA_HOME}/java \
$JAVA_OPTS \
-classpath ${CLASSPATH} \
-Dcatalina.home=${CATALINA_HOME}/bin \
-Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS} \
-Djava.io.tmpdir=${CATALINA_TMPDIR} \
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=${CATALINA_BASE}/conf/logging.properties \
-Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager \
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap \
stop
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

but get this result:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl start tomcat.service
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status tomcat.service
● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2022-02-11 12:19:09 GMT; 3s ago
    Process: 2129 ExecStart=/usr/bin/env ${JAVA_HOME}/java $JAVA_OPTS $CATALINA_OPTS -classpath ${CLASSPATH} -Dcatalina.home=${CATALINA_HOME}/bin -Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS} -Djava.io.tmpdir=${CATALINA_TMPDIR} -Djava.util.>
   Main PID: 2129 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 447ms

Feb 11 12:19:09 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application Container.
Feb 11 12:19:09 raspberrypi env[2129]: Error: Could not find or load main class org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
Feb 11 12:19:09 raspberrypi env[2129]: Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
Feb 11 12:19:09 raspberrypi systemd[1]: tomcat.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 11 12:19:09 raspberrypi systemd[1]: tomcat.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

I see the bootstrap jar is in Cataline_home/bin. I've tried with and without the bin.

I've also tried:

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
 
[Service]
User=tomcat
Group=tomcat
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/tomcat
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env ${JAVA_HOME}/java \
$JAVA_OPTS $CATALINA_OPTS \
-classpath ${CLASSPATH} \
-Dcatalina.home=${CATALINA_HOME}/bin \
-Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS} \
-Djava.io.tmpdir=${CATALINA_TMPDIR} \
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=${CATALINA_BASE}/conf/logging.properties \
-Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager \
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh

ExecStop=/usr/bin/env ${JAVA_HOME}/java \
$JAVA_OPTS \
-classpath ${CLASSPATH} \
-Dcatalina.home=${CATALINA_HOME}/bin \
-Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS} \
-Djava.io.tmpdir=${CATALINA_TMPDIR} \
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=${CATALINA_BASE}/conf/logging.properties \
-Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager \
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

and get this:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status tomcat.service
● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2022-02-11 12:13:48 GMT; 4s ago
    Process: 1775 ExecStart=/usr/bin/env ${JAVA_HOME}/java $JAVA_OPTS $CATALINA_OPTS -classpath ${CLASSPATH} -Dcatalina.home=${CATALINA_HOME}/bin -Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS} -Djava.io.tmpdir=${CATALINA_TMPDIR} -Djava.util.>
   Main PID: 1775 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 511ms

Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:                   See the SplashScreen API documentation for more information
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:     @argument files
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:                   one or more argument files containing options
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:     -disable-@files
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:                   prevent further argument file expansion
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:     --enable-preview
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]:                   allow classes to depend on preview features of this release
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]: To specify an argument for a long option, you can use --<name>=<value> or
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi env[1775]: --<name> <value>.
Feb 11 12:13:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: tomcat.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ echo $JAVA_HOME
/snap/openjdk/715/jdk
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ echo $CATALINA_HOME
/opt/tomcat

Can someone help please?

[Tim Holloway]

Oh ick.

To start Tomcat, all you need is an ExecStart=TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh, where TOMCAT_HOME is the directory path where Tomcat was unzipped. For example, /usr/local/apache-tomcat. Your tomcat directory name may vary, of course, and I usually softflink a simple name like "tomcat9" to the actual tomcat unzip name for simplicity, but that's just a shortcut.

You should not set any environment variables for Tomcat applications. And while it's true that you can set JAVA_HOME, JDK_HOME, CATALINA_HOME, and CATALINA_BASE plus other environment variables that the catalina.sh script looks for, in most cases, leaving them unset will cause Tomcat to deduce all it needs to know. Anything else, make a "setenv.sh" script in TOMCAT_HOME/bin and put them there. For the external stuff like JAVA_HOME, and JPDA you can define "Environment=" statements in the Service section of your systemd file.

The shutdown command for Tomcat is TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh. If you want to get fancy you might play around with the CATALINA_PID and PIDFile systemd stuff, but tomcat runs off control port 8000, so it probably won't help much, if any.

[John Peders]

Oh boy, what a simple and clear answer after all the rigmarole I've been through

THANK YOU!

[John Peders]

Oh no! Spoke too soon. I was so pleased when I ran "sudo systemctl status tomcat.service" and saw Tomcat had started. But in my browser I get site can't be reached..

I figured if I just remove the classpath settings I had put in .bashrc I'd be up and running.

But that didn't help.

Here's the output I get in response to "sudo systemctl status tomcat.service":

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status tomcat.service
● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset>
     Active: inactive (dead) since Sat 2022-02-12 07:13:48 GMT; 2min 22s ago
    Process: 524 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=0/SU>
   Main PID: 524 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 87ms

Feb 12 07:13:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application C>
Feb 12 07:13:48 raspberrypi startup.sh[524]: Tomcat started.
Feb 12 07:13:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: tomcat.service: Succeeded.

Active: inactive (dead) looks suspicious to me.

Anyway, if I run "sudo /opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh" Tomcat runs fine, and shows this output:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo /opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
Using CATALINA_BASE:   /opt/tomcat
Using CATALINA_HOME:   /opt/tomcat
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /opt/tomcat/temp
Using JRE_HOME:        /usr
Using CLASSPATH:       /opt/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/opt/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
Using CATALINA_OPTS:   
Tomcat started.

And I get the right results in the browser.

I figured I'd try to copy those settings listed above in .bashrc with these lines:

export JAVA_HOME="/usr"
export CATALINA_HOME="/opt/tomcat"
export CATALINA_BASE="/opt/tomcat"
export CATALINA_TMPDIR="/opt/tomcat/temp"
export CLASSPATH="/opt/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/opt/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar"

But still, Tomcat doesn't run on startup.

Here's all that's in my tomcat.service file now:

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container 
 
[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

??

[Tim Holloway]

Best bet is to tear out all the hacks and start clean. What does the catalina.out log tell you when you try and start as a service?

And incidentally, systemd does not run via bash, so bash settings won't help you.

[John Peders]

Hi,

I've taken out the hacks.

What I  have left is file called tomcat in /etc/default with the contents:

JAVA_HOME=/snap/openjdk/715/jdk/bin

and the unit file tomcat.service in /etc/systemd/system

with the contents:

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

There is nothing new in catalina.out (since yesterday anyway) when I closed tomcat manually.

The  output from command journalctl -xe:

  Feb 13 12:09:18 raspberrypi sudo[1873]:       pi : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/opt/tomcat/bin ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/systemctl start tomcat.service
Feb 13 12:09:18 raspberrypi sudo[1873]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=1000)
Feb 13 12:09:18 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application Container.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit tomcat.service has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://www.debian.org/support
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit tomcat.service has finished successfully.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 1711.
Feb 13 12:09:18 raspberrypi sudo[1873]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 13 12:09:18 raspberrypi startup.sh[1876]: Tomcat started.
Feb 13 12:09:18 raspberrypi systemd[1]: tomcat.service: Succeeded.
░░ Subject: Unit succeeded
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://www.debian.org/support
░░ 
░░ The unit tomcat.service has successfully entered the 'dead' state.
Feb 13 12:09:27 raspberrypi sudo[1888]:       pi : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/opt/tomcat/bin ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/systemctl status tomcat.service
Feb 13 12:09:27 raspberrypi sudo[1888]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=1000)
Feb 13 12:09:28 raspberrypi sudo[1888]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root

I wish it wouldn't successfully enter the dead state! So much success, so little actually happening!

[Tim Holloway]

Couple of things come to mind.

First of all, did you install Tomcat by downloading a ZIP or tarball from tomcat apache.org or did you use apt/dpkg to install a Raspi-specific package? If you did a vanilla (download) install, then /etc/default would not be used. And in any event, according to Catalina, it didn't use that, it used "/usr" as JAVA_HOME. Which it should. Although check with the "/usr/bin/java -version" command to make sure that your installed/alternative JDK is a release compatible with Tomcat 10. If I'm not mistaken, Tomcat 10 is where they switched from JEE to jakarta and it probably needs a fairly recent version of Java as well.

Secondly, I don't think you ever actually posted the log from /opt/tomcat/logs/catalina.out, just what small snippets of it that systemd printed. Tomcat doesn't integrate with systemd logging so I really need the real Tomcat log. Also, take a look at the localhost logs, if they're present. Sometimes the early-startup problems show up there.

[John Peders]

It was a while back, but I'm pretty sure I installed Tomcat using apt/dpkg.

I installed a newer version of Java, know Tomcat 10 needed it:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /usr/bin/java -version
openjdk version "17.0.2" 2022-01-18
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.2+8-snap)

I've been developing my app for a little while, all the time starting Tomcat with

/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh

That seemed to work, although there were errors listed in catalina.out which I ignored, because I saw no effect on my app.

However, I just noticed that I can't log into the browser-based manager app, even though I have the correct credentials as defined in conf/tomcat-users.xml Perhaps this is related to the fact that I can't get Tomcat to run on boot?

Anyway, here's the catalina.out log of a new manual start:

13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.789 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Server version name:   Apache Tomcat/10.0.14
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.817 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Server built:          Dec 2 2021 22:01:36 UTC
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.818 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Server version number: 10.0.14.0
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.820 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log OS Name:               Linux
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.821 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log OS Version:            5.10.92-v7+
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.822 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Architecture:          arm
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.823 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Java Home:             /snap/openjdk/715/jdk
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.825 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log JVM Version:           17.0.2+8-snap
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.826 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log JVM Vendor:            Oracle Corporation
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.827 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log CATALINA_BASE:         /opt/tomcat
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.829 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log CATALINA_HOME:         /opt/tomcat
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.914 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: --add-opens=java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.915 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: --add-opens=java.base/java.io=ALL-UNNAMED
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.916 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: --add-opens=java.base/java.util=ALL-UNNAMED
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.917 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: --add-opens=java.base/java.util.concurrent=ALL-UNNAMED
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.918 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: --add-opens=java.rmi/sun.rmi.transport=ALL-UNNAMED
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.919 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/opt/tomcat/conf/logging.properties
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.920 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.921 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.922 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=org.apache.catalina.webresources
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.923 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Dorg.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener.UMASK=0027
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.924 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Dignore.endorsed.dirs=
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.925 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Dcatalina.base=/opt/tomcat
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.926 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Dcatalina.home=/opt/tomcat
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.927 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -Djava.io.tmpdir=/opt/tomcat/temp
13-Feb-2022 14:48:54.936 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener.lifecycleEvent The Apache Tomcat Native library which allows using OpenSSL was not found on the java.library.path: [/usr/java/packages/lib:/lib:/usr/lib]
13-Feb-2022 14:48:58.008 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.init Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"]
13-Feb-2022 14:48:58.312 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load Server initialization in [4977] milliseconds
13-Feb-2022 14:48:58.609 SEVERE [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester.fatalError Parse fatal error at line [2] column [6]
	org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 2; columnNumber: 6; The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]" is not allowed.
		at java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:204)
		...

There are other errors I couldn't include as they'd make the post too long, but they have this in common:

org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 2; columnNumber: 6; The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]" is not allowed.

[Tim Holloway]

Ah! Yes, it's running Java 17 and I think I can see the problem.

Normally there would be a filename displayed to make sure, but considering where this happened, I'm pretty sure it's the TOMCAT_HOME/conf/server.xml file. It looks like it's damaged.

The error is on line 2 and says that the "<?xml" processing instruction is not valid there. That is correct. XML validators get extremely annoyed when the "<?xml" doesn't start on line 1, column 1. Absolutely nothing is permitted to precede the PI. <br /> <br /> What the first few lines of the server.xml file should look like are:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
etc.

<br /> <br />

[John Peders]

Good call!

However, this is the first few lines of conf/server.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.

<br /> <br /> I'll look for some other xml files with an error on line 2. <br /> <br />

[John Peders]

Ha, there was a blank line at the top of tomcat-users.xml

I guess that's why I wasn't able to log into the manager in the browser, because that file wasn't processed properly.

I won't know if it fixes everything else till I get back to my pi tomorrow.

[Tim Holloway]

Yup. When I said "absolutely nothing", I meant absolutely nothing. I've had the old "blank line 1" problem myself a time or 2.

You might want to look at the localhost log files. Possibly the name of the offending XML file will be confirmed there.

[John Peders]

So removing the blank line at the start of tomcat-users.xml means that if I run "sudo /opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh" Tomcat fires up just fine, there are no errors at all in the logs, my app runs, and I can get into the manager gui again.

However, I still can't get Tomcat to run on boot!

Here's my unit file, /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service :

[Unit]
Description=Apache Tomcat Web Application Container 
 
[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I've tried with no setenv.sh in /opt/tomcat/bin
or variations around:

export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:${PATH}
export CLASSPATH="/opt/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/opt/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar"

but I either get nothing new in any log files, or just this one line in catalina.out:

NOTE: Picked up JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS:  --add-opens=java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.io=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.util=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.util.concurrent=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.rmi/sun.rmi.transport=ALL-UNNAMED

[John Peders]

Sorry, I meant to add this output too:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl start tomcat.service
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status tomcat.service
● tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; enabled; vendor preset>
     Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2022-02-14 12:38:31 GMT; 3s ago
    Process: 1574 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=0/S>
   Main PID: 1574 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 47ms

Feb 14 12:38:31 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Apache Tomcat Web Application C>
Feb 14 12:38:31 raspberrypi startup.sh[1574]: Tomcat started.
Feb 14 12:38:31 raspberrypi systemd[1]: tomcat.service: Succeeded.

It's still dying immediately after loading, then telling me I've succeeded. I really haven't!

[Tim Holloway]

Wrong tree.

I don't think you need any setenv.sh for your system. But Tomcat cannot auto-start itself. It has to be started by systemd. And systemd has to be told to auto-start. Otherwise it's going to wait for manual startup.

Try this:

systemctl enable tomcat
systemctl start tomcat

Note: corrected from "systemd" to "systemctl". Sorry.

The "enable" switches on startup-on-boot. The "start" starts it now instead of waiting for reboot.

[Tim Holloway]

One other thing. Systemd has two primary types of operating modes for services. One is for a service that starts and keeps running. The other is for a service that starts and then almost immediately ends. Because Tomcat's startup and shutdown scripts do not run as long-term processes, it falls under the second category.

I think to make that work properly, you need a "Type=forking" line in your Service section. Otherwise, the status you'll see will reflect the status of the startup script and not Tomcat itself.

Note that to get proper Tomcat status from systemd you'll probably have to setup PIDFile options in both your systemd config  file and on the execution of the Tomcat startup script. I believe you can export the Catalina PIDfile environment variable in setenv.sh

[John Peders]

I took out the setenv.sh file, did

systemctl enable tomcat
systemctl start tomcat

and added

Type=forking to my Service section

I don't know if I needed all of those things or what, but it's starting on boot just fine now.

Thanks very much for your excellent help and surprising patience!

[Tim Holloway]

No problem. Keeps me in practice. Glad I could help!