tomcat - CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME variables

Question

I have multiple instances of tomcat 6 running on the same server (Linux) and it works as expected. I am trying to find out what the standard practice is with regards to sett

Answer 1

Pointing CATALINA_BASE to a different directory from CATALINA_HOME allows you to separate the configuration directory from the binaries directory.

By default, CATALINA_BASE (configurations) and CATALINA_HOME (binaries) point to the same folder, but separating the configurations from the binaries can help you to run multiple instances of Tomcat side by side without duplicating the binaries.

It is also useful when you want to update the binaries, without modifying, or needing to backup/restore your configuration files for Tomcat.

Update 2018

There is an easier way to set CATALINA_BASE now with the makebase utility. I have posted a tutorial that covers this subject at http://blog.rasia.io/blog/how-to-easily-setup-lucee-in-tomcat.html along with a video tutorial at https://youtu.be/nuugoG5c-7M

Original answer continued below

To take advantage of this feature, simply create the config directory and point to it with the CATALINA_BASE environment variable. You will have to put some files in that directory:

• Copy the conf directory from the original Tomcat installation directory, including its contents, and ensure that Tomcat has read permissions to it. Edit the configuration files according to your needs.
• Create a logs directory if conf/logging.properties points to ${catalina.base}/logs, and ensure that Tomcat has read/write permissions to it.
• Create a temp directory if you are not overriding the default of $CATALINA_TMPDIR which points to ${CATALINA_BASE}/temp, and ensure that Tomcat has write permissions to it.
• Create a work directory which defaults to ${CATALINA_BASE}/work, and ensure that Tomcat has write permissions to it.