AdvertPro - Apache + mod_proxy_ajp + Tomcat Installation

Prerequisites

Linux Distributions

AdvertPro is designed to work best with CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. All of our development, testing and support staff training is done with CentOS. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you choose one of these supported Linux distributions. In fact, these instructions presume that you will be taking our advice!

Hardware Sizing

Need help deciding what type of server or how many servers to get? Check out our system administrators guide for some guidance. There is also our clustering guide which explains how to scale out AdvertPro and handle failover. If you still have questions, please contact technical support and they'll be happy to guide you in the right direction.

Step #1: Download Files

AdvertPro

1. Open a browser window to: https://services.renegadeinternet.com/download/
2. Enter your Customer ID and E-mail Address into the form.
3. Select the operating system your server is running from the Platform list box.
4. Select the Install package for a clean installation from the Package list box.
5. Click on the Download Package button to proceed.
6. Check your e-mail and you should receive an e-mail with a download link within a few minutes.

Apache 2.x + mod_proxy_ajp

yum install httpd

Java Development Kit (JDK 7)

1. Open a browser window to: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/
2. Click on the Java Download graphic for Java Platform (JDK).
3. Click on the Accept License Agreement radio button on the next page.
4. Then click on the RPM download link for Linux x86 if you have a 32-bit system or Linux x64 if you have a 64-bit system.

Java Libraries

1. Download the JavaMail 1.4 library from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javamail-1-4-140512.html
2. Download the JAF 1.1 library from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/jaf11-139815.html

MySQL 5.x

Downloading and installing MySQL is as easy as running the following command:

yum install mysql mysql-server

MariaDB is also supported provided that you use the MyISAM storage engine. In the future we may support the newer Aria storage engine. However, at the time of writing we do not recommend using Aria in a production environment as it has not been tested sufficiently.

Another option is TokuDB, which we highly recommend for customers with high-traffic deployments. In fact, you can use TokuDB with either MySQL or MariaDB. Please make sure that you are using AdvertPro 4.0 or newer versions, however, as previous versions are not fully optimized for the TokuDB storage engine. It's also strongly recommended that you use SSD disks with TokuDB, preferably in a RAID10 configuration with 4-6 disks to get the best possible performance.

MySQL Connector/J JDBC Driver

1. Open a browser window to one of the following, depending on your chosen version of MySQL:
   • MySQL 5.5: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/5.1.html
   • MySQL 5.1: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/5.1.html
   • MySQL 5.0: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/5.0.html
2. Download the platform independent Compressed TAR Archive package.

Tomcat 7.0

1. Open a browser window to: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi
2. Scroll down to the Binary Distributions section.
3. Download the package labeled Core: tar.gz

Step #2: Installation

Java Development Kit

32-bit

rpm -i jdk-{version}-linux-i586.rpm

64-bit

rpm -i jdk-{version}-linux-x64.rpm

Tomcat

mv apache-tomcat-{version}.tar.gz /usr/local
cd /usr/local
tar -xzvf apache-tomcat-{version}.tar.gz
mv apache-tomcat-{version} tomcat
rm -rf apache-tomcat-{version}.tar.gz
cd tomcat
chmod 755 bin/*.sh
cd webapps
rm -rf *
mkdir ROOT

Tomcat APR Library

yum install apr-devel
yum install gcc
yum install make
yum install zlib-devel
cd /usr/local/tomcat/bin
tar -xzf tomcat-native.tar.gz
cd tomcat-native*

cd jni/native
./configure --with-java-home=/usr/java/latest --with-apr=/usr/bin/apr-1-config --with-ssl=no
make
make install

Java Libraries

unzip javamail-{version}.zip
cp javamail-{version}/mail.jar /usr/local/tomcat/lib/mail.jar
unzip jaf-{version}.zip
cp jaf-{version}/activation.jar /usr/local/tomcat/lib/activation.jar

MySQL Connector/J JDBC Driver

tar -xzvf mysql-connector-java-{version}.tar.gz
cd mysql-connector-java-{version}
cp mysql-connector-java-{version}-bin.jar /usr/local/tomcat/lib/mysql.jar

AdvertPro

cp advertpro-{version}.war /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/ROOT
cd /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/ROOT
/usr/java/latest/bin/jar -xf advertpro-{version}.war
rm -f advertpro-{version}.war

Step #3: Configuration

Environment Variables

The following environment variables should be added to the /etc/profile file.

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/latest
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin

You either need to log out and log back in or run those export commands at this point, which will add those environment variables to your shell session.

MySQL Settings

Replace the entire contents of the /etc/my.cnf with the following recommended configuration:

[client]
port = 3306
socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

[mysqld]
port = 3306
socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
datadir = /var/lib/mysql
character-set-server=utf8
skip-external-locking
max_connections = 384
key_buffer_size = 64M
table_open_cache = 256
thread_cache_size = 8
bulk_insert_buffer_size = 16M
join_buffer_size = 1M
read_buffer_size = 2M
read_rnd_buffer_size = 2M
sort_buffer_size = 4M
max_allowed_packet = 16M
max_heap_table_size = 32M
tmp_table_size = 32M
query_alloc_block_size = 16384
query_cache_limit = 1M
query_cache_size = 32M
query_cache_type = 1
query_prealloc_size = 16384
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 64M
open-files-limit=8192
server-id = 1
symbolic-links = 0

[mysql.server]
basedir = /var/lib
user = mysql

[mysqld_safe]
err-log = /var/log/mysqld.log
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

[mysqldump]
max_allowed_packet = 16M
quick

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8
no-auto-rehash

[isamchk]
key_buffer = 128M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2M
sort_buffer = 128M

[myisamchk]
key_buffer = 128M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2M
sort_buffer = 128M

[mysqlhotcopy]
interactive-timeout
        

Apache mod_proxy_ajp

Create the /etc/httpd/conf.d/proxy_ajp.conf file if it does not exist and replace its content with the following:

<IfModule mod_proxy_ajp.c>
  ProxyPass / ajp://localhost:8009/
</IfModule>

Tomcat Environment

Edit /usr/local/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh and add the following settings after the comments/instructions at the top.

DO NOT JUST COPY THESE SETTINGS

Read the instructions contained within the settings to properly set the -Xmx, -Xms, -XX:NewSize, -XX:MaxNewSize and -XX:ParallelGCThreads options -- failure to do so will likely result in degraded performance.

# Tomcat Home.
CATALINA_HOME="/usr/local/tomcat"

# Java Home.
JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/latest"

#
# Change -Xms and -Xms if necessary to allocate more or less memory.
# It is important that they have the same value for optimal performance.
# Note that on some operating systems you may need to increase the value of
# -Xss to 512k or higher (do not exceed 1024k) if you experience stability
# problems or start seeing stack overflow exceptions in your application
# server logs.
#
# If you've changed -Xms and -Xms, you should change -XX:NewSize and
# -XX:MaxNewSize to have values equal to half of the -Xms and -Xmx
# values.
#
# Suggested values based on available physical server memory (RAM):
#
#  2 GB RAM    -Xms1024m     -Xmx1024m     -XX:NewSize=512m     -XX:MaxNewSize=512m
#  4 GB RAM    -Xms2048m     -Xmx2048m     -XX:NewSize=1024m    -XX:MaxNewSize=1024m
#  8 GB RAM    -Xms4096m     -Xmx4096m     -XX:NewSize=2048m    -XX:MaxNewSize=2048m
# 16 GB RAM    -Xms8192m     -Xmx8192m     -XX:NewSize=4096m    -XX:MaxNewSize=4096m
# 32 GB RAM    -Xms16384m    -Xmx16384m    -XX:NewSize=8192m    -XX:MaxNewSize=8192m
#
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -server -Xms512m -Xmx512m -Xss256k -XX:+DisableExplicitGC"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -XX:NewSize=256m -XX:MaxNewSize=256m"

#
# If you're using a multi processor system, uncomment the following
# options and set the value of -XX:ParallelGCThreads equal to the
# number of physical CPU cores that are in your system.
#
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:ParallelGCThreads=2"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=80"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -XX:SurvivorRatio=128 -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=0"

#
# APR Connector JNI Library
#
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/apr/lib"

#
# Uncomment the following options to help debug garbage collection
# related performance problems.
#
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -verbose:gc -Xloggc:/usr/local/tomcat/logs/gc.txt -XX:+PrintGCDetails"

#
# Java Options.
#
JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dsun.net.inetaddr.ttl=28800 -Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=60"

#
# Raise open file limit and stack size.
#
ulimit -n 524288
ulimit -s 2048

Tomcat Logging

Edit the /usr/local/tomcat/conf/logging.properties file and change the following log handlers from INFO to SEVERE level:

1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = SEVERE
2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = SEVERE
3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = SEVERE
4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = SEVERE
java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = SEVERE

Tomcat Configuration

Replace the entire contents of the /usr/local/tomcat/conf/server.xml with the following recommended configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Server port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">

  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener" SSLEngine="off" />
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.JasperListener" />
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.mbeans.GlobalResourcesLifecycleListener" />

  <GlobalNamingResources>
    <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" />
  </GlobalNamingResources>

  <Service name="Catalina">

    <Connector protocol="org.apache.coyote.ajp.AjpAprProtocol"
               enableLookups="false"
               maxThreads="384"
               port="8009"
               pollTime="2000"
               pollerSize="2048"
               proxyName="ads.yoursite.com"
               proxyPort="80"
               URIEncoding="UTF-8"/>

    <Engine defaultHost="ads.yoursite.com" name="Catalina">

      <Host name="ads.yoursite.com" appBase="webapps" unpackWARs="true">

        <Context docBase="ROOT" path="" privileged="false" swallowOutput="true" />

      </Host>

      <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.UserDatabaseRealm" resourceName="UserDatabase"/>

    </Engine>

  </Service>

</Server>
        

Tomcat Startup

Create /etc/rc.d/init.d/tomcat and place the following content in it:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Startup script for the Tomcat Web Server
#
# chkconfig: 345 92 16
# description: Tomcat is a World Wide Web server.  It is used to serve \
#              HTML, JSP, and servlets, and CGI if needed.
# processname: java

CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/tomcat

case "$1" in
  start)
        rm -rf $CATALINA_HOME/work
        mkdir $CATALINA_HOME/work
        $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
        ;;
  restart)
        $CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh
        sleep 30
        killall -9 java
        sleep 2
        rm -rf $CATALINA_HOME/work
        mkdir $CATALINA_HOME/work
        $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
        ;;
  stop)
        $CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh
        sleep 30
        killall -9 java
        sleep 2
        ;;
  *)
        echo $"Usage: tomcat {start|restart|stop}"
        exit 1
esac

exit 0
        

Run Levels

The key thing here is that MySQL should start at level 2 while Apache and Tomcat should start at level 3 so that MySQL is started before Apache and Tomcat start.

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd
/sbin/chkconfig --add httpd
/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
/sbin/chkconfig --list httpd

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld
/sbin/chkconfig --add mysqld
/sbin/chkconfig --level 2345 mysqld on
/sbin/chkconfig --list mysqld

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/init.d/tomcat
/sbin/chkconfig --add tomcat
/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 tomcat on
/sbin/chkconfig --list tomcat

Firewall Configuration

AdvertPro needs the following ports to be open in your firewall in order to function properly:

Assuming you will be using the iptables firewall, simply replace the entire contents of the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file with the following:

# Firewall configuration written by system-config-firewall
# Manual customization of this file is not recommended.
*filter
:INPUT DROP [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p icmp -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
-A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

After making that change you will need to restart iptables, which can be done with the following command:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables restart

Network Configuration

Handling a huge number of connections may not work smoothly out of the box. You generally have to do some optimizations to the TCP/IP settings. Start with the following settings and optimize further if needed, but in most cases they'll do fine as-is.

First, you can hot-deploy the following optimized TCP/IP settings by running these commands:

/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog=4096
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=1
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries=5
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout=15
/sbin/sysctl -w net.core.rmem_default=104448
/sbin/sysctl -w net.core.wmem_default=104448
/sbin/sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=12582912
/sbin/sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=12582912
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_rmem="10240 87380 12582912"
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_wmem="10240 87380 12582912"
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_mem="8388608 8388608 8388608"
/sbin/sysctl -w net.core.netdev_max_backlog=2500
/sbin/sysctl -w fs.file-max=6315922
/sbin/sysctl -w net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max=33554432
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf=1
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=1

Then to make these changes permanent the following settings can be added to the end of your /etc/sysctl.conf file:

# Controls the use of TCP syncookies
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 4096
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries = 5

# Reduce FIN_WAIT state time
net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout = 15

# Larger TCP memory
net.core.rmem_default = 104448
net.core.wmem_default = 104448
net.core.wmem_max = 12582912
net.core.rmem_max = 12582912
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 10240 87380 12582912
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 10240 87380 12582912
net.ipv4.tcp_mem = 8388608 8388608 8388608
net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 2500
fs.file-max = 6315922

# Larger Connection Table
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max = 33554432

# Misc TCP adjustments
net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 1

Step #4: Startup

MySQL

/etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld start

Apache

/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd start

Tomcat

/etc/rc.d/init.d/tomcat start

Step #5: Finishing Up

MySQL Database

Log in to the MySQL client and execute the following SQL queries to create the AdvertPro database and user to access it.

mysql -u root

CREATE DATABASE advertpro CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON advertpro.* TO advertpro@"localhost" IDENTIFIED BY 'changeme';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON advertpro.* TO advertpro@"localhost.localdomain" IDENTIFIED BY 'changeme';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

GeoIP Database

If you have purchased a subscription to the GeoIP Country or GeoIP City database, you should install that prior to running the AdvertPro setup utility.

1. GeoIP Country Installation
2. GeoIP City Installation

AdvertPro Setup

1. Open a browser window to: http://ads.yoursite.com/servlet/setup
2. Follow the setup utility instructions.

Post-Installation

1. By default AdvertPro will only establish up to 15 persistent connections to MySQL. This is usually not enough for a high traffic deployment. Too many connections can be bad though as MySQL will use too much memory. We suggest increasing the Maximum Connections setting on the Settings > Basic > Database page to 100 for high traffic deployments, which should be sufficient for most customers.
2. MySQL load can also be greatly reduced by enabling in-memory user sessions, which is available as an option on the Settings > Basic > Server page in the User Sessions section.
3. At this point, you may also wish to read our system administrators guide which covers important topics such as backups, logging, monitoring and more.
4. One final thing you may want to do is add an SSL certificate to secure control panel access, which is described in our companion SSL integration guide.