Mastering Web Server Setup: Nginx, Apache, and Tomcat in One Guide

Hashim HB

··

8 min read

✦ What is Web Server?
⟡ In simple terms, a web server is like a waiter at a restaurant. When you (the client) make a request (like ordering food) through your browser by sending an HTTP request, the web server (the waiter) goes to the kitchen (where all the files and data are stored) and retrieves the information you asked for. It then serves the response (the dish) back to you through the internet.
⟡ The web server holds all the files, databases, and content that users might request. When the server receives a request, it fetches the corresponding file and sends it back as an HTTP response, allowing you to see the website or data you asked for. This cycle keeps going every time you load a page or request information.
✦ Different Types of Web Servers:
✦ Most Important once used in Industry nowadays are:
Apache HTTP Server
Nginx
Tomcat
Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services)
➤ Apache Web Server
- ✦ What is HTTPD deamon?
- How to SetUp Apache WebServer in Linux?
➤ NGINX (Engine X)
- ✦ what is nginx?
➤ APACHE TOMCAT SERVER
- ✦ What is Apache Tomcat Server?
- ✦ How to SetUp Apache Tomcat Server in Linux?

✦ What is Web Server?

Web server is a program which processes the network requests of the users and serves them with files that create web pages. This exchange takes place using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
In Simple terms the client(User) request something to the internet through http request the internet will request it from the web servers which are basically computers that has the list of files in the data base and gives it back to internet in the form of http response and so on to the client.

`⟡ In simple terms, a web server is like a waiter at a restaurant. When you (the client) make a request (like ordering food) through your browser by sending an HTTP request, the web server (the waiter) goes to the kitchen (where all the files and data are stored) and retrieves the information you asked for. It then serves the response (the dish) back to you through the internet.`

`⟡ The web server holds all the files, databases, and content that users might request. When the server receives a request, it fetches the corresponding file and sends it back as an HTTP response, allowing you to see the website or data you asked for. This cycle keeps going every time you load a page or request information.`

✦ Different Types of Web Servers:

Apache HTTP Server
Nginx
Tomcat
Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services)
Cherokee
Caddy
OpenLiteSpeed
Node.Js
LiteSpeed

✦ Most Important once used in Industry nowadays are:

Apache HTTP Server
Nginx
Tomcat
Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services)

➤ Apache Web Server

Apache is the most popular and well-established web server. It's open-source, highly flexible, and can be configured to handle dynamic content using various modules.

✦ Used for :

WebHosting
Content Management Systems
Dynamic Websites

✦ What is HTTPD deamon?

HTTPD deamon is a software program that runs in the background of a web server and waits for the incoming server request

How to SetUp Apache WebServer in Linux?

Step1: Install HTTPD in your Linux machine

yum install httpd
httpd -version #to check the httpd version

Step2: Then go into cd/var/www/html path and create a file named index.html

ⓘ Default port of httpd is 80

cd /var/www/html
vi index.html #create a file and write the html content

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Welcome to My Apache Web Server</title>
</head>
<body>

    <h1>Welcome to My Apache Web Server</h1>
    <p>Your Apache web server is up and running successfully!</p>
</body>
</html>

Step3: Make sure to stop the firewall services in order to access the server in your local machine(Windows)

systemctl stop firewalld.services #to stop the service
systemctl status firewalld.services #to check the status

Step4 :Get the IP-Address of Linux machine and type in your Windows (Local Machine) ipaddress:80

✦**There you go you successfully installed Apache WebServer

➤ NGINX (Engine X)

✦ what is nginx?

It is a web server that access request through https and response to display website content through storing, proccessing and delivering web pages to users.

✦ How to SetUp nginx in Linux?

Step1 :Write the following command

sudo vi /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo

[nginx]
name = nginx.repo
baseurl = https://nginx.org/packages/centos/9/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1

Step 2: Write this in vi editor and save the file.

Step 3: yum update and install nginx

1. sudo yum update
2. sudo yum install nginx

Step4: Check if any other server is running and listening at port 80 then stop that server or else you get an error like this

Step5: Now start the nginx service

systemctl start nginx # to start nginx
systemctl stop nginx # to stop nginx
systemctl status nginx #to check the status

Step6 : Now run this command

curl -I 127.0.01

When you run the command curl -I 127.0.0.1, you are asking curl to make an HTTP request to your local server (the IP address 127.0.0.1 refers to your local machine) and return only the HTTP headers.

✦ There you go you successfully installed nginx Server.

➤ APACHE TOMCAT SERVER

✦ What is Apache Tomcat Server?

Apache Tomcat is an open-Source Java-Capable HTTP server developed by the Apache Software Foundation.
It is a web Container, It allows the users to run servlet and Java Server pages that are based on the web Application. It can be used as Http Server.

✦ How to SetUp Apache Tomcat Server in Linux?

Step 1: Install JDK (Java Development Kit)

Tomcat requires Java to run, so we need to install Java (Java 8 or latest version).

Check if Java is installed by running this command:
```
 java -version
```

If Java is not installed, install it with the following commands:

 sudo yum update -y
 sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel -y

Verify Java Installation: After installation, check if Java is correctly installed:
```
 java -version
```

Step 2: Create a Tomcat User and Group

For security, Tomcat should not run under the root user. We create a new user and group for Tomcat.

Create a group for Tomcat:
```
 sudo groupadd tomcat
```

Create a user named tomcat and set its home directory to /opt/tomcat:

 sudo useradd -s /bin/false -g tomcat -d /usr/share/tomcat tomcat

Step 3: Download and Install Tomcat

Navigate to the /opt directory:
```
 cd /usr/share
```

Download Tomcat 9.0.21: Use wget to download the Tomcat tar.gz package:

 sudo wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.21/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.21.tar.gz

Extract the tar file and rename the extracted directory to tomcat:

 sudo tar -xvzf apache-tomcat-9.0.21.tar.gz
 sudo mv apache-tomcat-9.0.21 /usr/share/tomcat

Step 4: Set Permissions for Tomcat Directory

We need to set the correct ownership and permissions for the Tomcat directory to allow the tomcat user to manage Tomcat.

Change ownership of the /usr/share/tomcat directory to the tomcat user and group:
```
 sudo chown -R tomcat:tomcat /usr/share/tomcat
```
Give execute permissions to the bin directory so that Tomcat can start:
```
 sudo chmod o+x /usr/share/tomcat/bin/
```

Step 5: Create a SystemD Service for Tomcat

To run Tomcat as a system service, we need to create a systemd service file.

Create the systemd service file:

 sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service

Add the following configuration to the tomcat.service file:

```bash [Unit] Description=Tomcat 9 Server After=syslog.target network.target

[Service] Type=forking User=tomcat Group=tomcat Environment="JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk" Environment="JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m" Environment="CATALINA_BASE=/usr/share/tomcat" Environment="CATALINA_HOME=/usr/share/tomcat" Environment="CATALINA_PID=/usr/share/tomcat/temp/tomcat.pid"

ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh ExecStop=/opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh

[Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target



![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1736410318203/6cefc4b4-981d-4215-b053-d09ae87bcc68.png align="center")

1. **Save and exit** the file (press `CTRL + X`, then `Y` to confirm, and `Enter` to save).

2. **Reload systemd** to apply the new service configuration:

    ```bash
    sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Step 6: Start the Tomcat Service

Now that we have the service file, we can start Tomcat.

Start the Tomcat service:
```
 sudo systemctl start tomcat
```
Check the Tomcat logs to ensure it's running smoothly:
```
 tail -f /usr/share/tomcat/logs/catalina.out
```
If everything is working correctly, you can access Tomcat by visiting:
```
 http://<your-server-ip>:8080/
```

✦ There you go you successfully installed TomcatServer.

Step 7: Enable Tomcat to Start on Boot

Now we’ll start Tomcat and set it to start on boot.

Start Tomcat:
```
 sudo systemctl start tomcat
```
Enable Tomcat to start automatically on boot:
```
 sudo systemctl enable tomcat
```
Check Tomcat status:
```
 sudo systemctl status tomcat
```

Step 8: Secure Tomcat Web Applications

Tomcat comes with Web Application Manager and Virtual Host Manager that are not secured by default. We’ll add authentication for these managers.

Edit the tomcat-users.xml file to configure authentication:
```
 sudo vi /usr/share/tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml
```

Add the following configuration between the <tomcat-users> tags:

 <role rolename="admin-gui"/>
 <role rolename="manager-gui"/>
 <user username="admin" password="12345" FullName="Administrator" roles="admin-gui,manager-gui"/>

Note: Replace "admin" and "12345" with your secure username and password.

Save and exit the file.

Step 9: Allow Remote Access to the Web Application Manager

By default, Tomcat's Web Application Manager is only accessible from localhost. To allow remote access, we’ll modify the context.xml file for the manager.

Edit the context.xml file for the Web Application Manager:

 sudo vi /usr/share/tomcat/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml

Locate the following line that restricts access to localhost:

 <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
 allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|localhost|127.0.0.1"/>

Comment or remove this line to allow remote access:

 <!-- <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
 allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|localhost|127.0.0.1"/> -->

Save and exit the file.

Step 10: Restart Tomcat

To apply all changes, you need to restart Tomcat.

Restart Tomcat:
```
 sudo systemctl restart tomcat
```

Step 11: Access Tomcat Web Application Manager

Now, you should be able to access the Web Application Manager remotely. Visit the following URL (replace <your-server-ip> with your actual server IP address):

http://<your-server-ip>:8080/manager/html

Enter the username and password you set in the tomcat-users.xml file.

Restart tomcat service for changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart tomcat

Enter the user and password as configured in Step 6.

Step 12 : Configure Tomcat Virtual Host Manager

The Tomcat virtual host manager is configured to allow access only from the localhost. To allow remote access we have to edit the

/opt/tomcat/webapps/host-manager/META-INF/context.xml

This is not recommended for production environments!!

Open the context.xml file

sudo vi /usr/share/tomcat/webapps/host-manager/META-INF/context.xml

Comment the lines as shown below:

Save and exit.