Tomcat webpage does not appear on localhost:8080 or with the IPaddress:8080

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5,6,7,8,9
    • Tomcat

Issue

  • I have installed tomcat6 using yum install from Redhat repository and started the service.
  • Service starts fine but when I try to access the page on http://localhost:8080 or http//127.0.0.1:8080, I get a blank page.
  • Our newly installed tomcat only returns a 404. Shouldn't we see some default tomcat app or splash page?
  • We have installed tomcat6 still unable to open a web page.

Resolution

  • To resolve this issue, you should execute one of the following commands, depending on the version you have installed:
    • yum install tomcat5*
    • yum install tomcat6*
  • Executing either one of those will install all of the extra packages for tomcat, one of which is the application that contains the tomcat index page.
  • For securing the administration webapp, please see this article.

  • For RHEL7

# yum install tomcat tomcat-admin-webapps tomcat-webapps

Root Cause

  • Red Had bundles several packages for tomcat.
    • The tomcat web server is just one of these packages, another is an example web application.
    • With out it you server will not serve any content unless you place content into the server.
  • These webapps and admin-webapps are NOT supported by Red Hat so you will not find it in the Main channel.
    • Provided by rhel-x86_64-server-optional-# channel.

EXAMPLE

# yum search tomcat

tomcat-admin-webapps.noarch : The host-manager and manager web applications for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-docs-webapp.noarch : The docs web application for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-javadoc.noarch : Javadoc generated documentation for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-jsp-2.2-api.noarch : Apache Tomcat JSP API implementation classes
tomcat-lib.noarch : https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/solutions/178373Libraries needed to run the Tomcat Web container
tomcat-native.x86_64 : Tomcat native library
tomcat-servlet-3.0-api.noarch : Apache Tomcat Servlet API implementation classes
tomcat-systemv.noarch : Systemv scripts for Apache Tomcat
tomcat-webapps.noarch : The ROOT and examples web applications for Apache Tomcat

Diagnostic Steps

  • Execute the following command and look for tomcatX-webapps.noarch and tomcatX.noarch, both are need to get the desired landing page:

    yum list installed
    
  • Check that you are subscribed to the proper channels

    yum info tomcatX-admin-webapps tomcatX-webapps   <<< Change X to version #, 5 or 6
    

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