Deploying CCRC WAN servers on Apache Tomcat

Overview

The IBM® DevOps CCRC WAN servers provide the ClearTeam® Explorer with access to DevOps Code ClearCase® repositories and support for DevOps Code ClearCase web views and automatic views. The ClearCase CCRC WAN servers can be deployed either on IBM WebSphere or Apache Tomcat.

Tomcat is an open source Java application server provided by Apache. This topic highlights the deployment on a Tomcat server. To deploy on IBM WebSphere, refer to the documentation for that product.

Environment

Installing Tomcat

SSL/TLS setup

To use HTTPS connection with Tomcat, review the SSL/TLS Configuration documentation on the Tomcat website at https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-9.0-doc/ssl-howto.html.

To configure the ClearTeam Explorer (CTE) client, follow the ClearCase documentation and associated technote 240547.

Post installation

After installation, ensure that both the JAVA_HOME and CATALINA_HOME environment variables are set correctly.

To allow access to the web manager, you need to add roles and users to Tomcat. The usernames/passwords configuration depends on which Realm implementation you are using (see https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-9.0-doc/config/realm.html). By default, it uses an XML-format file that can be edited with any text editor, stored at $CATALINA_BASE/conf/tomcat-users.xml. This is explained in detail in the Tomcat documentation available at https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-9.0-doc/manager-howto.html#Configuring_Manager_Application_Access.

<user username="devuser" password="password" roles="manager-gui,manager-status"/>

Installing ClearCase and the CCRC WAN server

If you use PAM authentication in your environment, you need to configure it for ClearCase. Create a ClearCase configuration file for pam.d; see technote 345521. On a RHEL7 system, you can also copy /etc/pam.d/login to /etc/pam.d/clearcase.

Deploying the CCRC WAN server application to Tomcat

In the next section, when the context path needs to be configured, it refers to the path the application will be accessed via HTTP. That is, to use the URL http://localhost:8080/ccrc, the context path field needs to be /ccrc.

There are several ways to deploy it to Tomcat. Remember that both WAR files need to be deployed.

Deploy manually

In your Tomcat instance, copy the two WAR files into the following directory: $CATALINA_HOME/webapps

Deploy using Tomcat Manager

You can use the management dashboard to deploy the application. Access the manager dashboard on the system at the following URL: http://localhost:8080/manager

There are multiple sections in the dashboard, select the Deploy section. There are two subsections to choose from.

A. Deploy directory or WAR file located on server

Repeat theses steps for each WAR file to deploy.

1. In the WAR or Directory path field, enter the absolute URL/path to the WAR file as it appears on your server and include the .war extension (for example, C:/apps/ccrc.war). On Windows you can use either forward or backward slashes in the path.
2. In the Context Path field, include a forward slash before your entry (/ccrc and /rview, respectively for each WAR file)
3. Click the Deploy button. The page will reload and you should see a message informing you the application has been deployed:
   
   

After deployment, the application will also appear in the Applications section of the page.

B. WAR file to deploy

INFO: Deployment of web application archive \path\to\ccrc has finished in x,yyy ms

Configuration

ClearCase post configuration

CCRC temporary directory (ccrcTempDir)

This variable specifies a directory where temporary files are stored. The pathname must be a directory on the CM server host in which all users of the DevOps Code ClearCase remote client have permission to create and delete files (permission 777 on UNIX). By default, temporary files are stored in the pathname specified in the value of the TMP or TEMP environment variable, if they exist. This must be updated for both web view and automatic view.

ccrcTempDir=

Configuring WAN server logging

The default Tomcat configuration does not provide session and some other log information for the ClearCase WAN server. In order to enable those logs, the Tomcat logging.properties file must be modified to add a log configuration for the WAN server.

1. Open tomcat installation directory/conf/logging.properties in a text editor.
2. Add these lines to the file:

   com.ibm.rational.cc.common.logging.CCRCLogger.level=INFO
   com.ibm.rational.cc.common.logging.LogHandler.formatter=java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter
   com.ibm.rational.cc.common.logging.LogHandler.pattern = ${catalina.base}/logs/CCRCLogger%g.log
   com.ibm.rational.cc.common.logging.LogHandler.limit = 20000000
   com.ibm.rational.cc.common.logging.LogHandler.count = 20
   com.ibm.rational.cc.common.logging.LogHandler.append = true

3. Restart Tomcat.

Accessing the CCRC/RVIEW administration page

<role rolename="Administrator"/> <user name="devuser" password="password" roles="Administrator,manager-gui,manager-status"/>

Both URLs list the current settings for each server.

Connection to the CCRC WAN server

After deploying the two war files in Tomcat, you can use the usual ClearCase applications to create web views and automatic views. When using ClearTeam Explorer, to connect to the server, use the Tomcat URL/port and your normal ClearCase login.

Note: Selecting "server only" when installing ClearCase does not install the MVFS or client parts. Without MVFS, you cannot use dynamic views and automatic views as users on the server. You can, however, create and store VOBs and views on this server. To use these views, connect from a different host/client.

CCRC WAN server maintenance

You can stop/start and un-deploy the application by using the usual Tomcat tools. You can also perform these operations from the web manager.

To upgrade to a new version, un-deploy the current two applications (ccrc and rview) and deploy the new WAR files.