How to Deploy a Basic App on Tomcat Using Nexus and Master-Slave Architecture

In this guide, ill walk through the steps to deploy a simple application on tomcat server using nexus through Master & Slave Concept

Prerequisites

1. An AWS Account to create an EC2 Instances for Jenkins, TOMCAT & Nexus

   • For Creation of AWS Account - Link

A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Launching the EC2 Instance for Jenkins

1. Create EC2 Instance (Jenkins/ Master Server)

   • Follow the instructions for creating an EC2 instance as outlined in the AWS EC2 Instance creation. When launching, ensure to create a new security group for Jenkins.

2. Configure Security Group

   • Edit Network Security: Name your security group (e.g., JENKINS-SG).

   • Add Security group rule

     • Type - Custom TCP

     • Port range - 8080

     • Source Type: Anywhere (to allow remote access to Jenkins through port 8080)

Step 2: Installing the Jenkins in the EC2 Instance (Master)

1. Log in as Default User

   • Refer to this detailed tutorial for steps on connecting to your EC2 instance. Remember, the default login user is ec2-user.

2. Switch to Root User

   • Run the command sudo -i to switch to the root user.

3. Once we are in root user, create a file using the command touch file_name.sh.Once it is created run the command vim file_name.

4.       #STEP-1: INSTALLING GIT JAVA-1.8.0 MAVEN 
         yum install git java-1.8.0-openjdk maven -y
   
         #STEP-2: GETTING THE REPO (jenkins.io --> download -- > redhat)
         sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/jenkins.repo https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.repo
         sudo rpm --import https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.io-2023.key
   
         #STEP-3: DOWNLOAD JAVA11 AND JENKINS
         amazon-linux-extras install java-openjdk11 -y
         yum install jenkins -y
         update-alternatives --config java
   
         #STEP-4: RESTARTING JENKINS (when we download service it will on stopped state)
         systemctl start jenkins.service
         systemctl status jenkins.service
   

5. Run the above script by using the command sh file_name.sh. Once the jenkins is started you can access it by navigating to: http://<public-ip-address>:8080

   • Here, 8080 is the default port for Jenkins, and <public-ip-address> is the public IP of your Jenkins EC2 instance (eg., 54.82.52.147:8080)

6. When the site loads, it will prompt for a password and display the path where the password can be found. To retrieve and access the password, use the following command

    cat var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword
   

7. Afterward, the setup will guide you to install plugins— select the suggested plugins option for a streamlined installation. You’ll then be prompted to create an admin user by providing a username, full name, email address, and password.

8. Now the Jenkins is running

Step 3: Configure a Slave Server

The Slave Server is utilized to retrieve the code, compile and test it, and deploy the developers' code to the Tomcat server.

1. As outlined in Step 1, set up an EC2 instance, keeping in mind that Tomcat and Jenkins operate on the same port number.

2. Switch to Root User and Install TOMCAT SERVER

   • Run the command sudo -i to switch to the root user

   • Once we are in root user, create a file using the command touch file_name.sh.Once it is created run the command vim file_name

       amazon-linux-extras install java-openjdk11 -y
       wget https://dlcdn.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.96/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.96.tar.gz
       tar -zxvf apache-tomcat-9.0.96.tar.gz
       sed -i '56  a\<role rolename="manager-gui"/>' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/conf/tomcat-users.xml
       sed -i '57  a\<role rolename="manager-script"/>' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/conf/tomcat-users.xml
       sed -i '58  a\<user username="tomcat" password="admin@123" roles="manager-gui, manager-script"/>' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/conf/tomcat-users.xml
       sed -i '59  a\</tomcat-users>' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/conf/tomcat-users.xml
       sed -i '56d' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/conf/tomcat-users.xml
       sed -i '21d' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml
       sed -i '22d'  apache-tomcat-9.0.96/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml
       sh apache-tomcat-9.0.96/bin/startup.sh
     

3. Run the above script by using the command sh file_name.sh. Once the TOMCAT is started you can access it by navigating to: http://<public-ip-address>:8080

   • Here, 8080 is the default port for TOMCAT, and <public-ip-address> is the public IP of your Slave Server EC2 instance (eg., 54.82.24.183:8080)

4. Once the TOMCAT Server is running, Navigate to above link and click Manage App to manage any of the deployed application.

5. We need to install the git and maven in the same Slave Server
   To get the code git and maven is required to compile,test & package the code maven has a dependency on java-1.8.0.
   Run the command to install git, java & maven

    yum install git java-1.8.0-openjdk maven -y
   

Step 4: Configure a Slave Server in Jenkins Portal

1. Access the Jenkins Dashboard: Start by navigating to the Jenkins portal. Click on Dashboard, then go to Manage Jenkins and select Nodes.

2. Add a New Node: In the Nodes section, look for the Add New Node option in the top right corner. Click on it to initiate the process of adding your new node.

3. Verify Java Version on the Slave Server: It’s essential to ensure that Java 11 is installed and running on the slave server to configure the node in Jenkins. To check the current Java version, execute the following command in the server’s terminal.

    java -version
   

4. Update Java if Necessary: If the output indicates that a different version of Java is installed, you will need to update it. Since we have already set up Java 11 as part of the Tomcat installation in Step 3, you can run the appropriate command to update the Java version.

    update-alternatives --config java
   

5. Once you click Add Node in Jenkins portal you need to add the details.

   • Name - We need to provide the name for the Node (eg: DEV)

   • Description - Provide the Description for the Node

   • Number of executors - we can provide any number between 2- 5. Some times if we keep a big number the EC2 instance cannot handle the load. As our EC2 Instance is low configured.

   • Remote root directory - We need to specify the Jenkins path in DEV Server as the Jenkins is not installed in DEV server (eg: /home/ec2-user/jenkins)

   • Label - We can provide any name. Make sure remember it.

   • Usage - Select Only build jobs with label expressions matching this node from the drop-down.

   • Launch Method - Select Launch agents via SSH

     • Host - It's essential to use the private IP address of the Slave EC2 instance for configuration.
       Although the public IP address can also be provided, it comes with a risk: stopping the Slave EC2 instance may result in a change of the public IP.
       This would require us to reconfigure the node each time. To prevent this inconvenience, we recommend sticking with the private IP address.

     • Credentials - Credentials are required to be added to deploy the application smoothly.

       • Kind - Select SSH Username with Private Key

         • ID - Add a appropriate ID

         • Description - Add a appropriate Description

         • Username - It should be the default username of the Slave EC2 Instance, In my case it’s ec2-user.

         • Private Key - Open the .pem file used to while creating Slave EC2 Instance and paste the contents of it in Key field

         • Click on Add & Select the credentials created.

           

     • Host key Verification Strategy - Select Non Verifying Strategy.

   • Availability - Keep this agent online as much as possible.

Step 5: Adding & Configuring the Job in Jenkins Portal

1. In the Jenkins Dashboard > Click on New Item on the top left.

   • Enter the Job Name

   • Item Type - Pipeline

2. In General Section, Add the Description

3. In Pipeline Section, Select Hello World from the left to get the basic Pipeline Syntax
   We need to change few of the things in the syntax to below syntax to integrate the Master-Slave concept

    pipeline {
        agent {
            label 'DEV'
        }
   
        stages {
            stage('Code') {
                steps {
   
                }
            }
        }
    }
   

   DEV is the Label name mentioned during the Node Setup in Jenkins Portal in
   Step 4.

4. To retrieve code from Bitbucket or GitHub, you need to install the necessary plugins in the Jenkins portal via the Manage Jenkins tab.

   • Bitbucket Code - Plugin Name: Bitbucket

   • GitHub Code—this will already be downloaded as specified in Point 6 of Step 2.

5. After installing the plugins, navigate to the Configure tab of your job. Under the Pipeline section, click on Pipeline Syntax and select Git.

   • Add your Repository URL from GitHub or Bitbucket

   • Select the Branch you want code from.

   • If it's a private repository, you'll need to add the credentials. This step can be skipped for a public repository.

   • For Private repository - Under the Credentials, Click Add>Jenkins

     • Kind - Username and password

     • Username - it should be your Bitbucket or GitHub Username

     • Password - To generate a app password go to your Bitbucket settings

       

6. Click Add and select the credentials you created, ensuring the check-boxes are selected.

7. Click Generate Pipeline Script and copy the output generated.

8. Paste the generated output within the steps of the Code stage.

   

   The script above pulls code from the Bitbucket repository into the Jenkins pipeline job. This configuration may vary depending on the repository.

Step 6: Configuring the Job in Jenkins Portal (BUILD Phase)

1. Next, we need to add another stage to the pipeline to compile, test, and package the code..

We'll use the Maven tool to build the code, with the mvn clean package command for compiling, testing, and packaging. This command will be configured within the pipeline.

Step 7: Configuring the Job in Jenkins Portal (DEPLOY Phase)

1. Now the Code will be build in DEV Server, To Deploy the Code to TOMCAT server

   we need to configure the TOMCAT SERVER in pipeline as we have already installed the TOMCAT in the Slave server in Step 3.

2. Now create a new stage with name 'Deploy'. we need Deploy to Container plugin to deploy in server.

3. Once the plugin is installed, click on the Pipeline Syntax

4. Select deploy: Deploy war/ear to a container

   • WAR/EAR files - it should be target/*.war. As the package will be coming to DEV Server of Remote root directory with the name target which we configured on 5th point of Step 4.

   • i have mentioned /*.war - Which represents starting name can be any but the ending of the name must be .war

   • Context path - It represents the name of the application in TOMCAT Server.

5. Containers - Select Tomcat 9.x Remote

   • Add the credentials to the jenkins

   • Kind - Username and password

   • Username - tomcat

   • Password - admin@123

6. If anyone want to change the username and password, One can edit the Line sed -i '58 a\<user username="tomcat" password="admin@123" roles="manager-gui, manager-script"/>' apache-tomcat-9.0.96/conf/tomcat-users.xml mentioned in the 2nd point of Step 3.

7. Add the appropriate ID and Description to the credential

   

8. Select the TOMCAT Credentials

9. The TOMCAT URL - It should be the http:://<ipaddress>:8080 (eg: http://44.211.216.198.8080)

   • The <ipaddress> - the Public IPADDRSS of the instance where the TOMCAT is installed, In our case it’s Slave server.

   • 8080 : its the default port for TOMCAT

     

10. Click on Generate Pipeline Scripts and copy the output and paste it in steps section of Deploy Stage.

    pipeline {
        agent {
            label 'DEV'
        }
    
        stages {
            stage('Code') {
                steps {
                   git credentialsId: 'BB', url: 'https://hashnode-admin@bitbucket.org/hashnode/one.git'
                }
            }
            stage('Build') {
                steps {
                    sh 'mvn clean package'
                }
            }
            stage('Deploy') {
                steps {
                    deploy adapters: [tomcat9(credentialsId: 'tomcat', path: '', url: 'http://44.211.216.198:8080')], contextPath: 'First_Job', war: 'target/*.war'
                }
            }
    
        }
    }
    

Step 7: Configuring the NEXUS in Jenkins Portal (NEXUS Phase)

1. As the Artifacts will be stored in NEXUS after the package is done i will be adding that step inside the build stage itself.

2. Create EC2 Instance (NEXUS Server)

   1. Follow the instructions for creating an EC2 instance as outlined in the AWS EC2 Instance creation. When launching, ensure to create a new security group for NEXUS.

   2. Configure Security Group

      • Edit Network Security: Name your security group (e.g., NEXUS-SG).

      • Add Security group rule

        • Type - Custom TCP

        • Port range - 8081

        • Source Type: Anywhere (to allow remote access to NEXUS through port 8081)

        • Add Storage of 20GB EBS Volume.

   3. Switch to Root User

      • Run the command sudo -i to switch to the root user

      • Once we are in root user, create a file using the command touch file_name.sh.Once it is created run the command vim file_name

          #create amazonlinux ec2 with t2.micro and 30 gb of ebs with port 8081 
        
          sudo yum update -y
          sudo yum install wget -y
          sudo yum install java-17-amazon-corretto-jmods -y
          sudo mkdir /app && cd /app
          sudo wget -O nexus.tar.gz https://download.sonatype.com/nexus/3/latest-unix.tar.gz
          sudo tar -xvf nexus.tar.gz
          sudo mv nexus-3* nexus
          sudo adduser nexus
          sudo chown -R nexus:nexus /app/nexus
          sudo chown -R nexus:nexus /app/sonatype-work
          sudo echo "run_as_user="nexus"" > /app/nexus/bin/nexus.rc
          sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/nexus.service > /dev/null << EOL
          [Unit]
          Description=nexus service
          After=network.target
        
          [Service]
          Type=forking
          LimitNOFILE=65536
          User=nexus
          Group=nexus
          ExecStart=/app/nexus/bin/nexus start
          ExecStop=/app/nexus/bin/nexus stop
          User=nexus
          Restart=on-abort
        
          [Install]
          WantedBy=multi-user.target
          EOL
          sudo chkconfig nexus on
          sudo systemctl start nexus
          sudo systemctl status nexus
        

   4. Run the above script by using the command sh file_name.sh. Once the nexus is started you can access it by navigating to: http://<public-ip-address>:8081

      • Here, 8081 is the default port for Jenkins, and <public-ip-address> is the public IP of your Jenkins EC2 instance (eg., http://3.90.184.91:8081/)

   5. When the site loads, we need to sign-in to nexus portal, it will display the username and path where the password can be found. To retrieve and access the password, use the following command

       cat /app/sonatype-work/nexus3/admin.password
      

      cat - cat command is used to see the content of the file.

   6. Once logged in it will ask to change the password.

   7. disable or enable access.

   8. Now navigate to Security administrators and configuration tab.

   9. Create a Repository, select the recipe as maven2hosted as we are using maven for build the package.

      

      Make sure to select Allow redeploy in Deployment Policy and create.

3. Lets Configure the Pipeline of the Job in Jenkins portal

   • Navigate to configure in Jenkins portal, Click on Pipeline Syntax

   • Select nexusArtifactUploader

     • Nexus Version - NEXUS3

     • Protocol - HTTP

     • NEXUS URL : <public-ip-address>:8080

       • Here, 8081 is the default port for NEXUS

       • <public-ip-address> is the public IP of your NEXUS EC2 instance
         (eg: 3.90.184.91:8081)

     • Added the Credentials

       • Kind - Username and Password

         • Give any appropriate ID and Description

         • Provide the username and password for the NEXUS

         • After adding the Credentials and select it.

     • GroupId & Version - it will be present in the pom.xml file

     • Repository - Name of the Repository created in NEXUS Portal.

       

     • Click the Add Artifacts

       • ArtifactID - it will be present in the pom.xml file

       • Type -It is the type of file generated after maven builds the package.

       • File - it is the file which will goes into the artifactory after a successful build (eg: target/myweb-8.6.9.war)

         

4. After successfully adding click on Generate Pipeline Script

5. Add the generated script below sh 'mvn clean package' in pipeline present in Build stage.

    pipeline {
        agent {
            label 'DEV'
        }
   
        stages {
            stage('Code') {
                steps {
                   git credentialsId: 'BB', url: 'https://hashnode-admin@bitbucket.org/hashnode/one.git'
                }
            }
            stage('Build') {
                steps {
                    sh 'mvn clean package'
                    nexusArtifactUploader artifacts: [[artifactId: 'myweb', classifier: '', file: 'target/myweb-8.6.9.war', type: 'war']], credentialsId: 'nexus_up', groupId: 'in.javahome', nexusUrl: '3.90.184.91:8081', nexusVersion: 'nexus3', protocol: 'http', repository: 'First_Job', version: '8.6.9'
                }
            }
            stage('Deploy') {
                steps {
                    deploy adapters: [tomcat9(credentialsId: 'tomcat', path: '', url: 'http://44.211.216.198:8080')], contextPath: 'First_Job', war: 'target/*.war'
                }
            }
   
        }
    }
   

6. Save the job and build the Pipeline Job.

7. After a successful build, the WAR file will be available in the Nexus repository.

   

8. The Application will be deployed to TOMCAT Server

   

TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS:

1. After Opening pipeline syntax, If you can’t find the option you are looking for then we can restart the Jenkins. you can execute systemctl restart jenkins command in Jenkins EC2 Instance