This guide walks you through installing OpenOlat Version 15.3.x or newer on a local GNU/Linux or similar system using Tomcat 9, Java 11 and PostgreSQL 12.
If you really want to install OpenOlat using MySQL as database, have a look at the old Install Guide "Installation of OpenOLAT with MySQL" and try mixing it with the informations found in here. Please keep in mind that this is not recommended.
The username is openolat in this guide with home directory in /home/openolat/. From here onwards do everything as the user openolat (unless pointed out differently). To create the user, you can simply use the command
useradd -m -s /bin/bash openolat
We recommend using AdoptOpenJDK 11 LTS, you can get it at https://adoptopenjdk.net/ . You will find Tomcat 9 at https://tomcat.apache.org/ and OpenOlat in Form of .war Files at https://www.openolat.com/releases/. Create a directory downloads and keep the downloaded files there:
openolat~$ cd && mkdir downloads && cd downloads openolat~$ ls -l downloads -rw-rw-r-- 1 openolat openolat 11437266 Dez 8 14:44 apache-tomcat-9.0.40.tar.gz -rw-rw-r-- 1 openolat openolat 194723798 Dez 8 14:44 OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_11.0.9.1_1.tar.gz -rw-rw-r-- 1 openolat openolat 146225737 Dez 8 14:44 openolat_1535.warYou do not need to use the exact versions from this manual, this is just an example. We recommend that you use the newest version within the given major version: Java 11, Tomcat 9. As for OpenOlat, you will need to use a version 15.3.x or newer. Note that you do not need a JDK to run OpenOlat, a JRE will work as well.
In the home directory:
openolat~$ cd openolat~$ tar xvf downloads/apache-tomcat-9.0.40.tar.gz openolat~$ ln -s apache-tomcat-9.0.40 tomcat openolat~$ tar xvf downloads/OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_11.0.9.1_1.tar.gz openolat~$ ln -s jdk-11.0.9.1+1 jre openolat~$ unzip -d openolat-15.3.5 downloads/openolat_1535.war openolat~$ ln -s openolat-15.3.5 webapp
Note that this setup allows you to switch between different versions of JRE and tomcat by adjusting the symlinks jre and tomcat. An update works the same way, just stop OpenOlat, remove the symlink to webapp, unzip a new version and make a new symbolic webapp link.
openolat~$ mkdir bin conf lib run logs
Link the following files
openolat~$ cd ~/conf openolat~$ ln -s ../tomcat/conf/web.xml web.xml openolat~$ cd ~/bin openolat~$ ln -s ../tomcat/bin/catalina.sh catalina.sh
Create additional, handy links
openolat~$ cd openolat~$ ln -s tomcat/bin/startup.sh start openolat~$ ln -s tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh stop
Create the file ~/bin/setenv.sh containing
CATALINA_HOME=~/tomcat CATALINA_BASE=~ JRE_HOME=~/jre CATALINA_PID=~/run/openolat.pid CATALINA_TMPDIR=/tmp/openolat mkdir -p $CATALINA_TMPDIR CATALINA_OPTS="-Xmx1024m -Xms512m -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m \ -Duser.name=openolat \ -Duser.timezone=Europe/Zurich \ -Dspring.profiles.active=myprofile \ -Djava.awt.headless=true \ -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \ -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError \ -XX:HeapDumpPath=. \ "The scripts of tomcat will parse this file at startup.
Create the file ~/conf/server.xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<Server port="8085" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">
<Service name="Catalina">
<Connector port="8088" protocol="HTTP/1.1" />
<Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost">
<Host name="localhost" appBase="webapps" />
</Engine>
</Service>
</Server>
Make sure the chosen ports (8085 and 8088 in this example) are available.
Set the environment variables CATALINA_HOME and JRE_HOME, for example by appending the following to your ~/.bashrc
export CATALINA_BASE=~ export CATALINA_HOME=~/tomcat export JRE_HOME=~/jreand activate them by issuing
openolat~$ . .bashrc
openolat~$ ./start
... should output something like this:
Using CATALINA_BASE: /home/openolat Using CATALINA_HOME: /home/openolat/tomcat Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /tmp/openolat Using JRE_HOME: /home/openolat/jre Using CLASSPATH: /home/openolat/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/home/openolat/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar Using CATALINA_OPTS: -Xmx1024m -Xms512m -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m -Duser.name=openolat -Duser.timezone=Europe/Zurich -Dspring.profiles.active=myprofile -Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=. Using CATALINA_PID: /home/openolat/run/openolat.pid Existing PID file found during start. Removing/clearing stale PID file. Tomcat started.Check whether these values make sense, then stop tomcat again
openolat~$ ./stop
This setupguide should work with all PostgreSQL Versions from 9.1 on. Our recommendation is to use the most recent, stable version. This manual has been tested with version 12.5.
Do the following as root user
root~# su - postgresand then as user postgres (you may need the postgresql db password, but usually not):
postgres~$ psqlNow while logged in to postgresql, we create the user and the database:
postgres=# create user oodbu with password 'oodbpasswd'; postgres=# create database oodb with owner oodbu;
Test the account as openolat user
openolat~$ psql oodb -U oodbu -h localhostYou should get the postgresql client prompt after providing your password. Now create the OpenOLAT database schema, as user openolat.
oodb=> \i /home/openolat/webapp/WEB-INF/classes/database/postgresql/setupDatabase.sql
Optionally create a file named ~/.pgpass containing
#hostname:port:database:username:password localhost:5432:oodb:oodbu:oodbpasswdThis way you can access the database by typing psql -h localhost and will connect to the right db without pw
Create the file ~/lib/olat.local.properties
db.source=jndi db.jndi=java:comp/env/jdbc/OpenOLATDS db.vendor=postgresql installation.dir=/home/openolat log.dir=/home/openolat/logs server.contextpath=/openolat server.domainname=localhost server.port=8088 server.port.ssl=0 smtp.host=disabled tomcat.id=1 userdata.dir=/home/openolat/olatdata
Create the directory ~/conf/Catalina/localhost/ for the OpenOlat Application context descriptor
openolat~$ mkdir -p ~/conf/Catalina/localhost/and create the file ~/conf/Catalina/localhost/ROOT.xml containing:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Context path="" docBase="/home/openolat/webapp" debug="0" reloadable="false" allowLinking="true">
<Resource name="jdbc/OpenOLATDS" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
maxTotal="16" maxIdle="4" maxWaitMillis="60000"
username="oodbu" password="oodbpasswd"
driverClassName="org.postgresql.Driver"
validationQuery="SELECT 1"
validationQueryTimeout="-1"
testOnBorrow="true"
testOnReturn="false"
url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/oodb"/>
</Context>
Make sure the values of username, password and the "localhost:5432/oodb" part in the url value are the ones of your postgresql account for OpenOlat.
Create the file ~/lib/log4j2.xml containing
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="/home/openolat/logs/olat.log"
filePattern="/home/openolat/logs/olat.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}">
<PatternLayout
pattern="%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%t] %-5level %marker %c{1} ^%%^ I%X{ref}-J%sn ^%%^ %logger{36} ^%%^ %X{identityKey} ^%%^ %X{ip} ^%%^ %X{referer} ^%%^ %X{userAgent} ^%%^ %msg%ex{full,separator( )}%n" />
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy interval="1" />
</Policies>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="org.apache.commons.httpclient" additivity="false" level="warn">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Logger>
<Logger name="org.apache.pdfbox" additivity="false" level="fatal">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Logger>
<Logger name="org.apache.fontbox" additivity="false" level="fatal">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Logger>
<Logger name="org.hibernate.engine.internal.StatisticalLoggingSessionEventListener" additivity="false" level="fatal">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Logger>
<!-- Change the level to debug to see the SQL statements generated by Hibernate -->
<Logger name="org.hibernate.SQL" additivity="false" level="fatal">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Logger>
<Logger name="org.hibernate.type.descriptor.sql.BasicBinder" additivity="false" level="fatal">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Logger>
<Root level="info">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
./start
The file ~/log/catalina.out should say
INFO: Server startup in [19696] millisecondsnear the end (your numbers will vary). The next file to check would be ~/logs/olat.log. It should say
Velocity cache filled with 1517 templates in (ms): 5847but again, your numbers will vary.
point your browser to
http://localhost:8088 username: administrator password: openolat
Happy testing!