Installation of OpenCms 5.0

This page provides information on how to install OpenCms using Tomcat and MySql. All installation parts are described as single steps. After completing a step you are strongly advised to verify the success.

1. Install the Java JDK

Install Java JDK 1.4 or later (from SUN http://java.sun.com/products/j2se/). For details on how to install Java on your operating system, see the documentation that comes with it.

Important : This version of OpenCms was tested with Java 1.4 only. Some features regarding file encoding where uses that are not available with Java releases before 1.4.

2. Install Tomcat

OpenCms 5.0 requires a Servlet 2.3 / JSP 1.2 standards compliant container. Tomcat 4 is the reference implementation of this Standard. This release was tested with Tomcat 4.0.x and Tomcat 4.1.x. Older versions of Tomcat (3.x and earlier) do not support this newer standard and are thus not usable for OpenCms 5.0.

Install Tomcat from http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/index.html into a folder of your choice. This is the CATALINA_HOME folder. Don't forget to set the environment variables CATALINA_HOME and JAVA_HOME.

Test the installation by running tomcat in standalone mode and check the examples. Note: Tomcat uses port 8080 in standalone mode. If you wish you can combine the servlet-engine with a webserver like the Apache Web Server http://www.apache.org/httpd.html . Please see the documentation available with the webserver on how to combine it with y servlet environment.

Important: To make sure Tomcat works with the correct charset to read and write files you should add the following parameter to the commandline that is used to start Tomcat: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8. You can set the environment varibale CATALINA_OPTS to do so (CATALINA_OPTS=-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 ). The default encoding of OpenCms currently is UTF-8. There are still some unsolved issues related to database connectivity with regards to the UTF-8 encoding. The default encoding might change in a later release.

3. Install MySQL

Install MySQL from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/index.html (see the MySQL documentation on http://www.mysql.com/documentation/index.html ). On Windows-based systems MySQL has to be installed on the C:\ drive and should be registered as service using (your MySQL path)/mysql/bin/mysqld -install.

Start the MySQL server by running the service (WIN32) or executing (your MySQL path)/mysql/bin/mysqld (UNIX).

Check that MySQL is running before you continue by starting the MySQL monitor (execute mysql in your MySQL bin folder). The database works correctly if a MySQL prompt appears after calling the monitor. Quit the MySQL monitor by typing exit and go to the next step.

4. Deploy the opencms.war file

Copy the opencms.war file from the binary distribution ZIP file to CATALINA_HOME/webapps/ . Replace CATALINA_HOME with the real path to your Tomcat installation.

Start (or restart) Tomcat. Tomcat will now deploy the web application OpenCms.

Important: OpenCms requires that it's *.war file is unpacked. OpenCms can not be deployed as war file only. Make sure Tomcat does unpack the war file and creates the CATALINA_HOME/webapps/opencms/ directory, placing the OpenCms files in this directory. The default configuration for your Servlet containers / environment could be to not unpack the deloyed *.war file. If this is so you must unpack the opencms.war file manually. Use an unzip tool for this, *.war files are just *.zip files with different extension.

5. Install OpenCms using the Setup-Wizard

Start the Setup-Wizard by pointing your webbrowser to http://localhost:8080/opencms/ocsetup. Depending on your configuration, you have to replace localhost with your servername. The port 8080 is only used if you start Tomcat in standalone mode.

Follow the instructions of the OpenCms Setup-Wizard, using the "Standard" setup. It will set up the opencms database and import all workplace ressources into the system. For normal installations with MySql and Tomcat running on the same server all default settings will fit your needs.

Important: In case you want to import content from older OpenCms versions (5.0 beta 1 or 4.x), you must turn on the "directory translation" feature to make sure your pages still work. You can later change this setting (and all other settings selected during setup) by editing the file CATALINA_HOME/webapps/opencms/WEB-INF/config/opencms.properties.

6. Now your system is ready

Now your system is ready to use. You can login with username: Admin and password: admin. Please change this password as soon as possible. The login URL of OpenCms in a default configuration is: http://localhost:8080/opencms/opencms/system/login/

7. Security issues

Finally after you have installed OpenCms you should have a look at the security settings.

First change the Admin user password of OpenCms by calling the user preferences ("hammer" icon on the main screen of the workplace).

Then you can add a password to the MySQL database. Enter the following commands at the MySQL command line.

use mysql;
insert into user values ('localhost', 'opencmsuser',
password('XXXXX'),'N','N','N','N','N','N','N','N','N',
'N','N','N','N','N'); 
insert into db values ('localhost', 'opencms', 'oopencmsuser',
'Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y'); 
flush privileges; 
        

Make sure you replace opencmsuser and opencms with the name of your user and database in case you have changed them on the setup wizard.

Don't forget to add the new user and password to all connect strings of the database in your opencms.properties file. Only the new user can now connect to the OpenCms tables. For more information see the MySQL documentation.