HPUX, Java and Tomcat

... I was presented with a lovely HPUX VM by HP's partner program.

Having not used a UNIX-based operating system for many years (even then I had NO wish to be anywhere near them), I was faced with the fairly daunting task of deploying our software on the VM using Tomcat Application Server.

That's all well and good when you see it written on paper - Tomcat is a beaut to work with compared to some of it's bigger, mostly uglier, but some times saner (time stamped logs are a winner, THANKS IBM) siblings in the Application Server family. Tomcat, of course, has a rather large dependence on our good friend, Java, so I decided this should be my first port of call.

So, off I wander to google and am soon going about downloading a Java 1.6 JRE from HP's site. Of course, the VM hasn't come with wget pre-installed, so I have to download the JRE to my local file system before SCPing it to the VM. Post-download/Pre-Upload I figure I have to decide on a destination for the upload .depot file and, as most people in a UNIX-e world would, I take a gander at /opt.

This is where the fun starts.

An `ls -al` returns a huge list of goodies that have been thrown into the VM, presumably by the script that built it. These included java1.4 AND java1.5. This /opt directory is definitely my ferrero roche for the day - "spoilt" isn't the word.

With Java firmly on board, I take aim at google again, this time in search of tomcat. This is a slightly less informative affair with most results that have ANY info hinting towards a "build from source" holiday on board a pleasure cruise populated by me, my keyboard and a lovely family, The Dependency O'Hells, with their 5,000 screaming children.

2 hours have passed and I'm four or five pages deep in the google results of "tomcat+hpux". I see what looks like the product of a results farm, with ads splattered left, right and left, but on closer inspection, it would appear that I have found my holy hand grenade - "HP Web Suite". This little bundle includes Tomcat and the tab-complete-less morning I have had looks like it's finally reaching it's Hardy Boys conclusion. The bad guy has AGAIN tried to break into my office and wreck my day. I have just HAPPENED to be lucky as hell and stumbled across his secret hiding place in a remote location known only to Jim Corr. When it looked like I was about to fall off the cliff of Bourne HELL into a boiling pot of "security through obscurity"..... Mr. Hardy bursts through the door with 9,000 of his closest mercenary friends and saves the day.

On the final leg of my trip, I take one more stop at google to find the packages required for installation of this bad boy. I'm skimming over installation instructions when I spy my old friend, /opt...... I look again. I see the line "/opt/hpws/".... The once retreating clouds are now doing u-turns on a one way street and heading straight for me. I take the plunge, I browse to the directory and THERE. Before me it stands proud. After 2.5 hours of head melt.

Already installed.

"Tomcat"