Question

Is there a guide on how to do this easily? I want to upgrade it without losing all the configuration settings etc. Is there a particular method to achieve this (or config files that I can just copy to the new installation). I’m running it as a windows service at the moment so the new version will need to run in the same way too.

Thanks.

Answer 1

There isn’t an upgrade script that will do it for you, at least not that I’ve ever used/found. Which, is actually a good thing, IMO. You can simply download the newer Tomcat version to a different directory than your current install (c:/tomcat55 and c:/tomcat6) and copy the configuration from you 5.5 installation. Nearly all of the basic settings are the same from 5.5 to 6.0.x, not as sure about 7.0. If you install the new service with a different service name, you don’t have to worry about any conflicts (except the ports in your server.xml)

If this is a production box, I would recommend changing the ports on your new installation so you can run it alongside your current install, and test your applications before you switch over. If all is OK, you can shutdown your new Tomcat, update the ports to be what your current install is, shutdown Tomcat5.5, and start your new install and you should be good. Of course you can always run the new install on the different port, but if you’re using Apache in front, you’ll have to update the Apache config as well.

Hope this helps.