Spatial Information Services Stack Deployment Procedure

Table of Contents

Introduction

This page describes how to install GeoServer and its dependencies to support SISS deployments. It is intended to be a guide only and is general in places to accommodate for differences in available infrastructure and local policy. If you reach a point in this guide where you cannot proceed feel free to contact siss@lists.csiro.au.

Requirements

1. A web server with at least 8 GB of ram and 60 GBs of disk space.
2. An operating system that is compatible with Java and Apache Tomcat.

Installation

Java

1. Download and install the Oracle Java run time environment version 8 or higher via the link provided or through your operating system's package management system.

Apache http Server (can be installed on a separate web server)

1. Download Apache http Server 2.4 and install it according to the instructions.

2. Enable mod_proxy, mod_proxy_ajp and rewrite modules by removing the preceding # from the following lines in your http Server configuration file:

   LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
   LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
   LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

3. Append the following to your http Server configuration file:
   
   

   ProxyRequests Off
   ProxyPreserveHost On
   
   <Proxy *>
       Require all granted
   </Proxy>
   
   <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
       RewriteEngine on
       
   </IfModule>

4. Restart Apache http Server

Apache Tomcat

1. Download Apache Tomcat 8
2. Install it using the instructions in the documentation section (from here on the folder you installed tomcat into will be referred to as %TOMCAT_HOME%)
3. Edit %TOMCAT_HOME%/conf/tomcat-users.xml and change the password for the admin user. Example:

   <user name="admin" password="secret" roles="admin,manager" />

4. Download an appropriate jdbc driver and place it in %TOMCAT_HOME%/lib/
   • Oracle users go to Oracle JDBC Downloads and download odjbc5.jar
   • MS SQL Server users download SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0, and extract sqljdbc4.jar.
5. Increase the maximum memory available to tomcat using the -Xmx property.  Check the tomcat documentation for the correct way to set this property for your OS.  At least 4gb recommended.
6. Ensure tomcat is installed and working correctly by opening a web browser and directing it to your tomcat web root (default is http://%SERVER_HOST_NAME%:8080/manager/html/)

GeoServer Installation

1. Download and extract geoserver-2.13.0-war-plugins-included.zip to your local PC
2. Rename the downloaded file to the name you would like to use for this instance of geoserver eg. geoserver.war
3. Using a web browser navigate to your tomcat web root (default is http://%SERVER_HOST_NAME%:8080/)
4. Go to 'tomcat manager'
5. Scroll down to the 'WAR file to deploy' section and click 'Browse'
6. Select the renamed geoserver war file, click 'open', then 'deploy' and wait for the upload to complete
7. Geoserver should now be installed under %TOMCAT_HOME%/webapps/%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_NAME% this folder will now be referred to as %GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_HOME%
8. Ensure the user account that tomcat is run under has write permissions on geoserver's data directory (%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_HOME%/data).
9. Create a %GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_NAME%.xml file in your %TOMCAT_HOME%/conf/Catalina/localhost directory containing the <context> tag bellow and replace all %PLACEHOLDERS% with appropriate values
   

   <Context
       path="/%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_NAME%"
       docBase="%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_HOME%"
       crossContext="false"
       reloadable="false">
   
   </Context>

10. Replace all %PLACEHOLDERS%with appropriate values and add the following in the proxy settings of your http Server configuration file:

    ProxyPass /%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_NAME% ajp://localhost:%TOMCAT_AJP_PORT_NUMBER%/%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_NAME%

11. Restart Tomcat

GeoServer Performance

1. There are some extra considerations to keep in mind when running GeoServer in a production environment, refer to http://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/production/index.html for more information.

2. If using Oracle database with non enterprise edition, it is important to disable advanced projection handling. This feature only affects data crossing the dateline, and it performs very slowly on standard edition Oracle. To do so, please untick "Enable advanced projection handling" under WMS settings.

Configuration

Geoserver is now installed and ready to be configured. Follow the links bellow for examples of config downloads and instructions.

EarthResourceDeployments

NVCL Deployments

MineralTenement Deployments

Caching Map Layers

Enter Service metadata

The final step is to enter some service meta-data describing your services and your contact details for external consumers. To do this :

1. Login to your Geoserver instance at http://%SERVER_HOST_NAME%/%GEOSERVER_INSTANCE_NAME%/ using your Geoserver login and password.
2. Click "Contact Information" under "Server" from the menu on the left.
3. Enter an appropriate contact person to handle any queries that consumers of your data may have.
4. Click submit.
5. Click "WFS" under the "Services" menu.
6. Change the maintainer field to your home web page.
7. Change the Title field to something appropriate depending on the data delivered. Examples : "MRT NVCL Borehole Service", "PIRSA Geoscience Service" (this one is more generic in case multiple services are delivered by one instance of Geoserver) etc.
8. If you wish you may also modify the abstract but the default should be sufficient in most cases.
9. Click submit.