Deploy a Java web application on Windows Server 2003

Question

This is my first post on stackoverflow, so please excuse me if my question is stupid, in the wrong tags, not specific enough and just tell me how to improve my post ! I usually find all the answers I need going through the previously asked questions - and thank a lot the stack overflow community for this ! -, but not this time !

So, I'm student and I'm currently developping a java2EE web application to help a compagny managing its moulds stocks. I used struts2 framework to develop the application ( which is called MMS ) and it runs nicely on my personnal environment which is :

• OS : windows7, 64 bits, service pack 1
• Application Server : Apache Tomcat 7.0.27 to make MMS run on localhost
• Database server : Wampserver2.2d to store the database of MMS
• Java : Java JRE7 (jre_7u4-windows-x64)
• IDE : Eclipse Java EE indigo sr2

Now I need to deploy my application on my employer's server. They gave me an access through the microsoft remote desktop tool to a windows 2003 server whose configurations are :

• Microsoft windows server 2003 entreprise edition
• Service Pack 2

My question is simple : how do I go from an application running well on my own environment to an application running on their server and accessible to their employees within their intranet ? Surprisingly enough I did not find any tutorial explaining how to do this. The documentation I found so far are the following :

• Tomcat documentation : http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/deployer-howto.html
• Microsoft documentation : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa478983.aspx
• Some other documentation explaining some of the logic (could not post the link because I'm a new user !)

My guess is :

1. First I need to prepare the environment, ie : install java, a servlet application server, and a MySQL server on windows 2003 server. For this I'd be tempted to install java JRE7, tomcat7, and wampserver2.2 on the windows 2003 server they gave me using the same .EXE I used on my PC.
2. Deploy MMS in the servelet application server : For this I think I could just drop the .WAR of MMS (created with Eclipse) on the webapp folder of tomcat.
3. Deploy my DB on the MySQL server : For this I'm thinking of exporting my DB from my computer and import it to the server using PHPmyAdmin (and a .SQL file)
4. Finally change the context.xml of MMS to make it able to communicate with its new DB.

Would this be enough to allow the employees of the societe I'm working for to access the web appication through their web browser (within the intranet of the compagny only) ?

Any anwser telling if I'm going on the write direction, if I forgot anything to do, giving advice, etc. would be truely appreciated :)

Thank you very much in advance !

Answer 1

Here is a generic solution I would suggest. You can simply install the wamp server package and the tomcat for windows. Upload your war file and start up mysql db, apache and tomcat services. Wamp server should come with php, mysql and phpmyadmin for your mysql. If you are good with batch file, you can make a batch file if you want to automate start, stop and restart all services.