Is there a way to restart the hudson process without restarting Tomcat?

The Active Directory plugin doesn't seem to like Tomcat being restarted (see https://hudson.dev.java.net/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2708 ).

I think the Upgrade paragraph is incorrect. Tomcat documentation states:

"If you redeploy an updated WAR file, be sure to delete the expanded directory when restarting Tomcat, so that the updated WAR file will be re-expanded (note that the auto deployer, if enabled, will automatically expand the updated WAR file once the previously expanded directory is removed)."

So you must delete the hudson folder for the new war to be expanded.

One note: windows users might not be aware that ROOT.war is case sensitive, so make sure you rename hudson.war to ROOT.war (and not root.war or Root.war) or it will not work. Just adding this because it took me 20 minutes to figure out what's wrong and might be saving the hassle to the next person with the same problem.

The section on "Tomcat from Debian" suggests setting:

HUDSON_HOME=/var/lib/tomcat5.5/webapps/hudson/

This is really not a good idea, since this directory is where the Hudson WAR is deployed - so when upgrading, it (and all your configuration) will be deleted!

Use some other directory, not under the webapps directory.

@djcarr:

You should be able to use the Tomcat Manager to reload a webapp without restarting Tomcat.Try http://yourhost/manager/html. ; You may need to set up a manager user.

See http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/manager-howto.html

For windows tomcat 5.5 or later , using apache tomcat monitor to config tomcat, tab "Java", "java options" add "-DHUDSON_HOME=<path to you want>" is OK.

I wrote a Spanish tutorial about the instalation and first steps on Tomcat

    http://www.adictosaltrabajo.com/tutoriales/tutoriales.php?pagina=hudsonInstalacionTomcat

He escrito un tutorial en Español sobre la instalación y primeros pasos en Tomcat

    http://www.adictosaltrabajo.com/tutoriales/tutoriales.php?pagina=hudsonInstalacionTomcat

I wrote a tutorial on installing hudson to use git and grails, but it also includes all the information necessary to get it working with Tomcat under Ubuntu:

http://www.electricsenator.net/2009/10/03/1254618530821.html

I upgraded the latest Hudson version 1.336 (from 1.332 but I'm not sure).

Upgrade is working, all jobs are found, but my plugins disappeared in graphical Hudson tool.In <HUDSON_HOME> directory, all my plugins are still present.

I tried following things without success (with and without stop/start hudson):

• with plugin manager: I selected again my plugins
• with advanced plugin manager: I uploaded my plugins
• I deleted <HUDSON_HOME>/update-center.json

So, how to see and use my plugins in graphical Hudson tool?

I installed the latest Hudson version 1.348 (from the war package) on CEntOS 5.4 and Tomcat6, I added 

CATALINA_OPTS="-DHUDSON_HOME=/usr/share/tomcat6/webapps/hudson"

To the /etc/tomcat6/tomcat6.conf file.

But when I'm trying get to Hudson main page, it shows this:

Unable to create the home directory

. This is most likely a permission problem.

What is wrong ? This is a bug ?

Here is a small tutorial to get Hudson 1.352 working under Tomcat 6/Ubuntu 9.10:

• Install your Ubuntu Server (This may work with Debian too, not tested yet).

• Install the Tomcat Conteiner and the Manager App:

  # apt-get install tomcat6 tomcat6-admin
  

• Download Hudson 1.352 war and upload it via your Tomcat Manager Webapp at http://yourserver:8080/manager/html (You may need to add a user under Tomcat to have it running properly. See /etc/tomcat6/tomcat-users.xml):
  • If you need to enable authentication under Hudson, you need to have the file groovy-1.6.3.jar in Hudson's WEB-INF/lib directory or some erros will apear. I've added it by installing the groovy package, and coping the file to the Hudson webapp directory.

    # apt-get install groovy
    # cp /usr/share/groovy/lib/groovy-1.6.3.jar /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/hudson/WEB-INF/lib/
    

• Now, you must configure Tomcat permissions to your Hudson app. Is a good Idea to change the HUDSON_HOME directory too, so when upgrading your install will not delete your settings (CHANGE /home/hudson/ int the following lines to a directory you choose to store Hudson settings and installed plugins. Remember to chown the directory to tomcat6 user, or you may have some probmems!)
  • First, change the Hudson home directory by adding this settings to your /etc/default/tomcat6 file:

    JAVA_OPTS="-DHUDSON_HOME=/home/hudson/" # If you already have other settings in this variable, just add this one separed by whitespaces.
    

  • Then, create a file at /etc/tomcat6/policy.d/, named 04hudson.policy, with this contents:

    grant codeBase "file:/home/hudson/-" {
        permission java.security.AllPermission;
        permission java.io.FilePermission "/home/hudson/-", "read,write,delete";
        permission java.io.FilePermission "/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/hudson/-", "read,write,delete";
    };
    
    grant codeBase "file:/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/hudson/-" {
        permission java.security.AllPermission;
        permission java.io.FilePermission "/home/hudson/-", "read,write,delete";
    };
    

  • The permissions above will let you install your Hudson plugins (like Jabber IM, and others), and have them working properly. I'm not shure if setting all permissions is a security risk, any one have some tips on that?
• Now, restart your Tomcat, and access your running Hudson setup!

  # service tomcat6 restart
  

Notes about this Wiki information:

• In the above Wiki, the option CATALINA_OPTS don't work for Tomcat 6, use JAVA_OPTS insted.
• The permissions are needed if you change your Hudson home, or the plugins will install, but the may not work properly.
• Restarting Hudson via the "Restart when no jobs are running" button (usualy, when installing plugins) causes Tomcat to shutdown! I use the Tomcat Manager web app to restart hudson context, by stopping and starting it again. Is this a bug on Hudson or Tomcat? Is this because of the permissions set to all?
• Ubuntu already ships a Hudson daemon setup, if you don't need to run it under a Tomcat Conteiner, simply install it by running:

  # apt-get install hudson
  

On Windows, if you are running Tomcat as a Windows Service, to set the options for the JVM (like setting CATALINA_OPTS or JAVA_OPTS) use the Tomcat Service Manager. This is either a tray application, or you can run the manager directly via $CATALINA_HOME\bin\tomcat6w.exe, set the options under the "Java" tab and hit "Apply" to apply them. Each options goes on it's own line.

Thanks .. it helped me a lot ...

I have just installed hudson on tomcat6. OS is CentOS 6 (64-bit).

Setting HUDSON_HOME="/root/hudson", I was getting an error saying "Unable to create the home directory". I got success after I set HUDSON_HOME="/usr/share/tomcat6/.hudson".

It might be worthwhile to mention that in both cases I set folder permission correctly, also the user tomcat was given ownership.

So, my guess is there is an issue with setting HUDSON_HOME in /root.