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Rank: New Member

Posts: 22

Join Date: August 18, 2011

Hello People!

I use liferay CC a long time now and love liferay very much.

But there is one thing, I really can't understand:
The default way is a server-bundle installation.

Why is that a problem?
1) there is no easy way to update the server software if there a security updates
2) security update can not be done by the package manager from operation system

How much people run a productive liferay with outdated tomcat server software? I thing a lot,
just because of that installation routine.

All my security and administration views of this situation are one step before detonation ;)

Can someone please tell my something about that? Isn't that very nonprofessionel??
How to administrate this hole in design for a long time?
I did not found any thread in forum or blog entry about this, I'm the only one who has problems with that?

With greats
eichi

RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 19, 2012 5:16 AM

Answer

David H Nebinger

Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 4550

Join Date: September 1, 2006

For the most part Liferay in tomcat has just a few minor changes:

1. files in the conf/Catalina/localhost directory.
2. the lib/ext folder and files
3. the changes in conf so tomcat knows about the lib/ext directory.

Otherwise there are no real differences.

As long as you are aware of these, it is easy to update your bundle to the appropriate version.

Note that the bundle is just meant to jump-start you into Liferay. No where, absolutely no where, will you see any documentation saying "just drop the bundle into production and you're good to go."

In a production system you'd actually want to hand-deploy Liferay into a production-ready, security hardened application container that has been fully configured.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 19, 2012 5:34 AM

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Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 8000

Join Date: March 23, 2010

Application bundles are just for Liferay demo. I won't and don't recommend they be used in production servers because of the points you've cited.
There's, also, a security risk of using default server settings.

Besides security, it's difficult to monitor when there isn't an exact documentation on what has been changed. When the system is not acting properly, it's difficult to find the problem.

I personnally just use the Liferay server bundle for simple demo and in development. We have no production server using the bundled package so it's really not a problem.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 20, 2012 3:37 AM

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Jorge Ferrer

LIFERAY STAFF

Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 2726

Join Date: August 31, 2006

As has been hinted above, it is actually perfectly possible to install Liferay manually into Tomcat (and any other support app server). The user guide has detailed instructions.

I don't see any issue of using a bundle in production, since it doesn't have anything special, it's just a regular tomcat with Liferay installed using the publicly available instructions. Because of that, it should be perfectly possible to upgrade it to a new version when that's needed.

Other that I fully agree with what Hitoshi and David have said, just like with any other piece of software in your production server, you should properly configure and maintain your Tomcat (or any other app server) and make sure it is up to date and doesn't have known vulnerabilities. And that holds true regardless of whether your initial installation was done with a bundle or not.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 20, 2012 5:56 AM

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David H Nebinger

Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 4550

Join Date: September 1, 2006

Jorge Ferrer:

I don't see any issue of using a bundle in production, since it doesn't have anything special, it's just a regular tomcat with Liferay installed using the publicly available instructions. Because of that, it should be perfectly possible to upgrade it to a new version when that's needed.

Seriously? Once the bundles are created w/ a version of Liferay, they are not updated w/ new releases of Tomcat (which typically is updated to address new flaws), and I think saying it's okay to use a bundle in production is a disservice to the community.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 20, 2012 6:32 AM

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Rank: New Member

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Join Date: August 18, 2011

David H Nebinger:

Jorge Ferrer:

You see

That's the reason why I started this Topic. I think it's not common sence to not use the bundle in productive ;)

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 20, 2012 4:16 PM

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Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 8000

Join Date: March 23, 2010

Well, bundled version also contains 7cogs portlets, which is actually for demo, as well as Chat portlet and other portlets.
7cogs portlet is a security hazard because it creates default users with login links.

If I had to delete these portlets, it seems it's faster to just install from the war file.

Another point is, most system house already have a standard procedure on how to set up an application server.
It's much easier for unexperienced people to just follow the written steps rather than try to figure out what needs to be done.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 29, 2012 3:30 PM

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Posts: 22

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Hitoshi Ozawa:

hm. I tried 3 days now to install liferay into an existing tomcat6 from ubuntu server. Tried some documentations, tipps from forum and other things. Can't get it working. Now I understand, why people use the bundle in productive emoticon

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 29, 2012 3:41 PM

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Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 8000

Join Date: March 23, 2010

Yes, it's kind of difficult the first time. I think Liferay education walks you through it.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 29, 2012 4:09 PM

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Rank: New Member

Posts: 22

Join Date: August 18, 2011

Yeah, but as student its costs too much to do such a training. no way

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

March 29, 2012 5:47 PM

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Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 8000

Join Date: March 23, 2010

Well, if there's a user group nearby you can try attending and ask questions there. May be, there's some other student at school who may be able to help you.

If you're in Japan, you can drop me a line (I'm usually busy doing this and that though). emoticon

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

April 10, 2012 10:12 AM

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Jorge Ferrer

LIFERAY STAFF

Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 2726

Join Date: August 31, 2006

Hey Thomas,

The installation in an app server from scratch should work following the instructions of the User Guide (previously known as the Administration Guide). In fact the documentation team follows all of the steps manually before every release to make sure that's the case. Of course there might be specific aspects that vary in each environment but the general instructions should be fine.

If you find anything important missing or wrong in the User Guide, please report it as a bug.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

April 19, 2012 8:04 AM

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Szymon Gołębiewski

Rank: Regular Member

Posts: 247

Join Date: June 8, 2009

Jorge Ferrer:

Just make sure that the Liferay version that you're using is compatible with Tomcat server that you're upgrading to.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

April 19, 2012 8:11 AM

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Rank: New Member

Posts: 22

Join Date: August 18, 2011

Szymon Gołębiewski:

Jorge Ferrer:

Just make sure that the Liferay version that you're using is compatible with Tomcat server that you're upgrading to.

I dont think so. The bundle has a lot of unsecure example and beta stuff in it. What about the proxy tool, that let you download all files from server with just the proxy=file:///etc/passwd parameter? No issue of using in production? I don't think so! It should be downloadable as "development and beta" package only.

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

April 23, 2012 1:11 AM

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Jorge Ferrer

LIFERAY STAFF

Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 2726

Join Date: August 31, 2006

Hey Thomas,

Please, note that I'm not saying that you should unzip the bundle and then you are ready to go live. I'm just saying that it's perfectly fine to start with it and then prepare it for production. Considering this, some people will prefer to start from scratch. To me it's a matter of taste.

Regarding the issues you have had to install from scratch, did you follow the steps in the User Guide? What issues did you find?

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RE: Change default server-bundle way to installed tomcat way

April 23, 2012 5:38 AM

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David H Nebinger

Rank: Liferay Legend

Posts: 4550

Join Date: September 1, 2006

The issue here is there's a lot of properties that you really have to know something about in order to determine whether they need to be set in the local environment or not.

Even though Liferay does a great job in documenting them (just pull up the file and the comments are there), I don't believe everyone does this the first go round.

The bundle is a great place to get Liferay in front of people. I think we're just saying as a community that users downloading the Liferay bundle should understand it is not something they should be dropping into their production systems and exposing to the world.

Those of us who have been around for awhile know that there are settings that need to be tweaked, updates applied to the Liferay core, to the application container, to the 3rd party jars, etc., that we prefer to have in place before labelling something "production-ready".

I don't think any of us are saying this to slight Liferay in any way, it's really to guide the newbies so they don't end up in a bad situation over things they were not necessarily aware of...