Tomcat Binding Error = CentOS (minimal Install) + Tomcat 7.0.28

Quote from vivahate : You should have got connection refused if the port was closed... since you got a timeout (on the ipv4 link anyway) I think it means something is blocking it. You running SELinux?

Yes, the kernel as SELinux on it, but i turned it off.

I am still pretty new to linux so if i need to do something else, please let me know.

Cleared the log, and attempted to start tomcat again. The log was empty.

the log being: /var/log/audit/audit.log

permissive should work... I've barely used SELinux but my understanding is that permissive means on, but only log/warn rather than actually block.

At this point, I don't even think it's totally narrowed down to a Tomcat or 'server' issue... are you able to start something else on that port? Apache or SSH for example? If you can, try the 'telnet localhost 8006' thing and you should get some output (like the SSH version or some HTML (if you try a /get))

And since the port > 1024 you can open them as regular users.

And - as a long shot since I'm exhausting ideas - are you trying to start Tomcat as a particular user? Does the user exist and does it have some kind of over restrictive shell?

You could always try starting the server by prefixing the startup command with strace (just save the output to a file - it's possible that the error message thrown further down the startup process)

As an example:

$ strace /usr/bin/ifconfig -a (assuming your ifconfig is in /usr/bin)

Quote from vivahate : permissive should work... I've barely used SELinux but my understanding is that permissive means on, but only log/warn rather than actually block. At this point, I don't even think it's totally narrowed down to a Tomcat or 'server' issue... are you able to start something else on that port? Apache or SSH for example? If you can, try the 'telnet localhost 8006' thing and you should get some output (like the SSH version or some HTML (if you try a /get)) And since the port > 1024 you can open them as regular users. And - as a long shot since I'm exhausting ideas - are you trying to start Tomcat as a particular user? Does the user exist and does it have some kind of over restrictive shell? You could always try starting the server by prefixing the startup command with strace (just save the output to a file - it's possible that the error message thrown further down the startup process) As an example: $ strace /usr/bin/ifconfig -a (assuming your ifconfig is in /usr/bin)

From what I have read, yes Permissive mode is on, but log only. It does not block anything, i check the logs and it was empty after trying to start Tomcat.

I changed the port in /etc/ssh/sshd_config to 8006 and restarted sshd. netstat showed that port 8006 was in listen mode, and I was able to ssh to port 8006 and use telnet, which provided a return of SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.3.

All of this was/is done as root. This is the only user at this point.

Haven't used strace before, so I installed it and, well have no clue what it is saying. I attached it below. I tried to make some sense out of it, but didn't see anything that looks suspicious.


Thanks for all of your help so far, at least now I feel I wasn't over looking something simple.

ok - so we now know it's a tomcat config issue somewhere since you can use port 8006 elsewhere.

Maybe md5 the server.xml from this box and a known good box?

$ md5sum /path/to/server.xml

If they don't match up, copy the good one over. This is assuming there are no server specific options in there.

For the strace output, we're looking for ERR messages... but it looks like it was run against the wrapper script rather than the actual tomcat executable. You might have to try editing the startup script - but I would not bother unless you're desperate.

I did change it so the MD5SUM did not match. I went ahead and replaced it anyway, though it did come from a windows box. I don't have one from another CentOS box, but I might be able get one from our Fedora box tomorrow.

I used a working Windows one, and it did not work. I pulled the original from the tar.gz file and it did not work. I did also MD5sum the tar.gz (again) to compare what Apache says it should it and it did match.

There are no specific options that I am putting out right now, later I will need to add some to increase the max heap size, but for now I just want to get it running.

No change.. Used a working fedora and another owrking CentOS server.xml

Still same issue.

I really dont know what to say... really clutching at straws but you could try booting into single-user mode (usually runlevel3) and try starting it up.

I guess it goes without saying now.

Quote : <Server port="8006" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">

Change the port to something other than 8006 to see if that removes the conflict with whatever your system is detecting. Port 8005, 8007, just something else.

From the OP:

I did change the ports in server.xml a few times to see if any thing changes.

He did not state which ports though and he did not state what errors he was getting when trying to start Tomcat after changing ports.

Thanks Guys.. This is more of a PITA that I thought it would be. I appreciate all of your help on this.

Though the techie part of me is stubborn and wants to figure it out, I can't devote too much time to it at this point. Maybe next week, after some things subside.

I stood up a Fedora box in the interim, but it isn't the exact environment that I wanted (attempting to replicate certain things). I still have the CentOS box available to play with, and hope on every once in a while to try some things

I changed the shutdown port to 8005, 8004, 8007,8008, 8081, 8080 (moving the http port to 8081), and 80. Got the same error only the port number changed.