Tomcat as service

Simple steps to setup Tomcat as service on Redhat:

1. put this script on /etc/init.d/
2. edit it, so that the variables JAVA_HOME and TOMCAT_HOME are pointing to correct locations on your system, for instance the script is setted with:
   TOMCAT_HOME=/opt/tomcat
JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_09
3. set execution permision to the script:
   # chmod a+x /etc/init.d/tomcat
4. add a tomcat user, if there is no one already
   # adduser tomcat
5. make tomcat user the owner of TOMCAT_HOME directory, for instance
   # chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/tomcat/
6. finally, install the script as service
   # chkconfig --add tomcat

now it is easier to manage tomcat with the comands:
# service tomcat [start|status|stop]
Source: http://www.spaceprogram.com/knowledge/2004/01/starting-tomcat-as-service-on-linux.html