Install Crowd
The instructions below tell you how to install the Crowd distribution, which includes Apache Tomcat.
1. Prerequisites
- Java. You will need to install a Java Development Kit (JDK) on your operating system before before proceeding with a Crowd installation. Please note that Crowd requires the full installation of a JDK. It is not enough to run Crowd on a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) alone. For instructions on installing the Sun JDK and setting
JAVA_HOME, please refer to Supported Platforms.
2. Install Crowd
- Download Crowd.
- Please check your unzip program before extracting the downloaded archive—see the note on the Crowd installation front page.
- Unzip the download archive into a directory of your choice. Note: Don't specify directory names that contain spaces.
We'll refer to this installation directory as {CROWD_INSTALL}. - Specify your Crowd Home directory by editing the configuration file at: {
CROWD_INSTALL}\crowd-webapp\WEB-INF\classes\crowd-init.properties. The Crowd Home directory is where Crowd will store its configuration information. If you are using the embedded HSQL database, supplied for evaluation purposes, Crowd will also store its database in this directory. To specify the Crowd Home directory:- Open the
crowd-init.propertiesfile. This is found at<crowd_install_directory>/crowd-webapp/WEB-INF/classes/crowd-init.properties - Choose the appropriate line in the file, depending upon your operating system (see below).
- Remove the
#at the beginning of the line. - Enter the name of the directory you want Crowd to use as its Home directory. For example,
On Windows:
crowd.home=c:/data/crowd-homeNote: On Windows, make sure you use forward slashes as shown above, not backward slashes.
On Mac and UNIX-based systems:
crowd.home=/var/crowd-homeImportant
Please, ensure that the Crowd Home directory will not match the Crowd installation directory AND it is writable by the user executing the initialization script.
- Save the
crowd-init.propertiesfile.
- Open the
Installing Crowd on Windows with 64-bit JVM
If you intend to run Crowd on a Windows system with a 64-bit JVM, be aware that Crowd bundles both 32 and 64 bit Tomcat binaries and uses the 32-bit binaries by default. The 32-bit binaries and their 64-bit counterparts are listed below:
| 32-bit | 64-bit |
|---|---|
| {CROWD_INSTALL}/apache-tomcat/bin/tomcat.exe | {CROWD_INSTALL}/apache-tomcat/bin/tomcat.exe.x64 |
| {CROWD_INSTALL}/apache-tomcat/bin/tcnative-1.dll | {CROWD_INSTALL}/apache-tomcat/bin/tcnative-1.dll.x64 |
In order to use the 64-bit binaries, they must be renamed to the names used by 32-bit binaries, while the 32-bit binaries must be either renamed or deleted. This can be accomplished with a simple script:
cd {CROWD_INSTALL}/apache-tomcat/bin
rename tomcat8.exe tomcat8.exe.x86
rename tcnative-1.dll tcnative-1.dll.x86
rename tomcat8.exe.x64 tomcat8.exe
rename tcnative-1.dll.x64 tcnative-1.dllThe script above adds the .x86 suffix to the 32-bit binaries and removes the .x64 suffix from the 64-bit binaries, making them usable.
3. Prepare your Database
For evaluators
This step applies to production installations. If you're evaluating Crowd and are happy to use the database supplied, you can skip this step.
If you wish to set up Crowd with an external database, check out Connecting Crowd to a Database.
4. Start Crowd and Complete the Setup Wizard
- Run the start-up script, found in your {CROWD_INSTALL} directory:
start_crowd.batfor Windows.start_crowd.shfor Mac and Unix-based systems.
- Point a web browser at
http://localhost:8095/crowdwhere you will see the Crowd Setup Wizard. Follow the instructions in the Wizard. You can also read more information about the Setup Wizard.
Next Steps
- If you are running Crowd on UNIX/Linux, consider setting Crowd to run automatically on startup and use an unprivileged system user.
- If you are running Crowd on Windows, consider setting Crowd to run automatically on startup.