Installation on Linux

To install GeoCat Map in Linux, follow these steps.

Java

GeoCat Map requires a Java 17 environment.

OpenJDK is now the lead project for the Java ecosystem. As an open-source company GeoCat is pleased to see OpenJDK supported by a number of different distributions.

1. We recommend using OpenJDK 17 provided by your operating system:

   • Ubuntu

     sudo apt-get install openjdk-17-jdk
     

   • RedHat:

     sudo yum install java-17-openjdk-devel
     

   • To manually install Java, see Java

2. Verify that java is available:

   java -version
   

   openjdk version "17.0.20" 2026-04-14
   OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.20+8-Ubuntu-124.04)
   OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.20+8-Ubuntu-124.04, mixed mode, sharing)
   

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat is the leading open source application server.

GeoServer requires Apache Tomcat 11.0.x.

1. Installation options:

   • Tomcat on Ubuntu - Ubuntu package install, tomcat11 on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and later
   • Tomcat - manual install of the official Tomcat 11 distribution, required on earlier Ubuntu releases (such as 24.04 LTS) and other distributions

2. Verify that tomcat is available as a service:

   • Manual install / systemd

     systemctl status tomcat
     

   • Ubuntu package

     sudo service tomcat11 status
     

3. The application server is available on port 8080:

   • http://localhost:8080/

Data Directory

GeoServer places all its required configuration files in a GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR folder.

This location my be explicitly provided, to do so, follow these steps:

1. Create a folder to hold your GeoServer configuration:

   sudo mkdir /var/opt/geoserver/
   

2. We have three options for creating an initial GeoServer data directory:

   • Alternative 1 - Use the default data directory with recommended service configuration settings.

     Login to nexus.geocat.net and browse to the products folder:

     • https://nexus.geocat.net/#browse/browse:products

     Navigate to the latest 2026.1/map/data folder and select the map-data-default-2026.1.zip archive.

     Locate latest map-data-default zip archive

     Copy the download URL from the asset summary Path link.

     Latest map-data-default zip URL

     Use wget to download the URL:

     mkdir /tmp/geocat-map
     cd /tmp/geocat-map
     wget --http-user='USERNAME' --http-password='PASSWORD' https://nexus.geocat.net/repository/products/2026.1/map/data/map-data-default-2026.1.zip
     

     map-data-default-2026.1.z 100%[================================================================>]  10.41K  --.-KB/s    in 0.002s
     
     2026-09-03 09:11:00 (5.03 MB/s) - 'map-data-default-2026.1.zip.1' saved [10663/10663]
     

     Unzip this archive:

     cd /tmp/geocat-map
     unzip map-data-default*.zip
     

     extracting: data.zip
      inflating: windows/geoserver.xml
      inflating: linux/geoserver.xml
      inflating: README.html
      inflating: release_notes.html
     

     Unzip the data.zip:

     unzip data.zip -d /var/opt/geoserver/data
     

     Note

     If wget or unzip are not installed, you can install the packages;

     # Ubuntu
     sudo apt-get install wget
     sudo apt-get install unzip
     
     # CentOS
     sudo yum install wget
     sudo yum install unzip
     

   • Alternative 2 - Use the standard data directory with recommended service configuration settings, and a selection of example layers:

     unzip map-data-standard*.zip
     

     extracting: data.zip
      inflating: windows/geoserver.xml
      inflating: linux/geoserver.xml
      inflating: README.html
      inflating: release_notes.html
     

     Unzip the data.zip:

     unzip data.zip -d /var/opt/geoserver/data
     

   • Alternative 3 - Use an empty folder, GeoServer will generate configuration files to this folder the first time it runs:

     cd /var/opt/geoserver/
     mkdir data
     

     This approach is often used in automated workflow where GeoServer is configured via REST API scripts.

     Note

     You must also remove this line from your Geoserver Tomcat context file;

     <Parameter name="GEOSERVER_REQUIRE_FILE"
        value="/var/opt/geoserver/data/global.xml" override="false"/>
     

3. Create an empty tilecache folder:

   sudo mkdir /var/opt/geoserver/tilecache
   

   The GeoWebCache tile server will use this empty folder to manage generated tiles.

4. Ensure the tomcat user has permission to access the above directories:

   sudo chown -R tomcat:tomcat /var/opt/geoserver
   sudo chmod +r+w -R /var/opt/geoserver
   

5. Update the Tomcat configuration with this data directory location:

   • Open the Tomcat folder (/opt/tomcat/latest for a manual install, or /etc/tomcat11 for the Ubuntu package) and navigate to the conf/Catalina/localhost subfolder.

   • In the localhost folder, create a geoserver.xml file, with the following content:

     <Context>
       <Parameter name="GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR"
                  value="/var/opt/geoserver/data" override="false"/>
       <Parameter name="GEOSERVER_REQUIRE_FILE"
                  value="/var/opt/geoserver/data/global.xml" override="false"/>
       <Parameter name="GEOWEBCACHE_CACHE_DIR"
                  value="/var/opt/geoserver/tilecache" override="false"/>
     </Context>
     

   Use geoserver.xml, do not edit web.xml

   The geoserver.xml file is how Tomcat configures the GeoServer web application, and replaces editing the WEB-INF/web.xml file inside webapps/geoserver.

   Hand editing WEB-INF/web.xml is ill-advised: it is part of geoserver.war and is replaced when GeoServer is upgraded, losing your settings. Use geoserver.xml to adjust web application settings so they are kept during the upgrade process.

   Note the conf/Catalina/localhost/ folder is created when you first run Tomcat.

6. The default on recent Ubuntu is to provide and operating system systemd sandbox for services.

   Provide the Tomcat service read/write permissions to the GeoServer Data Directory and the GeoWebCache tile cache directory:

   1. Edit the Tomcat systemd configuration. For a manual install this is likely /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; for the Ubuntu package it is /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/tomcat11.service.

   2. In the [Service] section, add these lines:

      ReadWritePaths=/var/opt/geoserver/data
      ReadWritePaths=/var/opt/geoserver/tilecache
      

   3. If you will be writing anywhere else on the file system, also add those directories here.

   4. Ask systemd to read these changes, and restart Tomcat

      sudo systemctl daemon-reload
      sudo service tomcat11 restart
      

GeoCat Map

To install GeoCat Map on your existing Tomcat instance, follow these steps:

1. Login to nexus.geocat.net and browse to the products folder:

   • https://nexus.geocat.net/#browse/browse:products

   Navigate to the latest 2026.1/map/war folder and select the map-standard-2026.1.zip archive.

   

2. Unzip this file containing:

   • linux and windows - sample configuration files
   • geoserver.war - GeoCat Map web application
   • readme.html and release_notes.html - installation notes and release notes
   • GPL.html and LICENSE.html - open source license information

3. Copy the geoserver.war web archive to the to [Tomcat_folder]/webapps folder.

   The [Tomcat_folder] will be /opt/tomcat/latest for a manual install, or /var/lib/tomcat11/ for the Ubuntu package.

   Tomcat will deploy geoserver.war web application, creating the folder webapps/geoserver when you first run Tomcat.

4. In your web browser, navigate to http://localhost:8080/geoserver to verify that GeoCat Map is correctly working.