Step by step installation guide for installing Apache Solr 4+ with Apache Tomcat 7 on Winows Server 2008 R2.

Applicable to:

• nopAccelerate
• nopSolr Search
• nopSolr Navigation
• Self-hosted Solr Instance use case

System Requirements

• Java 6 or greater

Installation Steps

Step 1: If your server does not have latest version of Java installed, please install latest Java.

Apache Solr runs on Java 6 or greater. When using Java 7, be sure to install at least Update 1! With all Java versions it is strongly recommended to not use experimental -XX JVM options. It is also recommended to always use the latest update version of your Java VM, because bugs may affect Solr. An overview of known JVM bugs can be found on http://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/SunJavaBugs.

For more details refer: http://lucene.apache.org/solr/4_2_0/SYSTEM_REQUIREMENTS.html

Step 2: Installing Java Servlet Container like Tomcat 7

You can use any Java Servlet Container you are familiar with. If your server already has one of the Java Servlet Container, then use it. You can find more information on the same here: http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SolrInstall

For illustration purposes we’ll be installing Tomcat 7 on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Download Tomcat 7 from Apache Solr Download Page. We’ll be using Apache Tomcat 7 32-bit/64-bit Windows Service Installer.

Once downloaded, execute the downloaded file and follow the Apache Tomcat Setup Wizard.

Proceed further with clicking on Next.

Select the components that you wish to install and click on Next. We selected to install with default options.

Provide configuration options you wish to use and then click Next. We selected to install with default options. Except the HTTP/1.1 Connector Port, which was changed to 8983 as we do not want to mess with some other web server using 8080 already.

The next step is License Agreement, review the license agreement and then proceed further by clicking on “I Agree”.

Provide the path of the JRE installed on your Server and click Next.

Choose the installation folder location where you wish to install Apache Tomcat and click Install.

Click Finish to complete the installation.

Now, try accessing, Apache Tomcat at http://<hostname>:<port>/

For example, we installed it on Port 8983 so URL we would be accessing is http://localhost:8983/

If it is installed correctly, you’ll see Apache Tomcat Start Page.

If you’re not able to access this page, something might be wrong with the installation. Look at the Apache Tomcat 7 Windows Service How to page for help.

You can find more help at following URLs:

• http://tomcat.apache.org/findhelp.html
• http://wiki.apache.org/tomcat/FAQ
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/tomcat

Step 3: Download Apache Solr

You can download latest version of Apache Solr from http://lucene.apache.org/solr/. We’re using Apache Solr 4.2 for this tutorial. Use compiled version, and not the Source for deployment. If you download Source, then you need to build Solr before you can use it.

Step 4: Deploy Solr war file to Tomcat Webapps folder

Extract the file you’ve downloaded and locate the “\dist” folder.

Inside dist folder, find the “solr-4.2.0.war” file. This is basically the zipped file that contain all the necessary binary for the servlet container to run the web application.

Rename the file to solr.war, because that will be the name of the URL to access Solr. You can rename it to any other name you wish. Make sure to remember it.

Move this file to the Tomcat’s “webapps” folder. This folder is located at the Tomcat Installation folder. If you’ve left it to default location, then it should be: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0”.

If tomcat service is running, you will find that a solr directory is automatically created. If tomcat is not running, don’t bother it will be created next time tomcat starts.

Step 5: Create Solr Home

Next, we need to create the Solr Home.

The Solr home is basically a folder where Tomcat will look for all the relevant Solr configurations, as well as where the actual index files will be stored.

Go back to the unzipped Solr package, and locate the folder: “\example\solr“.

Now create the new directory on your disk where you want to store Solr configuration files, Solr core & Solr index file.

For example: C:\solr.

Copy the contents of “\example\solr” directory (should be a bin folder, collection folder, a solr.xml, zoo.cfg and a readme.txt) and place it under your root directory, under a folder named Solr (e.g. C:\Solr).

Step 6: Configuring Tomcat to detect Solr

Next step is to tell Tomcat where the Solr Home folder is placed.

Open Tomcat’s configuration window. You can open it by clicking on Tomcat icon’s in system tray, and then click on Configure.

Alternatively, you can open it by executing Tomcat7w.exe file located in bin folder of Tomcat 7.0 installation folder. E.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0\bin\Tomcat7w.exe

Open Tomcat’s configuration window, and go to the Java tab.

Now, locate the Java Options text box, and enter this line at the end of all the other stuff that’s already there:

-Dsolr.solr.home=c:\solr

Click on Apply to save changes.

Now, we need to start Apache Tomcat 7 automatically whenever Windows Server is restarted. By default, it is set to Manual startup. So, let’s change it to Automatic.

Go back to General tab. Change Startup Type to Automatic. And click on Apply to save changes.

Once this is done, we need to restart Apache Tomcat 7.

On the same General tab, click on Stop button, and then on Start button to start Apache Tomcat again. Once done, click Ok to close the window.

Step 7: Testing Solr

Try to accessing Solr at http://localhost:8983/solr (port number and app name may differ depending on the Tomcat installation & folder name you’ve configured). You should be able to access Solr Dashboard. The page will be similar to this:

If you’re able to access this page, then you’ve installed Apache Solr correctly.

Useful References

• http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SolrInstall
• http://lucene.apache.org/solr/4_2_0/SYSTEM_REQUIREMENTS.html
• http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SolrTomcat
• http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/setup.html

Proceed with next step to configuring Apache Solr→