I have tried and tried to just “do the labs,” and almost every single one of them without fail is miserably broken in some way.
I’m currently trying to do the Apache Tomcat lab. I download the version suggested. I move it to the designated directory. I run the command that’s supposed to work and…it doesn’t. Tomcat won’t start. Permissions errors. Okay. I fix a couple of permissions. Tomcat can’t create a logs directory…because permission. So I manually create a logs directory. Try ./startup.sh, and this time, it tells me that “tomcat has started.” Check the LocalHost tab? NOTHING THERE 502. This is INFURIATING.
Look, KodeKloud, I’m beginning to really think that your teaching style just doesn’t work for me. If stuff is supposed to “just work” in the labs, well, it never freaking does. If I’m supposed to run into roadblocks with EACH AND EVERY LAB, well, you’re just annoying the piss out of me. If we’re supposed to run into problems and that’s supposed to help us learn to problem solve, TELL US THAT, and direct us to resources for the topic.
But if the labs are supposed to just work out of the box using the given/suggested commands, well, they don’t. They’re hideously broken, they use outdated software and direct you to websites that have been shut down, they just…suck. The labs suck.
If it’s just the “prerequisite” labs that are complete and utter garbage, please just tell me that so I can skip out of this mind-numbing infuriating disaster of an experience and move on to learning things that are actually useful, because I can set up a linux server running tomcat on my local lab, but trying to “pass” through all of these labs is just making me hate my life.
If it’s the entirety of the KodeKloud offering that is this disjointed and broken, just let me know so I can move on to another source of learning.
I WANT to like this. I WANT to learn. But the experience thus far is ridiculous.
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This is what you’re greeted with after moving apache to /opt and running the starup.sh. Or well, TRYING to run the startup.sh
So chmod the .sh so they’ll run, and then you get:
Okay, so manually create the logs directory, then run startup.sh, you get:
And it says “tomcat is started.” Okay, sweet. Let’s check, and then try curl:
NOPE. And clicking the “Localhost” tab in the lab interface gives us this:
AND MOVING ON:
Since the prior section doesn’t work, of course the follow on exercise also doesn’t work at all:
It’s just broken. The whole lab is broken. And it’s not remotely the only one that has been impossible to complete because they just don’t work.
The problem looks like to be your step 1. The package I downloaded did not end with -src. See attached
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Hello, @grungydan
Thanks for your feedback. I will check and will update “Solution”.
We have to download the right archive file that’s apache-tomcat-8.5.70.tar.gz. As I can see mistakenly you downloaded the source archive file.
I will update the “Solution” to make it easier for you. If you are having any issues then you can post here and definitely we will help you.
Cheers.
It’s the lack of guidance in the labs that leads to this crap, IMO. Poorly worded, not enough to go on without just defaulting to reading the Hint. Ridiculous.
“Install tomcat. Here’s a link to forty different possible packages, because we insist you use one that’s not available in the default repos. If you just yum install XXX it will break the lab.” Why? Why on EARTH, in a “prerequisites” portion of a course, don’t you just have us use what’s easily available via CLI? Ridiculous. Later in a course, a section on “installing out of date crap because legacy software and tech debt are rampant” sure, maybe force us to go on a hunt for juuuuust the right version of something.
I don’t know. I just find the entire thing frustrating/maddening. And not in a good “I solved a problem” way.
