Liferay 7.x Installation Guide (Tomcat + MySQL)

#liferay #architecture #java #webdev

Liferay is one of the most widely used enterprise portal platforms for building:

enterprise intranet portals

customer self-service portals

digital experience platforms

enterprise collaboration systems

In this guide, we will walk through a simple Liferay 7.x installation using Tomcat and MySQL, which is a common setup for development environments.

Prerequisites

Before installing Liferay, ensure the following components are installed:

Java (JDK 8 or higher)

Apache Tomcat

MySQL database

Minimum 4 GB RAM recommended

Also configure the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

Example:

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11
Step 1 – Create the MySQL Database

Create a database for Liferay:

CREATE DATABASE lportal CHARACTER SET utf8;

Create a database user:

CREATE USER 'liferay'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON lportal.* TO 'liferay'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Step 2 – Download the Liferay Bundle

Download the Liferay 7.x bundle, which includes:

Liferay Portal

Apache Tomcat

default configuration

After extraction you will see directories like:

tomcat/
osgi/
deploy/
data/
Step 3 – Configure Database Connection

Create the file:

portal-ext.properties

Add the database configuration:

jdbc.default.driverClassName=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
jdbc.default.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/lportal
jdbc.default.username=liferay
jdbc.default.password=password

Place the MySQL connector JAR inside:

tomcat/lib/ext
Step 4 – Start the Liferay Server

Navigate to the Tomcat directory:

tomcat/bin

Start the server:

Linux / Mac:

startup.sh

Windows:

startup.bat
Step 5 – Access the Portal

Open the browser and visit:

http://localhost:8080

You will see the Liferay setup wizard where you can configure: