ColdFusion 8 Server on Snow Leopard
Last night I upgraded my MacBook Pro from Leopard to Snow Leopard. I used the upgrade method instead of the clean install. So far I cannot tell that anything is different. This really does look and feel like an under the hood upgrade. At this point I have not dug into Snow Leopard UI changes, but I have been testing software.
I've had ColdFusion 8 server Developer edition installed on my MacBook Pro for a long time. After running the Snow Leopard upgrade ColdFusion server started just fine, but it was no longer connected to my Apache installation. I did remember to backup my httpd-vhosts.conf file, but I neglected to backup the main httpd.conf file. A nice side note is my /etc/hosts file was preserved by the Snow Leopard upgrade, but I was prepared with a back up just in case.
So I had to replace my httpd-vhosts.conf file with my backup copy. Once Apache restarted I was able to access my web root which is also my ColdFusion Builder / CFEclipse workspace folder. However, as feared ColdFusion server is no longer connected to Apache.
So I started searching the web to figure out how to reconnect ColdFusion server to Apache. A big thanks to Geoff Bowers at the daemonite blog for a detailed blog post with step by step instructions. The step that starts with “Open a terminal window and compile a new JRun "web connector". Type in the following verbatim, each point on its own line (hitting enter after each line):” is the step where I started in order to get ColdFusion reconnected to Apache.
Note: I already had Xcode installed due to my use of MacPorts and PostgreSQL. If you do not already have Xcode installed you will need to do that before following the instructions to compile the Apache connector. You can find the new Xcode installation package on the Snow Leopard DVD. This will save you from the 1Gb download.
I tried the manual restarts like they did with no luck and I actually had to completely reboot my MacBook Pro to complete the process. Upon reboot my ColdFusion Administrator was working and my local CF code was working. A huge plus with getting ColdFusion working this way is that all my settings, mappings, datasources etc were saved. If you do have to reinstall ColdFusion from scratch you should copy the neo-datasource.xml and neo-runtime.xml files so you can restore your settings.
Happy ColdFusioning on Snow Leopard!
on 8/31/09 11:45 AM
Since I am setting up Tomcat and XAMPP I was able to have a buddy of mine create the 64bit war I used for my Adobe ColdFusion apps. My other friend on a mac had no problems running the installer.
not sure really whats up, but that is the work around I used.
on 9/2/09 4:02 AM
Hi,
Thanks so much for the post! I plan to upgrade this weekend.
Did you install the 64 bit version?
I am thinking about doing a clean install(wiping out Leopard completely) but thinking now, maybe I don't ant to lose my 3 years worth of CF settings, which I love`-`
I will let you know how it goes, but judging here, I don't see any major problems.
John
on 9/2/09 3:00 PM
@John, I have the 64bit version of CF801 installed. An option to save your data sources and other settings is to find and save the various neo-xxxxx.xml files. neo-datasource.xml, neo-runtime.xml are the two I saved that covered most everything including my cf mappings.
Wil
on 9/3/09 2:04 PM
This would have been helpful, except the instructions are for JRun instances of CF8. Those of us that used standalone can't be hlped by this. In addition, I upgraded before seeing this, and as such lost all my config files which Time Machine doesn't seem to back up (at least not in a way that I can find them).
As as is probably known by now, the OS X installer app for CF8 will not run, so a new install is out of the picture.
So I'm pretty much screwed until a fix comes in. I'll have to build an Ubuntu instance through VMware for the time being and run CF8 off of there. Very inefficient. :-(
on 9/3/09 6:34 PM
@rob - well not much I can say - I posted this well before most people seemed to try to do the upgrade. When I ran the upgrade NO one had blogged about it that I could find. So I did. I was just documenting my experience upgrading to Snow Leopard. As far as losing your settings, all I can say is it's been known for a long time how to save those. I do not know where the standalone version stored it's files, but the jrun version has a jrun run folder. And down several levels of folder are your settings files.
As far as standalone, in Developer edition, just run it in J2EE mode. It's a simple no brain install.
Wil
on 9/14/09 6:01 AM
Hi,
I had some problems so I had to wipe out the entire OS and re install Snow Leopard, just as you would if you just bought a new macBook Pro.
When I try to install CF 8 64 bit, it tells me that I don't have a 64 bit machine, can you offer any help to get the installer to work.
I did go through this, and thought that I was in the clear:
http://www.robertburns.me/blog/?p=38
Is it possible to get this to install?
Thanks,
John