If you work with geospatial data, GeoServer is one of the best open-source tools available for publishing, managing, and sharing geographic information. Whether you’re handling shapefiles, PostGIS databases, or WMS/WFS services, GeoServer makes it easy to serve maps and geospatial data through standard web protocols. In this guide, we’ll walk you through installing GeoServer on Oracle Linux 9, covering all the necessary steps from setting up Java to running GeoServer on your system.
What is GeoServer?
GeoServer is an open-source server designed for sharing geospatial data. It allows users to publish, visualize, and edit spatial datasets using open standards such as Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Web Coverage Service (WCS).
Why Use GeoServer?
- Open-source & customizable – No license costs, and you can modify it as needed.
- Supports multiple data formats – Works with shapefiles, PostGIS, GeoTIFF, Oracle Spatial, and more.
- Interoperability – Built on OGC standards, making it compatible with GIS software like QGIS, ArcGIS, and OpenLayers.
- Web-based management – Easily manage your layers and services through an intuitive web interface.
Now that we know what GeoServer is, let’s install it on Oracle Linux 9.
Steps to Install Geoserver on Oracle Linux 9
Step 1. Install Java on Oracle Linux 9
GeoServer requires Java 11 or Java 17 (JRE) to run. So, it is mandatory to check if Java is installed on Oracle Linux 9. If not, we need to install it. Please read my previous article to Install Java on Oracle Linux 9. After finish installing Java, come back here for the next steps.
Step 2. Download GeoServer Package
Navigate to the official GeoServer download page. Select the GeoServer version that you want to install. In this example, I will install the stable version of GeoServer 2.26.2.
For Oracle Linux, we choose the Platform Independent Binary format. Since I installed my Oracle Linux 9 on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, I connect to my Linux via Terminal. So, I use wget to download it.
wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/geoserver/files/GeoServer/2.26.2/geoserver-2.26.2-bin.zipStep 3. Extract GeoServer Package
The suggested location to extract the GeoServer package is /usr/share/geoserver. So, lets extract it to that folder. We will also need to make myself owner for the geoserver folder.
sudo unzip geoserver-2.26.2-bin.zip -d /usr/share/geoserver
sudo chown -R opc /usr/share/geoserver/ opc is my user. Change it with your own.
Step 4. Add the Environment Variable
In this step, we will add an environment variable to save the location of Geoserver.
echo "export GEOSERVER_HOME=/usr/share/geoserver" >> ~/.profile
. ~/.profileStep 5. Run Geoserver
Now cd to the geoserver/bin folder and run the startup script.
cd /usr/share/geoserver/bin
sh startup.sh
Step 6. Configure Firewall
In some cases, we need to open the port 8080 used by geoserver. To do this, use this command. And after configuring the firewall, we need to re-run the startup script in the step above.
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8080/tcp --permanent
sudo firwall-cmd --reloadStep 7. Open GeoServer
Open a web browser and then type the IP address of the Oracle Linux 9 with the following format. For example:
http://your-ip-address:8080/geoserver
On the login page, use the default user: admin, password: geoserver.
That’s it. We have successfully installed GeoServer on Oracle Linux 9. We will explore this GeoServer in the next article. Thank you.