Deploying with Tomcat
This topic shows how to deploy the VoiceXML Connector war file as a Java servlet on Tomcat.
Prerequisite software
You can deploy on any operating system that supports Tomcat10.
Note: For prerequisite versions, see the VoiceXML Connector release notes.
Required software | Description |
---|---|
Speech Suite |
Required for all deployments. |
VoiceXML browser |
Required. VoiceXML Connector is tested with the Nuance platform add-on and browsers from Nuance partners. |
Tomcat | Required. |
Java | Required. |
Dialog service |
Access required. Deploy in your cloud (self-hosted) or connect to a Nuance-hosted Dialog service. The Dialog service must be accessible to VoiceXML Connector, and it requires access to a web server for fetching Mix dialog models. (The Connector does not use the ASR, TTS, or NLU services in the Dialog service. It uses the equivalent services from Speech Suite instead.) Recommended. Include the optional CCSS service and configure a URN to the artifact server. Note: When you create a Mix project, the versions of all dialog model components must be compatible with the your versions of the Dialog service, VoiceXML Connector, and Speech Suite. For details see Integrating with Speech Suite in the Nuance Mix documentation. |
Recommended software
Recommended software | Description |
---|---|
Redis server |
Optional. Redis server (Remote DIctionary Server) for persistent data storage. See Redis configuration. You can share the same data storage server with the Dialog service and VoiceXML Connector. |
Log file monitoring |
Choose between file-based logging with log4j (the default) or console-based logging with an EFK stack. To set, see Log file configuration. Components of the EFK stack:
(Note: VoiceXML Connector logs diagnostic messages but not call events.) |
Prometheus |
Recommended. Use Prometheus to monitor system runtime performance, detect alerts and fatal alarms, and to collect push metrics. |
Grafana |
Recommended. Use Grafana to collect and analyze metrics. |
Jaegar |
Recommended. Use Jaegar for detailed tracing and troubleshooting. |
Installation package contents and procedure
- Install the prerequisite and optional software (listed above) in any order.
- Download the product package from Nuance Network and extract it.
- From the War folder, extract vxmlConnector-x.y.z.tar.gz (where x.y.z is the version). Contents:
Customize the configuration with required and optional parameters in an application.yaml file to be loaded when the Connector starts. See Configuring Tomcat deployments.Deployment package Contents Windows installations.
vxmlconnector-x.y.z.zip
war-deployment.bat—Deployment script
soak-test.bat—Script to confirm correct deployment
vxml-connector.war—VoiceXML Connector application
Linux installations.
vxmlconnector-x.y.z.tar.gz
war-deployment.sh—Deployment script
soak-test.sh—Script to confirm correct deployment
vxml-connector.war—VoiceXML Connector application
- In the Tomcat Configuration Tool on Windows or directly in
catalina.sh
orcatalina.bat
, do the following:- Change the Java Classpath (
CLASSPATH
incatalina.sh
orcatalina.bat
) to the Tomcat provided-lib. For example, C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 10.1\lib\config\provided-lib\* - Set Java Options (
JAVA_OPTS
incatalina.sh
orcatalina.bat
) to -DLOG_TYPE=FILE -DLOGFILE_PATH=C:\var\VXML-CONNECTOR\logs\internal -DLOGFILE_NAME=vxml-connector, where DLOGFILE_PATH is the path to the VXML Connector internal logs.
- Change the Java Classpath (
- Extract the deployment package for your operating system and run the deployment script.
- Provide the Tomcat path when prompted by the script. The script adds the war file to the Tomcat webapps folder.
- Provide the path for output log files when prompted by the script. Then provide a filename for the logs. For details, see Log file configuration.
If you install multiple instances of VoiceXML Connector, use a different filename for each instance (so you can distinguish which instances write which logs). For example,
vxml-connector-1
,vxml-connector-2
, and so on. - The script restarts Tomcat and runs the soak test. Wait for confirmation of a successful installation. If there's a problem, see catalina.out in the Tomcat logs folder.
Updating third-party libraries
The VoiceXML Connector image has dynamic links to third-party libraries. You can update the following libraries at any time. For example, if a security flaw is detected in the current version.
- com.io7m.xom:xom
- com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305
Note: After an update, you must re-deploy the new image.
For Tomcat deployments, store the new library in a folder and add that location to CLASSPATH in your setenv
file.
# replace <provided-lib-path> with the location of the new library
set CLASSPATH=c:\provided-lib-path\*
Next steps
For configuration details, see Configuring Tomcat deployments.
For instructions on running Mix dialog models from IVR applications, see Invoking VXML Connector from applications.