Prerequisites

Before we can start caching a set of layers we need to configure a directory where GWC should save all cached tiles. To accomplish this, please follow these steps:

• Open the terminal and create the cache directory (Note: You'll be prompted for the admin password):

    $ sudo mkdir /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/data/gwc
  

• Ensure GeoServer has read and write access to this directory by changig the ownership to user and group tomcat:

    $ sudo chown tomcat:tomcat /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/data/gwc
  

• Open the terminal and copy the following command to open the file web.xml in the text editor gedit:

    $ sudo gedit /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/WEB-INF/web.xml
  

• The following block will advise GWC to store all cached tiles into the directory /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/data/gwc. Insert it at line ~64 in the already opened file.

    <!-- The GWC data directory-->
    <context-param>
      <param-name>GEOWEBCACHE_CACHE_DIR</param-name>
      <param-value>/opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/data/gwc</param-value>
    </context-param>
  

• Save the changes and close the text editor.
• To apply the changes, we need to restart GeoServer. Go to your terminal and run the following command:

    $ sudo restart tomcat
  

• Open the newly created directory in the terminal to check there is a file named geowebache.xml only:

    $ cd /opt/tomcat/webapps/geoserver/data/gwc