Can not start tomcat as user - tomcat7

Question

I am using Centos7 with tomcat 7. I need to run tomcat as 'tomcat' user with systemd service script. I used the script from here
It works, but it throws exception as
56:40.051[%!-5.5p]: ##VelocityEngineInitializationException## --> (ConfigurationAndResourceIntializationHandler.java:78)
com.sz.api.common.exceps.VelocityEngineInitializationException: ##Exception##
at com.sz.api.services.velocityengine.VelocityEngineHandler.initializeVelocityEngine(VelocityEngineHandler.java:64)
at com.sz.api.engine.alert.bootup.ConfigurationAndResourceIntializationHandler.initializeVelocityEngine(ConfigurationAndResourceIntializationHandler.java:230)
at com.sz.api.engine.alert.bootup.ConfigurationAndResourceIntializationHandler.configureHandler(ConfigurationAndResourceIntializationHandler.java:61)
at com.sz.api.engine.alert.driver.AlertEngineDriver.startSystem(AlertEngineDriver.java:40)
at com.sz.api.ws.bootstrap.StartUpService.initializeAlertEngine(StartUpService.java:309)
at com.sz.api.ws.bootstrap.StartUpService.init(StartUpService.java:70)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:160)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1267)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1186)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1081)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:5027)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5314)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:977)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1655)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:473)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.velocity.exception.VelocityException: Failed to initialize an instance of org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.Log4JLogChute with the current runtime configuration.
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.LogManager.createLogChute(LogManager.java:206)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.LogManager.updateLog(LogManager.java:255)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.initializeLog(RuntimeInstance.java:795)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.init(RuntimeInstance.java:250)
at org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine.init(VelocityEngine.java:107)
at com.sz.api.services.velocityengine.VelocityEngineHandler.initializeVelocityEngine(VelocityEngineHandler.java:53)
... 22 more
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Error configuring Log4JLogChute :
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
at org.apache.velocity.util.ExceptionUtils.createWithCause(ExceptionUtils.java:67)
at org.apache.velocity.util.ExceptionUtils.createRuntimeException(ExceptionUtils.java:45)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.Log4JLogChute.initAppender(Log4JLogChute.java:133)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.Log4JLogChute.init(Log4JLogChute.java:85)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.LogManager.createLogChute(LogManager.java:157)
... 27 more
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: velocity.log (Permission denied)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:221)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:142)
at org.apache.log4j.FileAppender.setFile(FileAppender.java:294)
at org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender.setFile(RollingFileAppender.java:207)
at org.apache.log4j.FileAppender.<init>(FileAppender.java:110)
at org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender.<init>(RollingFileAppender.java:79)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.Log4JLogChute.initAppender(Log4JLogChute.java:118)
... 29 more
Of course, I checked velocity.log permissions, all are fine. I am getting this error only when I run the tomcat as 'tomcat' user. Please advise!

Answer 1

Try this:
Find the location of velocity.log:
$ cd /
$ find -name "velocity.log"
Check the permission of velocity.log:
$ ls -la velocity.log
If not appropriate, change the owner:
$ chown <user>:<group> velocity.log