Install YouTrack JAR as a Service on macOS

Use the following setup to install and run YouTrack as a service on macOS.

Prerequisites

To perform this installation, verify that the following prerequisites are met:

You are using Java SE Development Kit 8 or later.
Any external hostname (proxy hostname) is resolvable from the actual host where YouTrack is installed.

Installation

The following procedure describes how to install and run YouTrack JAR as a service on macOS. The service is managed by the launchd daemon/agent manager.

To install the YouTrack JAR distribution as a service on macOS:

Download the JAR distribution from the JetBrains website.
Create a user account to run the YouTrack service. For example, youtrack. The youtrack user account manages YouTrack data and services.
Download the Tanuki Java Service Wrapper that is compatible with your operating system.
Extract the wrapper archive to the home directory of the service user account.
For usability, we also recommend that you rename the wrapper directory. For example, standalone.

tar xzvf wrapper-macosx-universal-<version>.tar.gz mv wrapper-macosx-universal-<version> standalone

The directory structure for the wrapper should be similar to the following example:

./standalone ./standalone/bin ./standalone/conf ./standalone/doc ./standalone/lib ./standalone/logs ./standalone/src
Copy the YouTrack JAR file to the wrapper directory:
cp youtrack-<version>.jar ~youtrack/standalone/
Create a soft link to the JAR file:
cd ~youtrack/standalone/ ln -s youtrack-<version>.jar youtrack.jar
Create a launchd system startup script as youtrack.plist.
If you need help writing the script, check out Lingon X. This application makes it easy to create scripts and run services.
Place the youtrack.plist script in the <service_user_home>/Library/LaunchAgents folder.
Replace the configuration file of an existing wrapper ~youtrack/standalone/conf/wrapper.conf with the following configuration file: wrapper.conf
Modify the configuration file to match your YouTrack installation.

By default, the new YouTrack instance is configured to use TCP port 8080. You can change this setting in the wrappers.conf file. If you run YouTrack behind a reverse proxy server, you can configure the forwarding ports on the proxy server.

The wrapper.conf file includes references to the following mandatory JVM options:
- The maximum Permanent Generation memory is set with the JVM option -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m.
- The maximum Java heap size is set with the property wrapper.java.maxmemory=1536. Do not set this property lower than 1024m or 1g.
Run the wrapper to test the installation.
If the test is successful, the following conditions are met:
- YouTrack starts successfully.
- The youtrack.pid file is created in the ~youtrack/standalone/ folder.
- The wrapper.log file is created in the ~youtrack/standalone/logs/ folder.
Add the new startup script to the system startup scripts sequence.

Last modified: 7 March 2019