TLDR;  After beating my head against my monitor trying to figure out why ColdFusion wouldn’t configure a web server on install under Ubuntu and Apache, I learned you need to run the wsconfig after the fact, and the commands you need (assuming you installed in the default location) are:

cd /opt/coldfusion2018/cfusion/runtime/bin/
./wsconfig -ws Apache -dir /etc/apache2/ -v

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Alright… I’m tired of waiting for someone to come up with a CF 2018 AWS instance.  I really want to play with the latest and greatest version of ColdFusion but I want to do it in an environment that closely resembles my production server.  I’m going to spin up a Parallels VM running Ubuntu 16.04 and Apache and install CF 2018 to play around with locally.

I spin up a new VM, and install the OS.  Patch it, and install Apache.  Now I’m ready for the main event.

Step 1 – Download the Linux installer for ColdFusion 2018

For me, this was actually very much a pain.  To download the development version of CF 2018, you need to log into adobe.com and fill out a demographic form.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Adobe wanting to know who is downloading trials of their enterprise software, but I’m sitting on a virtual machine that is command line only.  I don’t have a web interface to be able to fill out the form and get the installer.  There may be another way to do this, and I’m sure someone in the comments will speak up, but I opted to download the installer on my main computer, then upload it to Amazon S3, then download it directly to the VM.

Look… I didn’t say this was the right way to get things done… it’s just a way to get things done.  Don’t judge me.

Step 2 – Install ColdFusion 2018

Once that was done, I changed the permissions on the file by executing:

chmod 777 ColdFusion_2018_WWEJ_linux64.bin.

Next, I fired up the installer:

./ColdFusion_2018_WWEJ_linux64.bin

I fired through he installer questions, like I have many times before.  You may have different answers to these, but these are my responses to the typical install questions.  Don’t take it as what you should do.

• Press enter to continue.
• Press enter again.
• Press enter 33 times to make it past the EULA.
• Press Y to accept.
• 3 for developer edition.  Enter.
• Server installation.  Enter.
• 3 for Development profile.  Enter.
• Enter to accept all the options.
• Access add on services remotely?  No.
• Enter to install in the default location.
• Enter to install add on services in the default location.
• Enter for the host name.
• Skip Open Office.
• Put in the password.  Repeat it.
• Disable RDS.
• Automatically check for server updates.

But wait… where was the web server connector options screens?  Every version of ColdFusion I’ve installed on Linux has always had a section where the web server options were selected and you could create a connector for Apache.  This time?  Nothing in the installer prompted for it.

Step 3 – Realize that the web server doesn’t get configured at installation.  You need to use the built in web server or run wsconfig after the fact.

This took me a while to figure out.  I knew the web server config tool was located at /opt/coldfusion2018/cfusion/runtime/bin/wsconfig, but navigating to that directory and typing ./wsconfig didn’t bring up anything.  I needed additional arguments.  Here’s the syntax on connecting CF2018 to Apache under Ubuntu.

./wsconfig -ws Apache -dir /etc/apache2/ -v

Trial and error and google and thoroughly reading documentation (seriously… what I needed is about 2/3 down the page under “Configuring Apache web server in UNIX”) got me through.  Not as easy as it could have been… but that’s why I’m blogging this.  Hopefully someone finds this and doesn’t have to stumble through it like a drunken idiot like I did.