Installing Red5 by using the .war file is easy on all OS‘es once you have Java and Tomcat running. On a Windows system it is especially easy because the Java and Tomcat Setups create all necessary environment variables and registry entries. However, there are two little problems:

1. You better not use the default “C:\Program Files\...” installation paths. Apart from problems with spaces in pathnames, you probably don’t want your websites located somewhere deep in “C:\Program Files\ ...” In order to change the default installation path, you actually must read the messages in the Setup dialogs before clicking “Next”. Now that is what I would call a tough job .
2. Even worse. If you want to upgrade from an older version of Java and/or Tomcat, you are in trouble. Best approach is to backup the webapps folder in Tomcat, and remove Tomcat and Java (in that order). Then check the environment variables and remove everything that is left pointing to Java or Tomcat, and then reinstall the newer versions of Java and Tomcat (in that order, see below).

But life is simple if you have a fresh system. Follow the instructions below.

• Download Java 1.6 SE (java.sun.com)
• Download Tomcat 5.5 (tomcat.apache.org) (I did not try 6.0, it uses a different java compiler)
• Download the Red5.war for Java6. Just the war. No installer. Rename the war to red5.war

• Create a directory without spaces in its name. In this example I will use “C:\jbin”
• Install Java. The setup consists of two separate setups. Install the Java JDK in “C:\jbin\jdk1.6” You can install the JRE (runtime) in its default location (“C:\Program Files\...”)
• Install Tomcat in “C:\jbin\tomcat5.5” (be sure to remove the space between Tomcat and 5.5 from the default option) If Tomcat asks for a Java runtime, point it to “C:\jbin\jdk1.6”.
• Check your installation by entering “http:\\localhost:8080” in your browser. The Tomcat home page should appear. Select “JSP Examples” and try one of the “JSP 2.0” examples. If this works without errors, you have a correct Java/Tomcat installation and you are almost finished.

• Copy the red5.war file to “C:\jbin\tomcat5.5\webapps”
• This copy operation is the complete installation process!
• Tomcat will create a folder red5 and will unzip the war file into it. You can follow this in the TaskManager. (will have 100% CPU load for a minute) or by listening to your hard disk. When your hard disk becomes quiet and CPU load drops to a normal level, try “http://localhost:8080/red5”

Problems may arise when e.g. your copy process to the webapps folder is slow:

• If Tomcat does not unpack the .war file at all, or does not unpack it completely(*): Open the “Services” panel, stop Tomcat, remove the red5 folder (not the war), restart Tomcat. (*)The red5 war file is about 30Mb. The red5 folder created by Tomcat should be about 35 Mb.
• If all options fail, try to unpack the war file manually with e.g. WinRar. The archive should contain a folder WEB-INF at the root level, with a file web.xml in it.