How to start tomcat before running integration test?

Question

i am trying to run integration test in separate maven profile, so i need to do it in following steps:

1. Run tomcat server.
2. Run Selenium server.
3. Run integration tests.

i run the integration test as follows:

mvn install -Pit

but what happens is that integration test runs first before server starts, which will cause test to fail, following is my configuration:

<profile>
          <id>it</id>
          <build>
           <plugins>


        <plugin>

            <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
            <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.4</version>
            <configuration>

                <wait>false</wait> 
                <container>
                 <containerId>tomcat7x</containerId>
                 <home>${env.CATALINA_HOME}</home>  
                 <timeout>300000</timeout>                  
                </container>

                <configuration>
                 <type>standalone</type>
                 <home>target/tomcat7x</home> 
                 <properties>
                  <cargo.jvmargs>-XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled</cargo.jvmargs>
                </properties> 
                </configuration>



            </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                    <id>start-container</id>
                    <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>start</goal>
                            <goal>deploy</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                    <id>stop-container</id>
                    <phase>post-integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>stop</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
          </plugin> 



        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-maven-plugin</artifactId>
              <executions>
                    <execution>
                    <id>start</id>
                    <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>start-server</goal>
                        </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <background>true</background>
                        <logOutput>true</logOutput>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>

                <execution>
                <id>stop</id>
                <phase>post-integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>stop-server</goal>
                        </goals>
                </execution> 
            </executions>
    </plugin>


             <plugin>

                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.8</version>

                <configuration>
                    <junitArtifactName>
                    org.junit:com.springsource.org.junit
                    </junitArtifactName>
                    <excludes>

                        <exclude>**/unit/*Test.java</exclude>
                    </excludes>
                </configuration>


                <executions>
                    <execution>

                    <id>integration-tests</id>
                    <phase>integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>test</goal>
                        </goals>
                    <configuration>
                    <skip>false</skip>
                    <excludes>
                        <exclude>none</exclude>
                    </excludes>

                    <includes>
                       <include>**/integration/*Test.java</include>
                    </includes>
                    </configuration>
                    </execution>
            </executions>

                </plugin>
              </plugins>
            </build>

            <activation>
              <property>
                <name>it</name>
              </property>
            </activation>

        </profile>

please advise what's wrong with my configuration.

UPDATE: Maven Logs

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building My APP
[INFO]    task-segment: [install]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] [jaxws:wsimport {execution: default}]
[debug] execute contextualize
[INFO] [resources:resources {execution: default-resources}]
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] Copying 7 resources
[INFO] [compiler:compile {execution: default-compile}]
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[debug] execute contextualize
[INFO] [resources:testResources {execution: default-testResources}]
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] Copying 5 resources
[INFO] [compiler:testCompile {execution: default-testCompile}]
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] [surefire:test {execution: default-test}]
[INFO] Surefire report directory: C:\Workspace\MyAPP\target\surefire-reports

-------------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running integration.MyTest

UPDATE3:

it worked fine after removing replacing the old surefire plugin with the following:

<plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>

                    <execution>
                        <id>default-test</id>                                
                        <configuration>
                            <skipTests>true</skipTests>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>

                    <execution>
                        <id>surefire-it</id>
                        <phase>integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>test</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <includes>
                                <include>**/integration/*Test.java</include>
                            </includes>
                            <skipTests>false</skipTests>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <argLine>-Xms256M -Xmx768M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M</argLine>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

BUT there's a problem with cargo plugin, is that it deploys the war file then runs the integration test, and before invoking any test method it un-deploys the war file ??

Answer 1

Based on the log, it is evident that the failure is because surefire is running the integration test in the test phase and not integration-test phase.

This link says, how to use surefire only for integration testing.

This documentation gives more insights into best practices of maven and integration testing.