BCS Grails On Headless Ubuntu Server

I have an LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) Ubuntu stack functioning as version 14.04 headless server. To support Grails I have installed JDK (Java Development Kit) 8, Tomcat 8 (application server for Grails)  and a recent version of MYSQL. Below is the Grails BuildConfig.groovy that depicts the minimal options to support the defined environment.
I used Gvm (Groovy Manager) to install the latest version of Grails 2.4.4 and I am satisfied with the install and the results it produces.
[codesyntax lang=”groovy”]

grails.servlet.version = "3.0" // Change depending on target container compliance (2.5 or 3.0)
grails.project.class.dir = "target/classes"
grails.project.test.class.dir = "target/test-classes"
grails.project.test.reports.dir = "target/test-reports"
grails.project.work.dir = "target/work"
grails.project.target.level = 1.6
grails.project.source.level = 1.6
//grails.project.war.file = "target/${appName}-${appVersion}.war"
grails.project.fork = [
    // configure settings for compilation JVM, note that if you alter the Groovy version forked compilation is required
    //  compile: [maxMemory: 256, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, daemon:true],
    // configure settings for the test-app JVM, uses the daemon by default
    test: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, daemon:true],
    // configure settings for the run-app JVM
    run: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, forkReserve:false],
    // configure settings for the run-war JVM
    war: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, forkReserve:false],
    // configure settings for the Console UI JVM
    console: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256]
]
grails.project.dependency.resolver = "maven" // or ivy
grails.project.dependency.resolution = {
    // inherit Grails' default dependencies
    inherits("global") {
        // specify dependency exclusions here; for example, uncomment this to disable ehcache:
        // excludes 'ehcache'
    }
    log "error" // log level of Ivy resolver, either 'error', 'warn', 'info', 'debug' or 'verbose'
    checksums true // Whether to verify checksums on resolve
    legacyResolve false // whether to do a secondary resolve on plugin installation, not advised and here for backwards compatibility
    repositories {
        inherits true // Whether to inherit repository definitions from plugins
        grailsPlugins()
        grailsHome()
        mavenLocal()
        grailsCentral()
        mavenCentral()
        // uncomment these (or add new ones) to enable remote dependency resolution from public Maven repositories
        //mavenRepo "http://repository.codehaus.org"
        //mavenRepo "http://download.java.net/maven/2/"
        //mavenRepo "http://repository.jboss.com/maven2/"
    }
    dependencies {
        // specify dependencies here under either 'build', 'compile', 'runtime', 'test' or 'provided' scopes e.g.
        runtime 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:5.1.34'
        // runtime 'org.postgresql:postgresql:9.3-1101-jdbc41'
        test "org.grails:grails-datastore-test-support:1.0.2-grails-2.4"
    }
    plugins {
        // plugins for the build system only
        build ":tomcat:8.0.20"
        // plugins for the compile step
        compile ":scaffolding:2.1.2"
        compile ':cache:1.1.8'
        compile ":asset-pipeline:1.9.9"
        // plugins needed at runtime but not for compilation
        runtime ":hibernate4:4.3.6.1" // or ":hibernate:3.6.10.18"
        runtime ":database-migration:1.4.0"
        runtime ":jquery:1.11.1"
        // Uncomment these to enable additional asset-pipeline capabilities
        //compile ":sass-asset-pipeline:1.9.0"
        //compile ":less-asset-pipeline:1.10.0"
        //compile ":coffee-asset-pipeline:1.8.0"
        //compile ":handlebars-asset-pipeline:1.3.0.3"
    }
}

[/codesyntax]
Particularly notice the run time  MYSQL Java connector 5.1.34.  Many problems are eliminated by using the most up to date version of the tools available to build the stack.
Second notice the plugin for Tomcat has been updated to use the  8.0.20 version of the Tomcat plugin.  This coincides with the Tomcat server version 8 as configured on the Ubuntu LAMP server.
Care should be taken to make sure the proper versions are being utilized before deployment of your application.
Mr. Arch Brooks, Software Engineer, Brooks Computing Systems, LLC authored this article.