Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat is the most popular java application server and is widely used run java code in production. If you are developing or working with java web applications delivered as a Web aplication ARchive (WAR) you can deploy them in production using apache tomcat. Java based geospatial applications such as Geoserver and data collection platforms such as OpenDataKit are most easily deployed using tomcat.

Goals/Objectives/Outcomes

• Learn how to install and configure Tomcat on your local machine or in a virtual machine and configure the port it runs on
• Learn the commands to start, stop and restart Tomcat
• Understand how to deploy war applications into Tomcat
• Understand how to configure tomcat for production including tuning memory settings and
• Understand how to inspect the logs for tomcat and the deployed applications
• Understand how to configure another webserver (apache or nginx) to proxy an application deployed in Tomcat

Reference Material

• http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-3.2-doc/tomcat-apache-howto.html
• http://wiki.apache.org/tomcat/HowTo
• http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/webserver_howto/apache.html
• http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/howto/Tomcat_HowTo.html
• http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/howto/ApachePlusTomcat_HowTo.html
• http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/howto/Tomcat_More.html

Measures of Success

• Participant has installed Tomcat and deployed an application in it
• Participant has configured a proxy for a tomcat application in a webserver
• Participant has demonstrated the ability to inspect and tail the tomcat logs to find errors
• Participant has demonstrated the ability to create a java web application using servlets or jsp and package and deploy it into tomcat for production.