Apache Tomcat Administration Training Course

Tomcat Overview 

• A brief introduction to Apache
• The Apache Software Foundation
• The Jakarta Project
• Tomcat licensing models
• J2EE technologies
• Java web development fundamentals
• Servlet and JSP containers

Java Web Applications

• An introduction to Servlets
• Benefits of Servlets and their lifecycle
• JavaServer Pages (JSP)
• JSP, JavaBeans, and JSP Tag Libraries
• MVC frameworks

Installing Tomcat

• Methods for downloading and installing Apache Tomcat
• Installing the JVM, Tomcat, and Ant
• Using the Windows installer
• Java memory management and JVM tuning for performance

Tomcat Directories

• Tomcat installation paths, directory layout, bin directory, and common/shared directories
• conf directory, logs directory, server directory, work directory, temp directory, and webapps directory
• Structure of the web application directory
• Deploying HTML and JSP pages and web contexts
• JSP pages and generated code
• Deployment of web applications

Configuring Tomcat

• Tomcat configuration techniques
• Tomcat’s component architecture
• Understanding elements: <Server>, <Service>, <Connector>, <Engine>, <Host>, <Context>, <Realm>, <Valve>, <Listener>, <Loader>, and <Manager>
• The server.xml file
• Modifying server.xml

Web Applications

• Web application administration and deployment
• Directory structure for web apps
• The web.xml configuration file
• Deployment descriptors
• The <web-app></web-app> element
• Mapping Servlets to URLs
• The <resource-ref></resource-ref> element
• The <env-entry></env-entry> element
• The <ejb-ref></ejb-ref> element
• Example web.xml file
• Deploying web applications
• Tomcat’s default conf/web.xml file
• Tuning default JSP and static-content servlets

Tomcat Manager

• Deploying and managing web applications via the Tomcat Manager
• Starting the Tomcat Manager and interface overview
• Manager section analysis
• Applications, Deployment, and Server Information
• Creating a WAR file
• Lab 4: Deploying a WAR File
• Java Management Extensions (JMX) in Tomcat
• Tomcat integration with Ant

Advanced Features

• Leveraging advanced Tomcat features
• Valves: Access Log Valve and Single Sign-on Valve
• Remote Address Filter and Remote Host Filter
• Request Dumper Valve
• Configuring JNDI resources
• JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) and defining JNDI resources
• The <environment></environment> element and the <resource></resource> element
• Configuring a JavaMail Session
• Global resources

JDBC Connectivity

• Configuring Tomcat for database connections
• JDBC overview
• JDBC drivers
• Database connectivity and connection pooling
• Downloading and installing MySQL
• Configuring MySQL for Tomcat
• Creating a database in MySQL
• Downloading and deploying a JDBC driver
• Defining a DataSource in Tomcat and manual data source configuration
• Modifying deployment descriptors
• Detecting and closing leaked database connections

Tomcat Security

• Security configurations in Tomcat
• Security considerations
• File system security and filesystem recommendations
• Java Security Manager
• Granting permissions to Java apps and understanding Java permissions
• Creating and adding custom policies
• Enabling the Java Security Manager
• Security Manager tips and Security Realms
• Types of Realms and realm configuration
• Users and roles (authentication and authorization)
• Creating a Data Source Realm
• Password protection
• FORM-based authentication
• Configuring Tomcat for SSL
• Making SSL mandatory in applications

Connecting

• Connecting Tomcat to Apache
• Connector overview
• HTTP Connectors
• Benefits of using a web server
• Connector protocols
• Configuring an AJP Connector
• Downloading mod_jk
• Creating the mod_jk.conf file
• Starting Tomcat
• Creating a Worker
• Configuring httpd.conf
• Testing the setup
• Load balancing applications across multiple Tomcat instances
• Load balancing challenges
• Server affinity via sticky sessions
• Shared session storage
• Replicated sessions via Tomcat clustering
• Shared Hosting
• Tomcat Virtual Hosting
• Enabling virtual hosting for Tomcat as a stand-alone server
• Enabling virtual hosting using jk2 or webapp
• Configuring Tomcat as Stand-alone
• Configuring Tomcat with AJP
• Separate JVM for each host

Load Testing

• The JMeter application
• Load testing using JMeter
• Installing and running JMeter
• Creating a test plan
• Configuring the Thread Group and adding tasks
• Configuring HTTP requests
• Adding a Report Listener
• Executing the test plan
• Reviewing results