Apache Tomcat Administration Training Course

Tomcat Overview 

• 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 overview of Servlets
• Servlet advantages and lifecycle management
• JavaServer Pages (JSP)
• JSP, JavaBeans, and JSP Tag Libraries
• MVC frameworks

Installing Tomcat

• Download and installation of Apache Tomcat
• Installing the JVM, Tomcat, and Ant
• Utilizing the Windows installer
• Java memory management and JVM performance tuning

Tomcat Directories

• Tomcat installation paths, directory structure, the bin directory, and common/shared directories
• Details on the conf, logs, server, work, temp, and webapps directories
• Analysis of the web application directory structure
• Deploying HTML and JSP pages and understanding web context
• JSP pages and generated code
• Process for deploying a web application

ConfiguringTomcat

• Tomcat configuration techniques and methodologies
• Tomcat's component architecture
• Examination of key elements: <Server>, <Service>, <Connector>, <Engine>, <Host>, <Context>, <Realm>, <Valve>, <Listener>, <Loader>, and <Manager>
• The server.xml file
• Methods for modifying server.xml

Web Applications

• Web application administration and deployment workflows
• Directory structure of a web application
• 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
• Review of a sample web.xml file
• Deploying a web application
• 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 and exploring the Tomcat Manager interface
• Review of the Manager section
• Applications, Deploy, and Server Information views
• Creating a WAR file
• Lab 4: Deploying a WAR file
• Java Management Extensions (JMX) on Tomcat
• Tomcat integration with Ant

Advanced Features

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

JDBC Connectivity

• Configuring Tomcat for database connectivity
• Overview of JDBC
• JDBC drivers
• Database connections and connection pooling
• Download and installation of MySQL
• Configuring MySQL for Tomcat
• Creating a database in MySQL
• Downloading and deploying a JDBC driver
• Defining a DataSource in Tomcat, including manual definition
• Modifying the deployment descriptor
• Detecting and closing leaked database connections

Tomcat Security

• Security configuration and considerations for Tomcat
• General security principles
• File system security and best practices
• The Java Security Manager
• Granting permissions to Java applications and reviewing Java permissions
• Creating and implementing 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 mechanisms
• FORM-based authentication
• Configuring Tomcat for SSL
• Requiring SSL within applications

Connecting

• Connecting Tomcat to Apache
• Examining connectors
• HTTP connectors
• Advantages 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
• Common issues with load balancing
• Server affinity using sticky sessions
• Shared session storage
• Replicated sessions via Tomcat clustering
• Shared hosting
• Tomcat virtual hosting
• Configuring Tomcat for virtual hosting as a stand-alone server
• Configuring Tomcat for virtual hosting using jk2 or webapp
• Configuring Tomcat as Stand-alone
• Configuring Tomcat with AJP
• Assigning a separate JVM for each host

Load Testing

• The JMeter application
• Performing load testing with 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
• Viewing and analyzing results