Apache Tomcat Administration Training Course

Tomcat Overview 

• Brief introduction to Apache
• The Apache Software Foundation
• The Jakarta Project
• Tomcat Licensing
• J2EE Technologies
• Java Web Development
• Servlet/JSP Containers

Java Web Applications

• Introduction to Servlets
• Benefits of Servlets and their Lifecycle
• JavaServer Pages (JSP)
• JSP, JavaBeans, and JSP Tag Libraries
• MVC frameworks

Installing Tomcat

• Downloading and installing Apache Tomcat
• Installing a JVM, Tomcat, and Ant
• Using the Windows installer
• Java memory management and tuning the JVM for optimal performance

Tomcat Directories

• Tomcat installation directories, directory structure, the bin directory, and common/shared directories
• The conf, logs, server, work, temp, and webapps directories
• Understanding the web application directory structure
• Deploying HTML and JSP pages and web contexts
• JSP pages and generated code
• Deploying a web application

ConfiguringTomcat

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

Web Applications

• Web application administration and deployment
• Directory structure of a web app
• The web.xml configuration file
• Deployment descriptors
• The <web-app></web-app> element
• Mapping a Servlet to a URL
• The <resource-ref></resource-ref> element
• The <env-entry></env-entry> element
• The <ejb-ref></ejb-ref> element
• 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 using the Tomcat Manager
• Starting the Tomcat Manager and an overview of its interface
• Exploring the Manager section
• Applications, Deployment, and Server Information
• Creating a WAR file
• Lab 4: Deploying a WAR file
• Java Management Extensions (JMX) in Tomcat
• Integrating Tomcat with Ant

Advanced Features

• Utilizing 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> and <resource></resource> elements
• Configuring a JavaMail session
• Global resources

JDBC Connectivity

• Configuring Tomcat to connect to a database
• Introduction to JDBC
• JDBC Drivers
• Connecting to a database and managing connection pools
• 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 definition
• Modifying the deployment descriptor
• Detecting and closing leaked database connections

Tomcat Security

• Security considerations and configuration for Tomcat
• General security considerations
• File system security and recommendations
• The Java Security Manager
• Granting permissions to Java apps and reviewing Java permissions
• Creating and adding custom policies
• Enabling the Java Security Manager
• Security Manager tips and security realms
• Different 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
• Requiring SSL in applications

Connecting

• Connecting Tomcat to Apache
• Overview of 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 via 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
• Enabling virtual hosting in Tomcat using jk2 or webapp
• Configuring Tomcat as Stand-alone
• Configuring Tomcat with AJP
• 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 the HTTP Request
• Adding a Report Listener
• Running the Test Plan
• Reviewing the results