Apache Tomcat Administration Training Course

Tomcat Overview 

• A brief introduction to Apache
• The Apache Software Foundation
• The Jakarta Project
• Tomcat Licensing Terms
• 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

• Downloading and Installing Apache Tomcat
• Installing a JVM, downloading Tomcat, and setting up Ant
• Using the Windows installer
• Java memory management and JVM performance tuning

Tomcat Directories

• Tomcat installation paths, directory structure, the bin folder, and common/shared directories
• The conf, logs, server, work, temp, and webapps directories
• The structure of the Web Application directory
• Deploying HTML and JSP pages and web contexts
• JSP pages and the generated source code
• Deploying a Web Application

Configuring Tomcat

• Tomcat configuration techniques
• Tomcat’s Component Architecture
• Key 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 a web app
• 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
• 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
• Overview of the Manager section
• Applications, deployment options, 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

• Leveraging advanced Tomcat features
• Valves, including Access Log and Single Sign-on Valves
• Remote Address and Remote Host Filters
• The Request Dumper Valve
• Configuring JNDI Resources
• JNDI: Java Naming and Directory Interface, and defining JNDI resources
• The <environment></environment> and <resource></resource> elements
• Setting up a JavaMail Session
• Global Resources

JDBC Connectivity

• Configuring Tomcat for database connectivity
• An overview of JDBC
• JDBC Drivers
• Database connections 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 creation
• Modifying the Deployment Descriptor
• Detecting and closing leaked database connections

Tomcat Security

• Security configurations in Tomcat
• Key security considerations
• File system security and recommendations
• The Java Security Manager
• Granting permissions to Java applications and reviewing Java Permissions
• Creating and adding custom policies
• Enabling the Java Security Manager
• Security Manager best practices and Security Realms
• Types of Realms and configuring a Realm
• Users and Roles (authentication and authorization)
• Creating a Data Source Realm
• Password protection mechanisms
• FORM-based authentication
• Configuring Tomcat for SSL
• Requiring SSL in applications

Connecting

• Connecting Tomcat to Apache
• An overview of Connectors
• 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
• Common issues with load balancing
• Server affinity through sticky sessions
• Shared session storage
• Replicated sessions using 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 a Stand-alone server
• Configuring Tomcat with AJP
• Assigning a separate JVM for each host

Load Testing

• The JMeter Application
• Conducting load tests with JMeter
• Installing and running JMeter
• Creating a Test Plan
• Configuring the Thread Group and adding tasks
• Setting up the HTTP Request
• Adding a Report Listener
• Executing the Test Plan
• Analyzing the results