Apache Tomcat Administration Training Course

Tomcat Overview 

• A brief introduction to the Apache project
• The Apache Software Foundation
• The Jakarta Project
• Tomcat licensing details
• Overview of 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)
• Integration of JSP, JavaBeans, and JSP Tag Libraries
• MVC frameworks

Installing Tomcat

• Process for downloading and installing Apache Tomcat
• Steps to download and install the JVM, Tomcat, and Ant
• Using the Windows installer
• Java memory management and JVM tuning for enhanced performance

Tomcat Directories

• Tomcat installation paths, directory structure, the bin directory, and common/shared directories
• The conf, logs, server, work, temp, and webapps directories
• The structural layout of web application directories
• Deploying HTML and JSP pages along with web contexts
• JSP pages and the resulting generated code
• Deploying a web application

Configuring Tomcat

• Tomcat configuration methods and techniques
• Tomcat's component-based architecture
• Key elements including <Server>, <Service>, <Connector>, <Engine>, <Host>, <Context>, <Realm>, <Valve>, <Listener>, <Loader>, and <Manager>
• The server.xml file
• Modifying the server.xml configuration

Web Applications

• Web application administration and deployment strategies
• The 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
• A sample web.xml file example
• 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
• Launching the Tomcat Manager and interface overview
• Examining the Manager section
• Applications, deployment tools, 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 the Access Log Valve and Single Sign-on Valve
• Remote Address Filter and Remote Host Filter
• The 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
• 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 use with Tomcat
• Creating a database in MySQL
• Downloading and deploying a JDBC driver
• Defining a DataSource in Tomcat and manual data source configuration
• Modifying the deployment descriptor
• Detecting and closing leaked database connections

Tomcat Security

• Security considerations and configuration for Tomcat
• General security best practices
• File system security and filesystem recommendations
• The Java Security Manager
• Granting permissions to Java applications and managing Java permissions
• Creating and adding custom policies
• Enabling the Java Security Manager
• Security Manager tips and security realms
• Exploring different realm types 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 within applications

Connecting

• Connecting Tomcat to Apache
• An overview of Connectors
• HTTP Connectors
• Benefits of using a dedicated 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 configuration
• Load balancing applications across multiple Tomcat instances
• Common issues in load balancing
• Server affinity through sticky sessions
• Shared session storage
• Session replication 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 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
• Configuring the HTTP Request
• Adding a Report Listener
• Executing the test plan
• Reviewing the results