Apache Tomcat Administration Training Course

Tomcat Overview 

• Introduction to Apache
• The Apache Software Foundation
• The Jakarta Project
• Tomcat Licensing Details
• J2EE Technologies
• Java Web Development Principles
• Servlet and JSP Containers

Java Web Applications

• Overview of 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
• Acquiring and installing a JVM, Tomcat, and Ant
• Using the Windows installer
• Java memory management and optimizing the JVM for performance

Tomcat Directories

• Tomcat installation paths, directory structure, the bin directory, and common/shared directories
• The 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 managing web contexts
• JSP pages and their generated code
• Deploying a web application

Configuring Tomcat

• Tomcat configuration methods and 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 servlets to URLs
• 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
• Optimizing default JSP and static-content servlets

Tomcat Manager

• Deploying and managing web applications via the Tomcat Manager
• Launching the Tomcat Manager and understanding its interface
• Exploring the Manager section
• Applications, deployment options, and server information
• 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, 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 to connect to a database
• JDBC overview
• JDBC drivers
• Database connections and connection pools
• Downloading and installing MySQL
• Configuring MySQL for Tomcat
• Creating a database in MySQL
• Downloading and deploying a JDBC driver
• Defining a data source in Tomcat, including manual definition
• Modifying the deployment descriptor
• Detecting and closing leaked database connections

Tomcat Security

• Security considerations and configuration in Tomcat
• Security best practices
• File system security and filesystem recommendations
• The 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
• Reviewing 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
• Enforcing SSL in applications

Connecting

• Connecting Tomcat to Apache
• Understanding 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 load balancing issues
• Server affinity via sticky sessions
• Shared session storage
• Replicated sessions via Tomcat clustering
• Shared hosting
• Tomcat virtual hosting
• Configuring Tomcat to enable virtual hosting as a standalone server
• Configuring Tomcat to enable virtual hosting using jk2 or webapp.
• Configuring Tomcat as standalone
• Configuring Tomcat with AJP
• Dedicated JVM for each host

Load Testing

• JMeter application overview
• 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
• Executing the test plan
• Viewing the results