It takes a book as versatile as its subject to cover Apache Tomcat, the popular open source Servlet and JSP container and high performance web server. Tomcat: The Definitive Guide is a valuable reference for administrators and webmasters, a useful guide for programmers who want to use Tomcat as their web application server during development or in production, and an excellent introduction for anyone interested in Tomcat. Updated for the latest version of Tomcat, this new edition offers a complete guide to installing, configuring, maintaining and securing this servlet container. In fact, with such a wealth of new information, this is essentially a new book rather than a simple revision. You will find details for using Tomcat on all major platforms, including Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, and FreeBSD, along with specifics on Tomcat configuration files, and step-by-step advice for deploying and running web applications. This book offers complete information for:

• Installation and startup procedures

• Configuring Tomcat-including realms, roles, users, servlet sessions, and JNDI resources including JDBC DataSources

• Deploying web applications-individual servlets and JSP pages, and web application archive files

• Tuning Tomcat to measure and improve performance

• Integrating Tomcat with Apache Web Server

• Securing Tomcat to keep online thugs at bay

• Tomcat configuration files-server.xml and web.xml, and more

• Debugging and Troubleshooting-diagnosing problems with Tomcat or a web application

• Compiling your own Tomcat, rather than using the pre-built release

• Running two or more Tomcat servlet containers in parallel

This book also offers an overview of the Tomcat open source project's community resources, including docs, mailing lists, and more. Community interest fueled a strong demand for a Tomcat guide from O'Reilly. The result clearly exceeds expectations.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 21 Ratings

The second edition is now available - 2007-11-03
Reviewer Rating:
All of these other reviews, including some of the popular spotlights, seem to be about the first edition with quite a few people saying they were disappointed. I never read the first edition, so I can't remark on its content. However, this second edition seems to have all the details you need to get up and running, and Tomcat is not an area of my expertise.

In many cases Tomcat is a good choice for a web server, and it is well suited as a high performance production web server. It is also a free and open source servlet and JSP engine. You can use it by itself or with other web servers such as Apache httpd. The book is a user's guide for Tomcat, not a tutorial on how to write web applications. That misunderstanding might have had some readers disappointed. Thus, you don't need to be a programmer to understand the book - it is targeted more at system administrators. The following is a run down of the table of contents:

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Tomcat - explains how to install Tomcat, get it running, and test it to make sure that it's functioning properly.
Section 1.1. Installing Tomcat
Section 1.2. Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Tomcat
Section 1.3. Automatic Startup
Section 1.4. Testing Your Tomcat Installation
Section 1.5. Where Did Tomcat Come From?

Chapter 2. Configuring Tomcat - shows the various places to look for information about your server, how to find out why things aren't working, and gives you some examples of common mistakes in setting up and configuring Tomcat.
Section 2.1. A Word About Using the Apache Web Server
Section 2.2. Relocating the Web Applications Directory
Section 2.3. Changing the Port Number from 8080
Section 2.4. Java VM Configuration
Section 2.5. Changing the JSP Compiler
Section 2.6. Managing Realms, Roles, and Users
Section 2.7. Controlling Sessions
Section 2.8. Accessing JNDI and JDBC Resources
Section 2.9. Servlet Auto-Reloading
Section 2.10. Customized User Directories
Section 2.11. Tomcat Example Applications
Section 2.12. Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
Section 2.13. The Tomcat Admin Webapp

Chapter 3. Deploying Servlet and JSP Web Applications in Tomcat - shows web applications composed of servlets, JSPs, and other files, and several approaches for deploying them. It ends with a discussion of the Manager web application, which can handle some deployment operations for you.
Section 3.1. Hosts
Section 3.2. Layout of a Web Application
Section 3.3. Deploying an Unpacked Webapp Directory
Section 3.4. Deploying a WAR File
Section 3.5. Hot Deployment
Section 3.6. Working with WAR Files
Section 3.7. The Manager Webapp
Section 3.8. Automation with Apache Ant
Section 3.9. Symbolic Links

Chapter 4. Tomcat Performance Tuning - some ideas on performance tuning the underlying Java runtime and the Tomcat server itself so that you service requests more efficiently.
Section 4.1. Measuring Web Server Performance
Section 4.2. External Tuning
Section 4.3. Internal Tuning
Section 4.4. Capacity Planning
Section 4.5. Additional Resources

Chapter 5. Integration with the Apache Web Server - covers the use of Tomcat with Apache httpd and talks about the several ways of making Tomcat thrive in front of or behind an Apache httpd installation.
Section 5.1. The Pros and Cons of Integration
Section 5.2. Installing Apache httpd
Section 5.3. Apache Integration with Tomcat
Section 5.4. Tomcat Serving HTTP over the APR Connector

Chapter 6. Tomcat Security - details about what security is and how to improve it in your Tomcat installation.
Section 6.1. Securing the System
Section 6.2. Multiple Server Security Models
Section 6.3. Using the SecurityManager
Section 6.4. Granting File Permissions
Section 6.5. Setting Up a Tomcat chroot Jail
Section 6.6. Filtering Bad User Input
Section 6.7. Securing Tomcat with SSL

Chapter 7. Configuration - Using realms this chapter shows how to set up an example JDBC domain to talk to a relational database. Realms are lists of users authorized to implement specific sections of your web site. Many of the other configuration changes you can make are discussed too.
Section 7.1. server.xml
Section 7.2. web.xml
Section 7.3. tomcat-users.xml
Section 7.4. catalina.policy
Section 7.5. catalina.properties
Section 7.6. context.xml

Chapter 8. Debugging and Troubleshooting - Ways to look for information that helps discover why things aren't working and gives examples of mistakes that are commonly made but may not be obvious. Also discusses why Tomcat may not shut down gracefully and what to do about this common problem, as well as ways of preventing abnormal shutdowns from recurring.
Section 8.1. Reading Logfiles
Section 8.2. Hunting for Errors
Section 8.3. URLs and the HTTP Conversation
Section 8.4. Debugging with RequestDumperValve
Section 8.5. When Tomcat Won't Shut Down

Chapter 9. Building Tomcat from Source - How to compile your own Tomcat in case you don't want to run a prebuilt binary release of it. Gives step-by-step instructions on how to install the Apache Ant build tool, download all necessary support libraries, and build your Tomcat.
Section 9.1. Installing Apache Ant
Section 9.2. Obtaining the Source
Section 9.3. Downloading Support Libraries
Section 9.4. Building Tomcat

Chapter 10. Tomcat Clustering - Some options for running multiple Tomcat servlet containers in parallel for both fault tolerance and higher scalability, while discussing the pros and cons of various clustering approaches.
Section 10.1. Clustering Terms
Section 10.2. The Communication Sequence of an HTTP Request
Section 10.3. Distributed Java Servlet Containers
Section 10.4. Tomcat 6 Clustering Implementation
Section 10.5. JDBC Request Distribution and Failover
Section 10.6. Additional Resources

Chapter 11. Final Words - Overview of the Tomcat open source project's community resources, including docs, mailing lists, and other web sites.
Section 11.1. Supplemental Resources
Section 11.2. Community

Appendix A. Installing Java
Section A.1. Choosing a Java JDK
Section A.2. Working Around Older GCJ and Kaffe JVMs
Section A.3. Sun Microsystems Java SE JDK
Section A.4. IBM J9 JDK
Section A.5. BEA JRockit JDK
Section A.6. Apple Java SE JDK
Section A.7. Excelsior JET
Section A.8. Apache Harmony JDK

Appendix B. jbchroot.c
Appendix C. BadInputValve.java
Appendix D. BadInputFilter.java
Appendix E. RPM Package Files

Any advanced computer collection strong in Java programming needs this. - 2008-01-06
Reviewer Rating:
Jason Brittain and Ian F. Darwin's TOMCAT: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE, 2ND EDITION has been updated for the latest version of Tomcat and offers a complete guide to installing the servlet container, from basics of installation to using web applications, securing Tomcat from online intruders, troubleshooting and customizing the program. Any advanced computer collection strong in Java programming needs this.

Sadly outdated - 2008-07-29
Reviewer Rating:
As most O'Reilly books, this *was* an outstanding, readable, and indispensable guide for Tomcat development and administration. Unfortunately, it's sadly outdated: this book only covers version 4, while versions 5, 5.5, and 6 introduce many, many innovations and changes, and you don't want to waste time reading material that doesn't apply to the current versions. It is unfortunate that this book is still being for sale. This book has well deserved stars, but those starts are now obsolete. We all Tomcat lovers are looking forward for an updated edition.

Great Tomcat Reference - 2008-03-20
Reviewer Rating:
'Tomcat: The Definitive Guide' is a great resource for all Tomcat programmers and administrators. Jam packed with 450 pages of material over 11 chapters, you will learn everything you need to know. Security, configuration, performance tuning, integration with Apache and building Tomcat from the source, this is a wonderful guide that should be on every Tomcat admin's desk.

**** RECOMMENDED

Tomcat/OReilly - book review - 2008-11-30
Reviewer Rating:
Seller was great.

This is an outstanding book. Great instructions and explanations for installation and configuration on both Windows and Unix.

Check before buying the version of Tomcat you are using and which this book covers asa there are many different editions/versions.

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