Tomcat On Apache – Jsp Platform

By Author: Angela Jones
Total Articles: 7
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JavaServer Pages and Java Servlet are two critical components of Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE). A Servlet is a small java code that present in web server, which interact with the web-client using a request-response paradigm intern generates dynamic content. JavaServer Pages moves next level of web technology which uses the template data (usually HTML or XML), scripting languages, custom elements and server-side Java objects to return dynamic content to web-client.

JSP embeds the Java program directly within HTML or XML whereas Servlets written as Web Server extension. The JSP Java code within HTML will be converted directly into a servlet. Servlet request is sent to back-end application systems, and dynamically render the results as HTML client interfaces. Best part of Sevlets is that they even keep track of browser’s session information, so that you do not have to repeat input the information.

Apache and its modules is written in C, while Tomcat is written in Java, so how those two different languages work together in executing individual functionality. To integrate the Tomcat server with Apache HTTP server ...
... mod_jk module plays a role in interfacing Tomcat on Apache with few small steps to configure these servers.

When Tomcat executes it creates a number of “worker” processes responsible for executing JSP/Servlets. So here the role of mod_jk comes in place, it communicates with the workers created by Tomcat through network connection. But the most of the part (core) execution is handled through Apache to Tomcat and back again.

The two main advantages on this method are flexibility and stability. Best example in showing flexibility in mod_jk modules is if you run Apache on one physical server but the Tomcat’s actual servlet and JSP on another machine, you can. This concept will provide an additional level of security, with Tomcat Server behind Firewall accessible only to Apache Server. Another advantage is Stability, if the failure in Tomcat caused it to fail completely, which intern won’t make your Apache unusable, just your servlets and JSP pages.

Tomcat on Apache installation step is very easy, only prerequisite is Java. Once installed make sure you set your JAVA_HOME variable to point to Java installation. Once installed, you can startup and shutdown Tomcat using scripts within bin directory startup (Windows) or startup (UNIX). Tomcat runs on 8080 by default, to change this setting, edit in conf/server.xml in the Tomcat directory. Shutdown scripts are provided in the bin directory if you want to shutdown your Tomcat.