Tomcat is not a webserver. It is not built to be a webserver, it is not designed to be a webserver, and as a webserver it does a fairly poor job compared to applications that are specifically designed and built to be webservers, like apache.
That is why you have connectors. In production environments, with a mix of static and dynamic content, you would NOT want to rely on tomcat as your sole webserver. You would want apache to handle the things it is good at handling, and let tomcat handle the things it is good at handling (and specifically designed and built to handle). You would also have scenarios where a site might have some CGI or even PHP, or some server-side includes, some static content, and some servlets and JSPs. What would you do then? How would you make tomcat serve CGI or PHP? How would you put access restrictions on directories if those directories were not within tomcat's scope? Tomcat is a servlet container that can act as a general-purpose webserver if needed. It is not a web server, nor was it designed to be a web server, and it shouldn't be. Apache is a perfectly good webserver...putting effort into getting tomcat to be just as good as apache would be wasted. Creating a connector is easier, and it allows organizations who already have a substantial investment in apache to implement tomcat seamlessly. John Turner [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Heligon Sandra [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 7:51 AM To: 'Tomcat Users List' Subject: RE: Apache/Tomcat Connectors List Thanks a lot for your explanations there are very easy understood and very good. Even so I have questions: - What interest is it to have multiple HttpConnectors ? In the server.xml file we find - non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080 - an SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443 why not I understand SSL or not for security. - a Proxied HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8081 (what is it ?) - a non-SSL HTTP/1.0 Test Connector on port 8082 (what is it ?) - an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 (in order that Tomcat works with Apache but this definition is in the standalone service why ? it is used for the communication between Tomcat and Apache. It would have to be in the Tomcat-Apache service) when we develop a commercial site the consumer doesn't have to know the notion of web server. He only has to enter the expected URI without specifying a port. So I repeat what is the interest to declare all these connectors ? By default only one "process or connector"(it is not really the term) receives the HttpRequest. This depends on the port specified in the URI or in the Http.conf if no port is specified in the URI. -----Original Message----- From: Ralph Einfeldt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 02 August 2002 09:58 To: Tomcat Users List Subject: AW: Apache/Tomcat Connectors List You missunderstood something: - There are two main kinds of ports: - One that is used to talk HTTP. That is the port that is seen be the outer world as the webserver. The default port for a client application (like a browser) for a web server is 80. That means that http://localhost and http://localhost:80 are the same. If the webserver runs on a different port you have to specify it explicitly. Tomcat can run as a stand alone webserver but has a default of 8080 (somtimes 8180) for the HTTPConnector. - One port that is used when tomcat sits behind a webserver (like apache or IIS) to do the communication between apache and tomcat. In this case the webserver talks HTTP and it depends completly on the configuration of apache which port is used to talk HTTP. - If you have apache on port 80 and enabled the HttpConnector on port 8080 you serve through apache if you type http://localhost or http://localhost:80 and serve through tomcat if you type http://localhost:8080 - Which connector is used depends on the configuration in httpd.conf. It is possible that you define different virtual hosts where different hosts can have different connectors. You only have make shure that the port is unique for each connector. (Or to be more precise the combination of IP and port must be unique, it also possible to use the same port, as long as the connectors use different IP's) - Yes if you use tomcat behind apache you can and should disable the HttpConnector. But it's usefull to enable it if you have troubles to find out if the problem lies in the connector or in tomcat. (In fact several people recommend to start with tomcat standalone and only start with the integration if tomcat runs standalone) Ralph Einfeldt Uptime Internet Solution Center GmbH Hamburg, Germany Hosting, Content Management, Java Consulting http://www.uptime-isc.de > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- > Von: Heligon Sandra [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Gesendet: Freitag, 2. August 2002 09:28 > An: 'Tomcat Users List' > Betreff: RE: Apache/Tomcat Connectors List > > > Thanks for your help. > > Could you say if I had well understood ? > > It is the port that we specify in the URI (expl:http//localhost:8080) > that defines what connector is used and so if we used Tomcat > standalone or Tomcat with Apache ? > > What happens if the same connector is defined in the two services > (Tomcat standalone and tomcat-Apache) ? > If I decide to work with Tomcat-Apache, I don't have to declare a > standalone service, is it true ? > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
