[users@httpd] Diff b/w httpd and tomcat

[Khawar Wahab <kw...@gmail.com>]

Need some help. I want to run a web-server on my home network and
experiment with different web technologies. I'm confused whether
Apache httpd is the server or tomcat is? I have hosted a JSP based
site using tomcat.
If tomcat is a web-server, why httpd?
if both are servers what's the diff? which is better? help!!!

Thanks
K

Re: [users@httpd] Diff b/w httpd and tomcat

[alexlarra <al...@yahoo.com>]

Khawar Wahab wrote:
> Need some help. I want to run a web-server on my home network and
> experiment with different web technologies. I'm confused whether
> Apache httpd is the server or tomcat is? I have hosted a JSP based
> site using tomcat.
> If tomcat is a web-server, why httpd?
> if both are servers what's the diff? which is better? help!!!
> 
> Thanks
> K

The diff is that Apache web-server is a webserver mainly for displaying 
static contents and dynamic contents using CGI scripts by default. You 
can use Apache also for other dynamic contents but you have to put 
support for it. e.g adding some "so" modules and doing some 
configuration changes in the httpd.conf file. On the other hand Tomcat 
is also some kind of web-server but I always refer to it as an 
Application Server instead. As far as I know Apache web-server is faster 
at serving static contents while Tomcat is faster at serving dynamic 
ones. The best idea of using a web-server for serving both static and 
dynamic contents is using a kind of a mixture of both (Apache & Tomcat). 
In such a case you have to integrate Tomcat with Apache web-server.

I hope it helps.

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Re: [users@httpd] Diff b/w httpd and tomcat

[Krist van Besien <kr...@gmail.com>]

On 3/18/06, Khawar Wahab <kw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Need some help. I want to run a web-server on my home network and
> experiment with different web technologies. I'm confused whether
> Apache httpd is the server or tomcat is? I have hosted a JSP based
> site using tomcat.
> If tomcat is a web-server, why httpd?
> if both are servers what's the diff? which is better? help!!!

Tomcat is a Java Application server, that can also serve as a web
server. The webserver functionality in Tomcat is not as full featured
as offered by apache.

There is nothing to stop you to host the static part of you website in
Tomca. However I would not do this in a production environment for
several reasons:
- Security is better. Running an apache on port 80 as un unpriviliged
user is a lot easier than doing the same with Tomcat.
- Apache performs way better when serving static content.

A usual setup is to have apache as the "front end" web server, runnign
on port 80 and hosting static content, forwarding URLs for dynamic
content to the Tomcat server. Have a look on the Tomcat site on how to
do this.

Krist

--
krist.vanbesien@gmail.com
Solothurn, Switzerland

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