Tomcat and Apache

[Gustavo Mejia <gm...@infotec.com.mx>]

Hi !
Hello everybody,

I have an other newbie and maybe dumb question, I was reading that
Tomcat also has a Webserver functionality, is it right ?? I think it is
, well, why I is good to install it on Apache server, which is the main
advantage ? Why not just Tomcat ?

Thanks a lot for all your support !


--
Gustavo Mejía Mora
INFOTEC
Tel: 5624 28 00
Ext: 253

Re: Tomcat and Apache

["Pier P. Fumagalli" <pi...@betaversion.org>]

Gustavo Mejia at gmejia@infotec.com.mx wrote:

> Hi !
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I have an other newbie and maybe dumb question, I was reading that
> Tomcat also has a Webserver functionality, is it right ?? I think it is
> , well, why I is good to install it on Apache server, which is the main
> advantage ? Why not just Tomcat ?
> 
> Thanks a lot for all your support !

Ok, I'll try to sum up all today's questions in one big reply :)

Yes, Tomcat CAN be used in stand-alone mode, meaning YOU DON'T NEED TO HAVE
THE APACHE WEB SERVER to make it work. Both versions, 3.x and 4.0 include an
HTTP protocol handler, so, it can be used as a web-server per se... It will
server all your static HTML pages, and comes packaged with a shitload of
features (like, for Tomcat 4.0, you can handle HTTP/1.1 requests, it
contains a WebDAV web-application, it can run on port 80 without being root
on UNIX systems, and so on, the list continues for pages)

Why, then, do you want to use Apache TOGHETHER with Tomcat? Simple: Apache
comes already with a bunch of systems, and in some environments (such as
MacOS/X) it's tight integrated with the OS. It's fast, _really_ fast (it's
written in C, so performances are outstanding) and it has a lot of features
that are not available in Tomcat stand alone (like, you want to use MOD_PERL
modules - not CGIs, CGIs are supported in TC4.0 stand-alone too, or PHP).

To "integrate" Apache and Tomcat, you will need a "dual" installation: You
have to have Tomcat up and running in stand-alone mode, you have to have
your Apache up and running as a web-server, and you need to add a new module
within your Apache web-server to make them talk together. Modules doing this
job are:

- mod-jserv (coming from the old Jserv days, no troubles, no fuzz, it
WORKS!)
- mod-jk (reliable, with a bunch of features, but I never sorted out how to
install it and debug it - ok, I'm dumb)
- mod-webaap (new one, only available for Tomcat 4.0, currently in ALPHA,
available only for _real_ hackers, please send me bug reports so I can
improve it)

So, my suggestion is: do you need a simple web server for low/medium static
pages hits? Use Tomcat in stand alone mode (I'd make it go for up to 20/30
requests/second)... Need something more (MOD_PERL, PHP) toghether with
servlets OR you have a shitload of static-pages requests (up to 100
requests/second), use Apache AND Tomcat on a single machine.

For _really_ high loads (more than 100/sec) then you're screwed :) At this
point you need to start thinking about load balancing your traffic on
several machines, and when you hit this point you really want to use apache
AND tomcat both load balanced on several hosts, but it gets tricky...

    Pier

Re: Tomcat and Apache

["Pier P. Fumagalli" <pi...@betaversion.org>]

Matt Barre at mbarre@digiterra.com wrote:

> Out of curiosity can you list some of the sites tomcat4 is being used in
> production as a standalone?

Nagoya.Apache.ORG is going in production as soon as I get EyeBrowse to work,
for example. :)

    Pier

Re: Tomcat and Apache

[Matt Barre <mb...@digiterra.com>]

Out of curiosity can you list some of the sites tomcat4 is being used in production as a
standalone?

Thanks,

Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pier P. Fumagalli" <pi...@betaversion.org>
To: <to...@jakarta.apache.org>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: Tomcat and Apache


> Joar Vatnaland at joar.vatnaland@accelrys.com wrote:
>
> > because Tomcat is not a good web server, it just has
> > this capability so it can be used standalone for
> > development.
>
> BULLSHIT :) That's absolutely NOT TRUE. Although not being AS FAST as
> Apache, Tomcat (at least the 4.0 version, the one I'm involved with - dunno
> that much about 3.x) _is_ a good web-server... So good that it's used in
> production on several web sites (I am so confident of it that I'm using it
> in stand-alone mode in several places now).
>
> > Tomcat is a servlet engine that works together with some
> > other web server, handling servlets for it.
>
> It can _ALSO_ do that... But it's a good HTTP server on its own too...
>
>     Pier

Re: Tomcat and Apache

["Pier P. Fumagalli" <pi...@betaversion.org>]

Joar Vatnaland at joar.vatnaland@accelrys.com wrote:

> because Tomcat is not a good web server, it just has
> this capability so it can be used standalone for
> development.

BULLSHIT :) That's absolutely NOT TRUE. Although not being AS FAST as
Apache, Tomcat (at least the 4.0 version, the one I'm involved with - dunno
that much about 3.x) _is_ a good web-server... So good that it's used in
production on several web sites (I am so confident of it that I'm using it
in stand-alone mode in several places now).

> Tomcat is a servlet engine that works together with some
> other web server, handling servlets for it.

It can _ALSO_ do that... But it's a good HTTP server on its own too...

    Pier

RE: Tomcat and Apache

[Joar Vatnaland <jo...@accelrys.com>]

because Tomcat is not a good web server, it just has
this capability so it can be used standalone for
development.
Tomcat is a servlet engine that works together with some
other web server, handling servlets for it.

---

Hi !
Hello everybody,

I have an other newbie and maybe dumb question, I was
reading that
Tomcat also has a Webserver functionality, is it right ?? I
think it is
, well, why I is good to install it on Apache server, which
is the main
advantage ? Why not just Tomcat ?

Thanks a lot for all your support !


--
Gustavo Mejía Mora
INFOTEC
Tel: 5624 28 00
Ext: 253