Damn using Tomcat with Apache is complicated—furthering my belief that java web development is over complicated just for the sake of it :/

After hours of frustration I thought I'd better blog my findings to save others frustration in the future, having not found a comprehensive solution elsewhere. I'll be incrementally adding to this entry, so here goes...

Install Tomcat 5 and the ajp13 connector as normal, and verify it works (checkout /jsp-examples/, /manager/html/ etc.)

For a virtual host that you already have working in Apache, add an entry to your ${CATALINA_HOME}/conf/server.xml following this template (replacing ${CATALINA_HOME} with your tomcat home):

In your relevant apache conf file add to each virtual host directive following this template (replacing ${CATALINA_HOME} with your tomcat home):

Now how to get a unique login realm for each virtual host /manager/? Well I've been at it all morning and do you reckon I've figured it out yet?? Grrr.

Add to the frustration that in Apache there seems to be no way (outside writing an apache module&#8212which I may yet do) to say something like "If you (Apache) can't resolve a request to a file, please do this action". You can forward to a 404 handler script which I'm sure can get the original url from an ENV variable—but it would have to know how to handle that situation. This task is easy as pie in AOLserver...

Unfortunately I can't even get JkMount "/*.do" ajp13 to work on this server (for struts handler use). Time for more troubleshooting :(

More to come...

But at least it tilts nice and safely now!

You can also see the bodgy lines at the bottom of the screen in this shot - they seek to come and go. I'm not complaining.