RE: [OT] Why did you choose Tomcat? (FKA: Re: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.)
> From: Ben Souther [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 9:20 PM > Just out of curiosity, why did you choose Tomcat, or any OSS > app, over .NET > (and no, this isn't an attempt to start another thread about > J2EE vs .NET)? > > You've stated that: > 1.) That you are deploying on WinXXX and, more specifically, IIS. > > 2.) That you are specifically prohibited from hacking the > source code. (IMHO: > that's where the "WTFs" belong) In a nutshell, the simple answer is that .NET is NOT portable away from the MickeySoft environment. Don't get me wrong here, MS finally came up with a server that has a hope of working under production conditions. However, it only has a hope. There are many reasons why Unix systems are superior, long-term, and it would be way off-topic, not to mention preaching to the choir, to go into them here. A secondary answer is that Tomcat is the reference implementation of J2EE. My directives are in that direction. I'm in a political situation where I am outnumbered but, not yet, out voted. The policies are that we only build to reference standards, regardless of what we are building it needs to be portable, for various definitions of portability. In order to win my point I have to prove viability of the Tomcat AppServer over .NET. Basically, it's a java v. .NET battle. The target market for Java is larger than the target market for NET, as it also includes .NET supported systems. This is my strongest point. Further, most-likely clients are running some form of *nix exclusively. For us, what I'm doing is a worst-case scenerio namely; Win2K IIS/Tomcat v. MS .NET, we're going to get pointy questions along that line too. Sort of like what you're asking here. Yes, WTF applies and that was my initial reaction. I'm quite well aware of OSS, Cathedral/Bazaar, etc. I supported Samba, I was a Caldera Linux VAR once (to my recent regret a la SCO), and was very involved in Internet DNS warz and other political issues. I've also been doing C++ since '87. My big gripe about the entire Java universe is the need to rename things in an incomprehensible manner, just to be different apparently. When one doesn't know the new names, one gets terribly insulted and put down upon. Excuse me, I was doing O-O when many here hadn't even had their first date yet (a small wager there). But, that's another story. > What's amazing is that, in your case, this approach worked > very well. You > insulted the product, the documentation, and all the people > who have spent > their own time and energy participating in this list enough > that someone > who's very knowledgeable got defensive enough to want to > prove you wrong and > and not only pointed you to the documentation but answered a > lot of questions > directly. I'm sorry if anyone took offence to my note, but those were things that needed to be said. Early release, yeah. But, wrong dox need to be expunged ruthlessly. Just like bad code. Remember the old 'ego-less' school of programming? I'm one of those. I also had to crack some of the arrogance here. Yes, this reveals a certain arrogance on my part. But, I did start off asking politely and then I did publish my letter in a polite fashion. I do practice 'tit for tat', religiously. I will never take the offensive but, I will always return fire when fired upon. I did get some very good info albeit not quite complete, when I get everything done AND I know it works, I'll submit the changes and recommendations to the current doc, as recompense to the project. Definitely the Workers How-To needs revisions and the ISS How-To needs work as well. Any references to JNI, until the JNI dox are updated, should be dropped. My specific thanks to Tom Lyle for http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/12/18/tomcat.html. That's how the IIS How-To should read. Now I'll have to go back and read Chuck's response. It looks like I owe him that courtesy. On other fronts, I try to avoid having to ask question in the first place. I'd already been fighting with this for a week before I even subscribed to this list. I *have* perused all the dox I could get my hands on. -- Part of RTFM should include the name of the FM to R! - R O E L A N D M J M E Y E R Neuchatel, Switzerland Yahoo Messenger: roeland_meyer http://www.roelandmeyer.org Running Tomcat 4.1.29 under Windows 2K Advanced Server. - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[OT] Why did you choose Tomcat? (FKA: Re: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.)
Roeland, Just out of curiosity, why did you choose Tomcat, or any OSS app, over .NET (and no, this isn't an attempt to start another thread about J2EE vs .NET)? You've stated that: 1.) That you are deploying on WinXXX and, more specifically, IIS. 2.) That you are specifically prohibited from hacking the source code. (IMHO: that's where the "WTFs" belong) 3.) Although you didn't didn't say so specifically, it's plain to see that you are looking for an app server that can be quickly set up and run with a minimum amount of effort (reading) on your part. The reason that I say this is that you didn't know what a "context" is. I have a half a dozen Servlet/JSP books on my desk and they all explain what a Servlet Context is in the first chapter. You also mentioned JNI which is not a Tomcat or Servlet feature but a component of the core JAVA language. It's not possible that you spent any time learning about JSP/Servlets or Tomcat before jumping in and trying to integrate the app server with IIS. It sounds like you're a perfect candidate for a pre-packaged, commercial platform, like .NET, which allows you to purchase support. There are also plenty of commercial J2EE app servers out there, with a wide range of price and support options. Either way, you will get a specific list of what platforms and products are supported and you can rightly EXPECT to get explicit, step by step instructions for installation and integration. One of the biggest difference between Open Source Software (OSS) and commercial software is the release cycle. A common motto in OSS is "Release Early and Release Often". Compare the number of releases that Tomcat has had with any commercial app server. It's dizzying. There are many advantages to this. Bugs and security issues get fixed and integrated much faster, useless features get phased out much more quickly, and OSS projects like Tomcat are usually ahead of commercial products when it comes to features. How many other java app servers support the Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 specs? All this, however, comes at a cost. In the commercial world, software product releases are often held back until the documentation is "complete". In any OSS project it is generally expected that the documentation will lag behind the core functionality. Most people who get involved with OSS expect to have to roll up their sleeves and learn about the product (at least a little) in order to start using it. Often the best documentation isn't written by the developers, it's written by people like yourself, who've gone through an installation, got stuck, got help, and then decided to give back to the community by writing a HOWTO that explains the procedure from an end user's perspective. In other words, with commercial software, you pay for support. With OSS you earn it. Nobody on this list is being paid to answer your questions. The people who do either do so because, they believe in the product and they want to see it used, or because in doing so, they learn more about the product. Some of the questions posted today have been answered by committers (developers who have taken part in building Tomcat). Try getting help from one of the developers of IIS. Is it reasonable to expect senior developers to take time to answer basic questions such as "What is JNI?" or "What is a context?"? By asking such questions, you have, in effect, said "I'm not interested in doing the work needed to understand this technology. I want to jump into the advanced topics and I expect someone else to write documentation that takes me by the hand and walks me through everything, step by step without any expectation that I have the prerequisite knowledge to be doing so in the first place AND.. if it doesn't do so, it's a 'pile of manure'". What's amazing is that, in your case, this approach worked very well. You insulted the product, the documentation, and all the people who have spent their own time and energy participating in this list enough that someone who's very knowledgeable got defensive enough to want to prove you wrong and and not only pointed you to the documentation but answered a lot of questions directly. I wouldn't count on getting continued support that way. If you missed it, there was a link to this essay on the page with the links to this list. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html I would suggest that you read it, read up on both JSP/Servlet technology, and read up on OSS in general and seriously consider whether you want to use an OSS product or whether you would be better off paying for a commercial solution. If you choose to go with Tomcat, welcome aboard. I think you'll find it to be a great app server at a great price. Either way, I would really like to know what made you choose Tomcat and why you wanted to integrate it with IIS. I'd also like to know why, specifically, you are so against using .NET. -Ben On M
Re: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.
Roeland, Before I sound too much like byting the hand that feeds, let me thank you for the useful information that you have provided. Fair enough. Although we must be in different time zones, 'cause I definately didn't write that at 4:26 AM :) For one thing, whether you guys know it or not, Java is competing against MS .NET. I surfaced specific issues that need to be covered. I have a case where the requirements are Win2K and IIS. Neither Linux nor Apache are viable options, although I've argued for, at least, Apache. Okay, let's fix the docs for IIS. What have you found. I was objecting to the lack of useful information (other than to point out problems) in your post. Please post the *correct* information, and you're more likely to get the problem fixed. We hear "your stuff sucks" a lot, and that doesn't exactly motivate anyone to make those people happy. I'm doing good to get Tomcat, okay? I don't want to do C# as that doesn't port more than 5 micro-inches from the MS platforms. The mom project works pretty well. It even comes with a servlet-container-type thing. Actually, I would gladly [submit patches, etc.]. I am considering compiling my notes for subbmital after I get this stuff working. Excellent! I look forward to reading the updated documents. Do you mean this HOWTO: http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/iishowto.html Yep and these are the offending lines; --- workers.properties - A file that describes the host(s) and port(s) used by the workers (Tomcat processes). A sample workers.properties can be found under the conf directory. uriworkermap.properties - A file that maps URL-Path patterns to workers. A sample uriworkermap.properties can be found under the conf directory as well. You are completely right. Those files do not exist in the distros. However, you are looking in the wrong distro. Unfortunately, the 'distro' that I would suggest is *NOT* the Tomcat distro. It's the tomcat-connectors distro. The source distro has the source of the isapi redirector. Unfortunately, this archive does not (as promised) contain example files. The pre-built isapi_redirector.dll file comes without an archive, and without those example files in the download directory :( " The ajp12 has been deprecated with Tomcat 3.3.x and you should use instead ajp13 which is the only ajp protocol known by Tomcat 4.0.x, 4.1.x and 5. Of course Tomcat 3.2.x and 3.3.x also support ajp13 protocol. " If you'd truely read my email then you'd have noticed that I never mentioned ajp13. I had already read and understood that part. The isue isn't documented changes, the issues are changes that aren't documented. A slight difference. You said the documents hadn't been updated since Tomcat 3.3. That passage clearly indicates that they have been (since they mention both Tomcat 4.1, 4.2 and 5.x). > [I can't figure out workers, and I find the workers HOWTO to be > worthless. By the way, what is a worker?] > BTW, your quoted portion is not anything that I wrote. I just checked. That's true: that's why it's in []s It explains pretty much every line of the workers.properties file. Yes, with incorrect data. Really? You said you didn't understand worker types and properties. Every type is documented: ajp12 - old skool not supported by 4.x and later ajp13 - new skool, also supported by 3.3, so forget ajp12 jni - uses JNI to communicate directly with Tomcat lb - load-balances across multiple Tomcat instances Choose one: do you need load balancing? Do you want to use JNI (if you don't know what it is, then you don't want to use it)? If not, go with ajp13. I think [the apparently crappy HOWTO is] a better guideline that the source code for the connector, don't you think? Hacking the sources is something I am specifically prohibited from doing. Is this your company policy? You're not allowed to find anything out except by reading documentation shipped with a package? Also, with that error rate, it is better to not have it and admit that IIS isn't supported, rather than embarras one's self by exhibiting such problems. This is a quality issue at this point. You're right, the IIS HOWTO isn't as step-by-step as it should be. (Before I go on, I'll mention that there's a complete example workers.prperties file included in the "Worker HOWTO". No there isn't. Yes, there is. Click on this link: http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/workershowto.html Then, press the "end" button on your keyboard. Voile! A full example workers.properties file. You can even copy-and-paste it, then modify it. I'll make a bet that you haven't even unpacked the Tomcat 4.1.29 binary distro for Win32, eh? You're got me, there. I've only unpacked the 4.1.27 binary distro on win32. Nowhere in there, does it exist. Again, workers.properties doesn't belong to Tomcat -- it belongs to the connector project. They are separate. Tomcat also doesn't include the JNI headers required to compile C++ code wrapped b
RE: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.
It's hard not to think that there's a lot of misspent energy here. Many people have problems setting up Tomcat, esp. with IIS, and I'm one of them. In fact I had a thread that went on for 50+ messages before it got solved. But generally most people to get their problems resolved. The original message is so long that I doubt that most people have the energy to go through it and respond. This really isn't a matter of what should be or what shouldn't but just of practicality. It doesn't seem to me that this is a practical way to get your problems solved. I'm sure others that know far more than me and are more vocal in this forum will respond as well. But this my 2 cents on the subject. Ken -Original Message- From: Tom Lyle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 5:00 AM To: Tomcat Users List Subject: RE: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29. Jesus, what a way to start a Monday morning. Is there really any point in shouting at each other like this? If you've still not got Tomcat working with IIS try this: http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/12/18/tomcat.html I followed that and got it all working. Tomcat isn't as well documented as it might be (for reasons that have already been stated) but theres really no reason to start having a go at people. Peace people, Tom > -Original Message- > From: Roeland Meyer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 24 November 2003 09:43 > To: 'Tomcat Users List' > Subject: RE: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29. > > > Before I sound too much like byting the hand that feeds, let me thank you > for the useful information that you have provided. > > > From: Christopher Schultz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 4:26 AM > > and I will make due allowances for the time of your response as well. Late > nights can make one more than a bit tense. > > > > > You don't pretend to win the coveted Whiner Of The Month award > > > > with this, I hope. There's a lot of competition, you know. > > > > I think this post gets my vote for this coveted award. Everyone: you > > have only 7 days left to submit your entries! > > For one thing, whether you guys know it or not, Java is competing > against MS > .NET. I surfaced specific issues that need to be covered. I have a case > where the requirements are Win2K and IIS. Neither Linux nor Apache are > viable options, although I've argued for, at least, Apache. I'm doing good > to get Tomcat, okay? I don't want to do C# as that doesn't port > more than 5 > micro-inches from the MS platforms. This sort of stuff makes it > hard to sell > Tomcat. > > > > There are three section to this email; > > > 'General Complaints', 'IIS HOW-TO', and 'Workers HOW-TO'. > > > > No, you have one section: complaining about everything. I mistakenly > > read the whole post, thinking that there woud, in fact, be an "IIS > > HOWTO" and "Workers HOWTO" contained somewhere within. Alas, > > there was not. > > No, I went item-by-item thorugh the dox that were shipped with > the product. > Often I was looking at > http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/workershowto.html or > http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/iishowto.html. I was making > the case that both of those documents need to be either fixed or removed > from the distribution. In fact, I stated that plainly. You must not have > read that. > > > > General complaints: (in no particular order) > > > > I recognize that there are shortcomings in the documentation. You do > > realize that pretty much nobody gets paid to write this > > stuff, right? If > > you have spent a significant amount of time figuring > > something out, why > > not help out with the project and submit either a replacement > > document > > for IIS/Tomcat or a patch to any existing documentation? > > Actually, I would gladly do so. I am considering compiling my notes for > subbmital after I get this stuff working. I *really* don't want > to do .NET. > > > > IIS HOW-TO: > > > > > > 1) Obviously, all references to Workers HOW-TO > > > point to a defective document, as shown in the > > > section on the workers HOW-TO. > > > > > > [snip] > > > > > > Workers HOW-TO: > > > > > > This was obviously written for Tomcat 3 and never > > > updated for Tomcat 4.1.29. > > > > Do you mean this HOWTO: > > > > http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/iishowto.html > > Yep and these are the offending
RE: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.
Jesus, what a way to start a Monday morning. Is there really any point in shouting at each other like this? If you've still not got Tomcat working with IIS try this: http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/12/18/tomcat.html I followed that and got it all working. Tomcat isn't as well documented as it might be (for reasons that have already been stated) but theres really no reason to start having a go at people. Peace people, Tom > -Original Message- > From: Roeland Meyer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 24 November 2003 09:43 > To: 'Tomcat Users List' > Subject: RE: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29. > > > Before I sound too much like byting the hand that feeds, let me thank you > for the useful information that you have provided. > > > From: Christopher Schultz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 4:26 AM > > and I will make due allowances for the time of your response as well. Late > nights can make one more than a bit tense. > > > > > You don't pretend to win the coveted Whiner Of The Month award > > > > with this, I hope. There's a lot of competition, you know. > > > > I think this post gets my vote for this coveted award. Everyone: you > > have only 7 days left to submit your entries! > > For one thing, whether you guys know it or not, Java is competing > against MS > .NET. I surfaced specific issues that need to be covered. I have a case > where the requirements are Win2K and IIS. Neither Linux nor Apache are > viable options, although I've argued for, at least, Apache. I'm doing good > to get Tomcat, okay? I don't want to do C# as that doesn't port > more than 5 > micro-inches from the MS platforms. This sort of stuff makes it > hard to sell > Tomcat. > > > > There are three section to this email; > > > 'General Complaints', 'IIS HOW-TO', and 'Workers HOW-TO'. > > > > No, you have one section: complaining about everything. I mistakenly > > read the whole post, thinking that there woud, in fact, be an "IIS > > HOWTO" and "Workers HOWTO" contained somewhere within. Alas, > > there was not. > > No, I went item-by-item thorugh the dox that were shipped with > the product. > Often I was looking at > http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/workershowto.html or > http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/iishowto.html. I was making > the case that both of those documents need to be either fixed or removed > from the distribution. In fact, I stated that plainly. You must not have > read that. > > > > General complaints: (in no particular order) > > > > I recognize that there are shortcomings in the documentation. You do > > realize that pretty much nobody gets paid to write this > > stuff, right? If > > you have spent a significant amount of time figuring > > something out, why > > not help out with the project and submit either a replacement > > document > > for IIS/Tomcat or a patch to any existing documentation? > > Actually, I would gladly do so. I am considering compiling my notes for > subbmital after I get this stuff working. I *really* don't want > to do .NET. > > > > IIS HOW-TO: > > > > > > 1) Obviously, all references to Workers HOW-TO > > > point to a defective document, as shown in the > > > section on the workers HOW-TO. > > > > > > [snip] > > > > > > Workers HOW-TO: > > > > > > This was obviously written for Tomcat 3 and never > > > updated for Tomcat 4.1.29. > > > > Do you mean this HOWTO: > > > > http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/iishowto.html > > Yep and these are the offending lines; > > --- > workers.properties - A file that describes the host(s) and port(s) used by > the workers (Tomcat processes). A sample workers.properties can be found > under the conf directory. > uriworkermap.properties - A file that maps URL-Path patterns to workers. A > sample uriworkermap.properties can be found under the conf directory as > well. > --- > > Neither workers.properties nor uriworkermap.properties are > shipped with the > product, contrary to what is clearly written insaid dox. > > > It specifically mentions the changes since Tomcat 3.3 (with > > respect to > > 4.x and 5.x). Here's an example: > > > > " > > The ajp12 has been deprecated with Tomcat 3.3.x and you should use > > instead ajp13 which is the only ajp protocol known by Tomcat 4.0.x, > > 4.1.x and 5. > > > > Of course Tom
RE: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.
Before I sound too much like byting the hand that feeds, let me thank you for the useful information that you have provided. > From: Christopher Schultz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 4:26 AM and I will make due allowances for the time of your response as well. Late nights can make one more than a bit tense. > > > You don't pretend to win the coveted Whiner Of The Month award > > > with this, I hope. There's a lot of competition, you know. > > I think this post gets my vote for this coveted award. Everyone: you > have only 7 days left to submit your entries! For one thing, whether you guys know it or not, Java is competing against MS .NET. I surfaced specific issues that need to be covered. I have a case where the requirements are Win2K and IIS. Neither Linux nor Apache are viable options, although I've argued for, at least, Apache. I'm doing good to get Tomcat, okay? I don't want to do C# as that doesn't port more than 5 micro-inches from the MS platforms. This sort of stuff makes it hard to sell Tomcat. > > There are three section to this email; > > 'General Complaints', 'IIS HOW-TO', and 'Workers HOW-TO'. > > No, you have one section: complaining about everything. I mistakenly > read the whole post, thinking that there woud, in fact, be an "IIS > HOWTO" and "Workers HOWTO" contained somewhere within. Alas, > there was not. No, I went item-by-item thorugh the dox that were shipped with the product. Often I was looking at http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/workershowto.html or http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/iishowto.html. I was making the case that both of those documents need to be either fixed or removed from the distribution. In fact, I stated that plainly. You must not have read that. > > General complaints: (in no particular order) > > I recognize that there are shortcomings in the documentation. You do > realize that pretty much nobody gets paid to write this > stuff, right? If > you have spent a significant amount of time figuring > something out, why > not help out with the project and submit either a replacement > document > for IIS/Tomcat or a patch to any existing documentation? Actually, I would gladly do so. I am considering compiling my notes for subbmital after I get this stuff working. I *really* don't want to do .NET. > > IIS HOW-TO: > > > > 1) Obviously, all references to Workers HOW-TO > > point to a defective document, as shown in the > > section on the workers HOW-TO. > > > > [snip] > > > > Workers HOW-TO: > > > > This was obviously written for Tomcat 3 and never > > updated for Tomcat 4.1.29. > > Do you mean this HOWTO: > > http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/iishowto.html Yep and these are the offending lines; --- workers.properties - A file that describes the host(s) and port(s) used by the workers (Tomcat processes). A sample workers.properties can be found under the conf directory. uriworkermap.properties - A file that maps URL-Path patterns to workers. A sample uriworkermap.properties can be found under the conf directory as well. --- Neither workers.properties nor uriworkermap.properties are shipped with the product, contrary to what is clearly written insaid dox. > It specifically mentions the changes since Tomcat 3.3 (with > respect to > 4.x and 5.x). Here's an example: > > " > The ajp12 has been deprecated with Tomcat 3.3.x and you should use > instead ajp13 which is the only ajp protocol known by Tomcat 4.0.x, > 4.1.x and 5. > > Of course Tomcat 3.2.x and 3.3.x also support ajp13 protocol. > " If you'd truely read my email then you'd have noticed that I never mentioned ajp13. I had already read and understood that part. The isue isn't documented changes, the issues are changes that aren't documented. A slight difference. > > [I can't figure out workers, and I find the workers HOWTO to be > > worthless. By the way, what is a worker?] > > I find that this document is very helpful for these types of > questions: > > http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/workers > howto.html Is that anything like http://jakarta.caselle:8080/tomcat-docs/jk2/jk/workershowto.html ? If so, then go back and re-read my email for a section-by-section list of errors. BTW, your quoted portion is not anything that I wrote. I just checked. > It explains pretty much every line of the workers.properties file. Yes, with incorrect data. > > I hit 10 errors and > > stopped logging. These indicate huge problems and > > this document should have never been included in > > the Tomcat 4.1.29 release. Not even as a guidline. > > It is more misleading than useful. > > I think it's a better guideline that the source code for the > connector, > don't you think? Hacking the sources is something I am specifically prohibited from doing. Also, with that error rate, it is better to not have it and admit that IIS isn't supported, rather than embarras one's self by exhibiting such problems. This is
Re: IIS is not supported in Tomcat 4.1.29.
Roeland, From an unrelated thread: > > You don't pretend to win the coveted Whiner Of The Month award > > with this, I hope. There's a lot of competition, you know. I think this post gets my vote for this coveted award. Everyone: you have only 7 days left to submit your entries! There are three section to this email; 'General Complaints', 'IIS HOW-TO', and 'Workers HOW-TO'. No, you have one section: complaining about everything. I mistakenly read the whole post, thinking that there woud, in fact, be an "IIS HOWTO" and "Workers HOWTO" contained somewhere within. Alas, there was not. General complaints: (in no particular order) I recognize that there are shortcomings in the documentation. You do realize that pretty much nobody gets paid to write this stuff, right? If you have spent a significant amount of time figuring something out, why not help out with the project and submit either a replacement document for IIS/Tomcat or a patch to any existing documentation? IIS HOW-TO: 1) Obviously, all references to Workers HOW-TO point to a defective document, as shown in the section on the workers HOW-TO. > > [snip] > > Workers HOW-TO: > > This was obviously written for Tomcat 3 and never > updated for Tomcat 4.1.29. Do you mean this HOWTO: http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/iishowto.html ?? It specifically mentions the changes since Tomcat 3.3 (with respect to 4.x and 5.x). Here's an example: " The ajp12 has been deprecated with Tomcat 3.3.x and you should use instead ajp13 which is the only ajp protocol known by Tomcat 4.0.x, 4.1.x and 5. Of course Tomcat 3.2.x and 3.3.x also support ajp13 protocol. " > [I can't figure out workers, and I find the workers HOWTO to be > worthless. By the way, what is a worker?] I find that this document is very helpful for these types of questions: http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/jk/workershowto.html It explains pretty much every line of the workers.properties file. I hit 10 errors and stopped logging. These indicate huge problems and this document should have never been included in the Tomcat 4.1.29 release. Not even as a guidline. It is more misleading than useful. I think it's a better guideline that the source code for the connector, don't you think? 1) Completely skips the obvious first steps: - From the "Worker HOWTO" referenced eariler: " worker.list = " There's even an example! Step 2: " After defining the workers you can also specify properties for them. Properties can be specified in the following manner: worker..= " (Before I go on, I'll mention that there's a complete example workers.prperties file included in the "Worker HOWTO". 2) Introduction is completely accurate yet, completely inadequate. What is the relationship of a worker instance to a URL? There is none. You have to map these yourself. You do this in the configuration for your specific web server. Check the "IIS Howto" (mentioned previously): " Adding a context to the ISAPI redirector is simple, all you need to do is to edit your uriworkermap.properties and to add a line that looks like: /context/*=worker_name " > What is a Tomcat context? You're kidding, right? You're trying to couple IIS to Tomcat and you need a Context tutorial? Where is the referal to a document that can explain these things ( the file "Tomcat: A Minimalistic User's Guide", is not found)? RTFM: http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat 4) "Workers Type" is almost meaningless in light of item 3. Sometimes, stating the obvious, at least once, is a good thing. How about this for obvious: (from the Workers HOWTO) " worker . worker name . type = Where worker name is the name assigned to the worker and the worker type is one of the four types defined in the table (a worker name may not contain any space (a good naming convention for queue named should follow the Java variable naming rules). # Defines a worker named "local" that uses the ajpv12 protocol to # forward requests to a Tomcat process. worker.local.type=ajp12 # Defines a worker named "remote" that uses the ajpv13 protocol to # forward requests to a Tomcat process. worker.remote.type=ajp13 # Defines a worker named "fast" that uses JNI to forward requests to # a Tomcat process. worker.fast.type=jni # Defines a worker named "loadbalancer" that loadbalances several # Tomcat processes transparently. worker.loadbalancer.type=lb " Looks pretty straightforward to me. Which style of connector do you want to use? JNI? LoadBalanced? Not sure? Well, remember back in the IIS HOWTO: " Who support ajp protocols ? The ajp12 protocol is only available in Tomcat 3.2.x and 3.3.x. The ajp12 has been deprecated with Tomcat 3.3.x and you should use instead ajp13 which is the only ajp protocol known by Tomcat 4.0.x, 4.1.x and 5. Of course Tomcat 3.2.x and 3.3.x also support ajp13 protocol. " That sounds like a great case for using the "ajp13" type. 5) "Setting Worker Properties" Same complaint as item 4. As you so freq
