The connectors serve as a pipeline from Apache to Tomcat and back again for certain requests. A JSP or Servlet request received by Apache would be sent to Tomcat, Tomcat would do the processing, and the resulting HTML would be sent back to Apache (and then to the client), all via the connector.
Apache is not required to use Tomcat. Tomcat works perfectly well as a HTTP/1.1 compliant web server, all on its own. However, due to various reasons, some people have a need to use Apache in addition to Tomcat. If this is the case, you use a connector. If you are using Apache, the wisest move from a production standpoint is to delete the HTTP Connector element (or comment it out) from Tomcat's server.xml and leave only the Apache connector Connector element enabled. John Turner [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 5:00 PM > To: Tomcat Users List > Subject: RE: Apache & Tomcat > > > Hi John, I was reading your post and it seems very interesting, I'm a > newbie with these tomcat stuff... > > I read a lot of emails in the past about the connectors, but > what I don't > understand is what is the function of these connectors... I know that > Apache and Tomcat use these connectors for integrating jsp technology > under apache... that's ok, but what happens internally with > Apache and > Tomcat when I use these connectors???... > The webserver that comes with tomcat, what happens with > it?????.... is it > still working????... > > thanks > Alex > > > > > > > > "Turner, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 04/09/2002 11:40 a.m. > Please respond to Tomcat Users List > > > To: 'Tomcat Users List' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > cc: > Subject: RE: Apache & Tomcat > > > > Nothing. > > Tomcat is great at what it does. Apache is great at what it > does. Some > people have situations that require both, for various reasons. Maybe > there > is an existing site, and dynamic content via Tomcat is a > retrofit. Maybe > their application has a large amount of static content (an > image library > or > other digital asset library, for example). Any number of things. > > There are also security concerns, and usability concerns with running > Tomcat > stand-alone. To bind to port 80, Tomcat runs as root. This > is unwise in > a > production environment. Apache does not run as root on port > 80. Also, > many > people do not like to see "8080" or some other port number on > their URL, > and > many corporate firewalls restrict outbound access to ports > that are not > email, HTTP, or FTP related (8080 is not one of those). > > There are also problems with CGIs, and other extensions. > Perhaps you have > a > need for mod_rewrite, or some other Apache module, before the > request gets > to Tomcat. Perhaps you have a significant amount of CGIs > (perl, whatever) > that need to run, and only one IP address (and hence, only > one port 80). > So > you would setup Apache name-based virtual hosts on the single > IP address, > and direct Tomcat-related requests to Tomcat and let Apache > do it's thing > for the others. > > There are all sorts of scenarios where Tomcat in stand-alone > mode wouldn't > be the optimal choice. > > John Turner > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Rui Fernandes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 12:24 PM > > To: Tomcat Users List > > Subject: Apache & Tomcat > > > > > > Why not to use Tomcat alone? What offers the integration of > > Apache with Tomcat for a pure Java/XML/HTML web site? > > > > -- > 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]>
