Spring Boot – Deploy WAR file to Tomcat
In this article, we will show you how to deploy a Spring Boot WAR file to the Tomcat servlet container.
For Spring Boot WAR deployment, you need to do three steps:
- Extends SpringBootServletInitializer
- Marked the embedded servlet container as provided.
- Update packaging to war
Tested
- Spring Boot 1.4.2.RELEASE
- Tomcat 8.5.9
- Maven 3
In Spring Boot, the final executable JAR file with embedded server solution may not suitable in all production environments, especially the deployment team (a team with good knowledge of server optimization and monitoring skills, but lack of, the development experience), they want full control of the server, and they don’t touch code.
1. Extends SpringBootServletInitializer
Make the existing @SpringBootApplication
class extends SpringBootServletInitializer
1.1 Classic Spring Boot JAR deployment. (Update this file to support WAR deployment)
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootWebApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
}
}
1.2 Spring Boot WAR deployment.
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
import org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;
@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootWebApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
@Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
return application.sources(SpringBootWebApplication.class);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
}
}
/*@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootWebApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
}
}*/
If you create a extra SpringBootWebApplication
class for deployment, make sure tell Spring Boot which main class to start :
<properties>
<start-class>com.mkyong.NewSpringBootWebApplicationForWAR</start-class>
</properties>
Read this – Spring Boot – Which main class to start
2. Marked the embedded servlet container as provided
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!-- marked the embedded servlet container as provided -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
3. Update packaging to war
<packaging>war</packaging>
Done, mvn package
and copy the $project/target/xxx.war
to Tomcat for deployment.
4. Full example – Spring Boot WAR + Tomcat Deployment
4.1 Take this Spring Boot Thymeleaf example, update it and deploy to Tomcat manually.
4.2 Update the existing SpringBootWebApplication
and make it extends the SpringBootServletInitializer
package com.mkyong;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
import org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;
@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootWebApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
@Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
return application.sources(SpringBootWebApplication.class);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
}
}
4.3 Update the packaging to war
and mark the spring-boot-starter-tomcat
as provided.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<artifactId>spring-boot-web-thymeleaf</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>Spring Boot Web Thymeleaf Example</name>
<description>Spring Boot Web Thymeleaf Example</description>
<url>https://www.mkyong.com</url>
<version>1.0</version>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.4.2.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<properties>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!-- marked the embedded servlet container as provided -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- hot swapping, disable cache for template, enable live reload -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
<optional>true</optional>
</dependency>
<!-- Optional, for bootstrap -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.webjars</groupId>
<artifactId>bootstrap</artifactId>
<version>3.3.7</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<!-- Package as an executable jar/war -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
4.4 This is optional, update the contextPath
to /mkyong
for demonstration later. Done. Ready for WAR deployment.
welcome.message: Hello Mkyong
server.contextPath=/mkyong
4.5 Get Tomcat and Deploy WAR file.
# Get Tomcat 8.5.9
spring-boot-project$ curl -O http://www-us.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.9/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.9.tar.gz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 9112k 100 9112k 0 0 799k 0 0:00:11 0:00:11 --:--:-- 1348k
# Extract it
$ tar -xvzf apache-tomcat-8.5.9.tar.gz
# Maven clean and package everything into a WAR file.
$ mvn clean package
# Copy WAR to Tomcat/webapp, renamed to mkyong.war
# By default, Tomcat take the war file name as the context path
$ cp target/spring-boot-web-thymeleaf-1.0.war apache-tomcat-8.5.9/webapps/mkyong.war
# Start Tomcat
$ ./apache-tomcat-8.5.9/bin/startup.sh
Using CATALINA_BASE: /Users/mkyong/projects/spring-boot-web-thymeleaf/apache-tomcat-8.5.9
Using CATALINA_HOME: /Users/mkyong/projects/spring-boot-web-thymeleaf/apache-tomcat-8.5.9
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /Users/mkyong/projects/spring-boot-web-thymeleaf/apache-tomcat-8.5.9/temp
Using JRE_HOME: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_74.jdk/Contents/Home
Using CLASSPATH: /Users/mkyong/projects/spring-boot-web-thymeleaf/apache-tomcat-8.5.9/bin/bootstrap.jar:
/Users/mkyong/projects/spring-boot-web-thymeleaf/apache-tomcat-8.5.9/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
Tomcat started.
4.6 Access http://localhost:8080/mkyong/

4.7 Done. Shut down Tomcat.
$ ./apache-tomcat-8.5.9/bin/shutdown.sh
Awesome tutorial, I had it working for my spring-boot app on tomcat 8
Hi Mkyong, great tutorial
in the case to need a “upload-dir” where?
(i put it in the root and dont work x( ) Help pls!
To get it working with Java 9+ you need to add this to your pom file (xml bind removed in Java 9+):
javax.xml.bind
jaxb-api
2.3.0
Hi Mkyong, I followed your example and got the following error from Tomcat log. 01-Oct-2018 14:29:57.442 INFO [http-nio-8080-exec-43] org.apache.jasper.servlet.TldScanner.scanJars At least one JAR was scanned for TLDs yet contained no TLDs. Enable debug logging for this logger for a complete list of JARs that were scanned but no TLDs were found in them. Skipping unneeded JARs during scanning can improve startup time and JSP compilation time. 01-Oct-2018 14:30:11.851 SEVERE [http-nio-8080-exec-43] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal One or more listeners failed to start. Full details will be found in the appropriate container log file 01-Oct-2018 14:30:11.852 SEVERE [http-nio-8080-exec-43] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal Context [/nuhs] startup failed due to… Read more »
Every request I make returns 401. I use JWT authentication. Anyone with the same problem?
how to deploy spring boot war file to glassfish4.1 server ?
I find the tutorial very simple and straight forward. I downloaded the code, built it and deployed to Tomcat. It works. I am now trying to apply this to my project with no luck yet. Here is the pertinent part of my project hierarchy: config SpringBootWebApplication controller HelloController The SpringBootWebApplication is exactly as in your tutorial The HelloController is my version of your WelcomeController. I looks like this: @Controller public class HelloController { @RequestMapping(“/”) public String index() { return “Greetings from Spring Boot!”; } } This does not work. The war deploys just fine but attempts to access it fail.… Read more »
Thank you!
I just wanted to add that specifying a server.contextPath in the application.properties is pointless, because Tomcat won’t let you use that.
only works on servlet3+ containers i think, tomcat 7 does nothing
Im using spring boot with JSF and i am able to start the server just fine, but after a while(around 1 or 2 days), the server stops and cant startup again, giving me the error:
2018-02-18 10:30:08.018 INFO 7052 — [localhost-startStop-2] ationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext : Closing org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.AnnotationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@2e601386: startup date [Thu Feb 15 13:20:57 UTC 2018]; root of context hierarchy
2018-02-18 10:30:08.033 INFO 7052 — [localhost-startStop-2] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter : Unregistering JMX-exposed beans on shutdown
I build your war to deploy, but cannot. Then I realize the pom.xml specify java 8.0. However, tomcat server were running on java 7.0. Thanks though.
Thanks for the tutorial!
Is there a more seamless way to continue deployment to the application. (In case I made a small change to a template for example). I would have to re-upload the whole war file to tomcat.
I tried my own and i post the issue in
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47294386/issues-in-spring-boot-war-file-deployment-in-tomcat-server
I am getting error:
“Whitelabel Error Page
This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.
Thu Nov 16 18:03:35 IST 2017
There was an unexpected error (type=Not Found, status=404).
No message available”
Please check if you can help.
I follow your tutorial and my spring boot application runs twice when I deploy war to tomcat. I also solve this by remove Spring Boot Application from extending SpringBootServletInitializer, my Spring Boot version is 1.5.7.RELEASE
Hi Mkyong,
Would you please let me know how to set contextPath for spring boot application if deployed as a war on
standalone tomcat?
Regards,
Shahid Akhtar.
This tutor is very simple!! Thanks
to run your example, need to add “server.error.whitelabel.enabled=false” to application.properity
how to run this application
hi Mkyong,
I installed your example.
It seems server.contextPath is not recognized by external tomcat8.
Do you have any suggestions on how to set context path of a spring boot(1.5) application in external tomcat8?
Regards
Amit
Visit:—– https://www.mkyong.com/spring-boot/spring-boot-how-to-change-context-path/
I Hope You Got Your Answer
Hi Shah,
Given link states about contextPath change will work for embedded tomcat. It does not work for
standalone containers. Would you please let me know how contextPath can be set for standalone
containers?
Thanks
Shahid Akhtar
By the way why do you need to deploy anything in stand alone container? You dont you use the embedded one …it is quite easy to use with very less work to do. If you are using eclipse as ide you can add tomcat maven compiler plugin in pom.xml along with the spring-boot-starter-tomcat. It is a perfect combination u only need to run the SpringBootWebApplication java class and then maven clean and install which will automatically add the war to the tomcat without unnecessary overhead and u can then load the page.
it does not work for standalone container
Hi Amit ,
To run this application , you need to add the below in application.properties.
server.port=8080
server.error.whitelabel.enabled=false.
Then run the below command :
C:……….> mvn spring-boot:run
Then open any browser and run :
http://localhost:8080/mkyong/