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Nginx + Apache Tomcat configuration example

This tutorial shows you how to configure Nginx as a reverse proxy to redirect the traffics from port 80 to Apache Tomcat on port 8080.

Here is the environment in my Linode server :

  1. Debian 7.5
  2. Nginx 1.2.1
  3. Tomcat 7.0.28

P.S Both Nginx and Tomcat are installed via apt-get install.

1. Tomcat Configuration

Edit server.xml, check the Tomcat listening port, and configure the default path to /apple

/etc/tomcat7/server.xml


  <!-- Tomcat listen on 8080 -->
  <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
       connectionTimeout="20000"
       URIEncoding="UTF-8"
       redirectPort="8443" />


    <!-- Set /apple as default path -->
    <Host name="localhost"  appBase="webapps"
         unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true">

	 <Context path="" docBase="apple">
	     <!-- Default set of monitored resources -->
	     <WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource>
	 </Context>

    </Host>

Restart Tomcat, make sure when you access 127.0.0.1:8080, it will display the content in 127.0.0.1:8080/apple

2. Nginx Configuration

In Nginx, edit /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default, put following content :

/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

server {
  listen          80;
  server_name     yourdomain.com;
  root            /etc/tomcat7/webapps/apple;

  proxy_cache one;

  location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
  }
}

It tells Nginx to redirect the traffics from port 80 to Apache Tomcat on port 8080. Done, restart Nginx.

References

  1. NGINX Reverse Proxy

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mohammad
5 years ago

1 – what is “root /etc/tomcat7/webapps/apple;” for ?

2 – proxy_cache one; has error!?

Charles Cai
8 years ago

Looks like you will have to specific the host(ip/domain) in here as well:

So, instead of:
listen 80;

I have to change it to following:
listen 192.168.1.5:80;

This is how I conjured it.

amirfazwan
7 years ago

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John Pickler
9 years ago

Static files will be handled by Tomcat? I did not understand what is the reason of Nginx here.

Glenn Gould
5 years ago
Reply to  John Pickler

Nginx is required because Tomcat runs on port 8080 and you cannot map a domain name to an IP address that has port 8080. You map the domain to nginx and nginx redirects the request to Tomcat.

rehnen
8 years ago
Reply to  John Pickler

It’s probably just to show you how it’s done. I am going to use the example myself as I’m going to have both a node-express.js server and a tomcat on my machine. I want them both to be reachable through port 80, so forwarding through nginx seems like the perfect fit.

Moorthy
9 years ago

Could you explain What you are doing in each line please. It would be helpful to us.

Dmitry
9 years ago

i got following error

Starting nginx: nginx: [emerg] “proxy_cache” zone “one” is unknown in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:73

nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

Gang
9 years ago
Reply to  Dmitry

you need to put

limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=one:100m rate=1r/s;

on top of
server {

}

Levvy
8 years ago
Reply to  Gang

after that fix I got
[emerg] the shared memory zone “one” is already declared for a different use in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/tct:9

Kanishk Choraria
8 years ago
Reply to  Levvy

even I am getting the same thing. Can someone suggest that what we can do after this ?

Thakhani
7 years ago

Even I am getting the same error

Wilson
9 years ago

Freaking Chinese ! you’re so cool ! 😀

skygongle
9 years ago
Reply to  Wilson

SB