Tomcat - change default application, protecting access to web applications using Realm (part 1 of 2)

Note: below description uses Eclipse Indigo, Tomcat 7.0.28,

Requirements:

• installed Java (description here)
• installed and configured Eclipse (description here)
• installed and confiured Tomcat for the Eclipse (description here)

You will learn:

• how to change default Tomcat application
• how to allow users access to Tomcat's server administration application using Tomcat's Realm

Let's assume that You have Tomcat which is configured to work in Eclipse. When You start Tomcat (using Eclipse or standard scripts from Tomcat's distribution) and type in the browser URL http://localhost:8080, You will see Tomcat's default application:

This application is located in the [tomcat directory]\webapps\ROOT folder. If You want to change this page, just edit content of file index.jsp and index.html. If You want to completely remove this application, just remove complete ROOT folder.

Removing is not the best choice, because Tomcat is shipped with a special applications for server administration. You can access those applications using links in red square. Try to click on any link - You should see screen with login and password prompt:

Those parts are protected using Tomcat Realm. What is Realm? Realm is a set of valid users (defined by user name and password) and roles where those users belong. The idea is to configure access to web application only for valid users from certain roles. But where are those users and roles stored? It depends on a implementation of a realm - they can be stored in database, in LDAP, or in xml file. Tomcat's server administration application uses xml file to define users' access. Let's try to set up some users able to start that application.

Step 1: using Eclipse open server.xml from the Servers, and make sure that entry <Realm classname="org.apache.catalina.realm.UserDatabaseRealm" resourcename="UserDatabase"></Realm> exsits between <Engine> tags, outside <Host&gt tags - it means that this realm will be used for all hosts and all applications on that  hosts:

Step 2: using Eclipse open tomcat-users.xml from the Servers and add an entry for the user who will be able to access Tomcat's server administration application:

By default UserDatabaseRealm uses [tomcat directory]\conf\tomcat-users.xml file to load users and their roles into memory on server startup. In order to allow defined users to access administration application, they need to belong to roles named manager-status, manager-gui and admin-gui. After changes made, restart Tomcat server and try to access Tomcat's administration application giving username and password from tomcat-users.xml file. If everything was set up OK, You should see mentioned applications.

You may wonder why we used here roles named manager-status or manager-gui or admin-gui. Those role names come from Tomcat's server administration application specific settings, stored in the web.xml file. In the next post I will show how to protect own application (JSF2 application will be used as an example) and how to define own roles.