How to Run Multiple Tomcat Instances on One Server?

Lets 1st understand Tomcat Directory Structure..

When creating multiple instances of tomcat server, we need to play with the folders inside the
server. These folders contain the actual scripts and code for the server. We have the option to
either use the code base for tomcat in shared mode where all tomcat instances refer to the
same physical code or we can create separate copies of these folder for each tomcat instance.

/bin : This directory contains the startup and shutdown scripts for both Windows and
Linux.
/conf : This directory contains the main configuration files for Tomcat. The two most
important are the server.xml and the global web.xml .
/server : This directory contains the Tomcat Java Archive files.
/lib : This directory contains Java Archive files that Tomcat is dependent upon.
/logs : This directory contains Tomcats log files.
/src : This directory contains the source code used by the Tomcat server. Once Tomcat is
released, it will probably contain interfaces and abstract classes only.
/webapps : All web applications are deployed in this directory; it contains the WAR file.
/work : This is the directory in which Tomcat will place all servlets that are generated from
JSPs. If you want to see exactly how a particular JSP is interpreted, look in this directory.

Tomcat server ports

Having a good understanding of tomcat ports is essential to manage the multiple instances of
the same server installation. These ports are used by tomcat for start-up, deployment and shut-
down operations.

The detail of each port is as:

Connector Port : This is the port where Apache Tomcat listen for the HTTP requests.
Shutdown Port : This port is used when we try to shutdown the Apache Tomcat Server.
AJP (Apache JServ Protocol) Connector Port : The Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) is
a binary protocol that can conduct inbound requests from a web server through to an
application server that sits behind the web server.
Redirect Port : Any redirection happening inside Apache Tomcat will happen through this
port. In Apache TOMCAT there are two instance where redirect Port is mentioned. First one
is for the Apache TOMCAT server and other one is for the AJP port.

Other must read:

How to Start Stop Apache Tomcat Server via Command Line?

How to Run Java Program Automatically on Tomcat Startup

Lets start creating multiple Tomcat Instances in Mac environment..

Step-1

Download and Copy Tomcat Instances under ~/Documents/Crunchify/ folder.

Step-2

Change below HTTP, HTTPS, AJP, Shutdown Ports for Tomcat2 instance.

File location: Tomcat2/conf/server.xml file.

Step-3

The startup.sh and shutdown.sh script files make use of catalina.sh for performing the
startup and shutdown operations. We shall edit catalina.sh file as described below:

a)

For tomcat1, specify following two variables in catalina.sh script file present in the bin
folder of the tomcat_home

export CATALINA_HOME= /Users/<username>/Documents/Crunchify/Tomcat1

export CATALINA_BASE= /Users/<username>/Documents/Crunchify/Tomcat1

b)

For tomcat2, specify following two variables in catalina.sh script file present in the bin
folder of the tomcat_home

export CATALINA_HOME= /Users/<username>/Documents/Crunchify/Tomcat2

export CATALINA_BASE= /Users/<username>/Documents/Crunchify/Tomcat2

Step-4

Startup scripts are a whole other topic, but heres the brief rundown. The main different from
running a single Tomcat instance is you need to set CATALINA_BASE to the directory you set
up for the particular instance you want to start (or stop).

Heres a typical startup routine. Just create crunchify.sh script and run it using
./crunchify.sh

crunchify.sh shell script

JAVA_HOME=/usr/java

JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx1024m -Xms300m"

export JAVA_HOME JAVA_OPTS CATALINA_HOME CATALINA_BASE

$CATALINA_HOME/bin/catalina.sh start