A Simple HTTPS Configuration Example on Apache Tomcat 6

This idea comes suddenly on my head while i was reading a question on Kaskus’ programmer forum about how to setup a https connection on Apache Tomcat, thats why today im trying to write a simple how-to example on creating a simple HTTPS connection using Apache Tomcat 6. Who knows perhaps someone would find it useful.

Let’s start with creating a simple certificate file using keytool.exe

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_19\bin>keytool.exe -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA -keystore edw.jks

after you insert your keystore password (i entered “secret” as my password) and several simple questions such as “What is your first and last name?”, it would create a file.

What you need to do next is to link your certificate to Tomcat’s server.xml configuration. This is what i add to my server.xml configuration.

<Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
               maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"
               clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" keystoreFile="D:\edw.jks" 
               keystorePass="secret" />
<!-- keystorePass use the same password -->

And i also add this to my web.xml file, located under my tomcat’s conf folder

	<security-constraint>
		<web-resource-collection>
			<web-resource-name>Automatic SLL Forwarding</web-resource-name>
			<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
		</web-resource-collection>
		<user-data-constraint>
			<transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
		</user-data-constraint>
	</security-constraint>

This is what my page will look like,

Hope it would help others, cheers (B)