Overview - Tomcat 7

This Release Note covers all point releases for the Tomcat 7 branch that are offered by eApps. Upgrade instructions are also included.

Tomcat 7 is only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 and CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Tomcat 7 is a major release of the Tomcat application server. This release has introduced new functionality and significant changes to the existing Tomcat server. If you are upgrading from any prior version of Tomcat to Tomcat 7, there is a HIGH RISK of data loss and downtime if you do not carefully test your existing application with this new version.

eApps recommends, as a best practice, to maintain a staging server where you can test software upgrades before moving them into production. This approach will allow you to minimize the risk of data loss and downtime of your production service when performing software upgrades. If necessary, you can rebuild your staging Virtual Server on demand so that you have a fresh installation to test on. If you need more information about setting up a staging Virtual Server, please contact eApps Sales.

IMPORTANT! Tomcat version 7 has an extensive list of new features and changes. Upgrading to this version may significantly impact the operation of your applications. See the Tomcat 6 to Tomcat 7 migration guide for a list of changes that may cause issues when upgrading: http://tomcat.apache.org/migration-7.html Please read this document carefully to understand all the changes in the Tomcat 7 release. All Tomcat 7 documentation is located here: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/index.html

eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.68
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.65
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.63
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.61
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.59
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.55
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.53
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.52
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.42
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.37
eApps Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.16

How to Upgrade
Tomcat 6 to Tomcat 7
Tomcat 7 to Tomcat 7 (newer version)

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.68

Tomcat 7.0.68 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.68, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.68 is a bug fix and security release, no new features have been added.

Fixes

• Fix for a potential JDBC resource leak in DataSourceRealm
• Log a warning if a redirect fails on an invalid location
• Correctly undeploy symlinked resources

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.68 are available here - https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/RELEASE-NOTES.txt. The ChangeLog is available here - https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.65

Tomcat 7.0.65 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.65, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.65 is a bug fix and security release, no new features have been added.

Fixes

• Fix to detect if a forced stop fails because Tomcat is waiting for a process or system call to complete
• Memory leak in JSP unloading fixed
• Trigger a thread dump if Tomcat fails to stop gracefully

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.65 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.63

Tomcat 7.0.63 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.63, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.63 is a bug fix and security release, no new features have been added.

Fixes

• Added support for web applications without a docBase
• Fixed potential excessive memory usage due to unnecessary JAR caching

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.63 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.61

Tomcat 7.0.61 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.61, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.61 is a bug fix and security release, no new features have been added.

Fixes

• Fixed the TLS cipher suite ordering from Java 8
• HTTP request is now formatted correctly when WebSocket client connects to server root

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.61 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.59

Tomcat 7.0.59 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.59, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.59 is a bug fix and security release, no major features have been added.

Fixes

• Fixed a possible deadlock invoking mapMemberAdded() and memberAlive()
• Fix to initialize TLD locations cache

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.59 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.55

Tomcat 7.0.55 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.55, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.55 is a bug fix and security release, no major features have been added.

Fixes

• Log an error is there is a conflict between Host and Alias names
• Recommend "username" instead of "name" in tomcat-users.xml
• Requests to servlets are not mapped when the context is being reloaded

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.55 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.53

Tomcat 7.0.53 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.53, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

Tomcat 7.0.53 is a bug fix and security release, no major features have been added.

Fixes

• Fix NullPointerException in MemoryRealm when authenticating an unknown user
• Allow the deployer to update an existing WAR file without undeploying the existing application if the update flag is set. This allows any existing custom context.xml for the application to be retained. To update an application and remove any existing context.xml simply undeploy the old version of the application before deploying the new version.

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.53 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.52

Tomcat 7.0.52 and above are only available for Virtual Servers running CentOS 6 or CentOS 7. If you are on a CentOS 5 (Webmin) or CentOS 4 (VPS) plan and need Tomcat 7.0.52, you will need to migrate to a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 plan. Contact eApps Sales for more information.

Features

• Tomcat 7.0.52 is designed to run on Java SE 6 or later
• No longer need entire JDK, a JRE is sufficient

Fixes

• SSI and CGI are now disabled by default, see the Release Notes for instructions on how to enable them if needed

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.52 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.42

Features

Tomcat 7.0.42 is a bug fix and security release, no new features have been added.

Fixes

• Greater API stability
• Several performance improvments
• JUnit updated to version 4.11

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.42 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.37

Features

Tomcat 7.0.37 is a bug fix and security release, no new features have been added.

Fixes

• Improved error reporting when a JAR file fails extension validation by including the name of the JAR file in the exception
• Deployment must fail when multiple servlets are mapped to the same url-pattern
• Implement support for post-construct and pre-destroy elements in web.xml.

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.37 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Highlighted Features and Fixes in Tomcat 7.0.16

Features

• Tomcat 7.0.16 is designed to run on Java SE 6 and up
• Tomcat 7 uses the Eclipse JDT Java compiler for compiling JSP pages, meaning that you only need a JRE to run Tomcat, instead of the complete JDK
• Provide additional control over component class loaders, primarily for use when embedding
• Provide protection against null or zero length names being provided for users, roles and groups in the MemoryRealm and UserDatabaseRealm

Fixes

• Improved exception handling
• JAR log messages where no TLDs are found are now set to DEBUG level
• Ensure annotations are scanned when unpackWARs is set to false in the Host where a web application is deployed
• Correct possible threading issue in JSP compilation when development mode is used
• Improve reporting of missing files

The official Release Notes for Tomcat 7.0.16 are no longer available. Please see the ChangeLog, and scroll down to find the relevant information for this specific release: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/changelog.html

Tomcat 7 also includes an update to the Java Service Wrapper version, which is now 3.5.9. More information about the Java Service Wrapper is available here - http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.com/doc/english/introduction.html.

How to upgrade

It is your responsibility to ensure that your application will work on the newer version of Tomcat. There may be incompatibilities that will affect how your application works. Please make sure that you have read the official Release Notes and Changelog, and have done any necessary testing before upgrading a production application.

Before upgrading Tomcat 7, make a backup of your database. Follow the instructions for your database: MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL.

You should also make a backup of your application, your configuration, and any tunings or changes you have made. If you do not have current backups and something goes wrong during the upgrade process, you could have data loss.

To upgrade Tomcat, you will need to work from the command line using SSH, and you will need to be able to work as the root user. You will need to use yum to upgrade the application.

Tomcat 6 to Tomcat 7

There is no direct upgrade path between major Tomcat versions, such as between Tomcat 6 and Tomcat 7. If you are on Tomcat 6, you will need to back up your applications (usually in the /opt/tomcat6/webapps directory), your data, and any configuration files you have changed. Then uninstall Tomcat 6, install Tomcat 7, and then redeploy your applications. If you try to install Tomcat 7 without first uninstalling Tomcat 6, the installation may fail.

When you redeploy your applications, you will also need to update the Tomcat configuration files, such as server.xml. Please note - do not copy the entire file, just the specific HOST blocks that you added. If you try to use the server.xml from a previous version of Tomcat, then the new version of Tomcat will crash.

To remove Tomcat 6, use the yum remove tomcat6 command.

[root@eapps-example ~]# yum remove tomcat6

This will remove the main directories from the /opt/tomcat6 directory, but the tomcat6 directory will still remain.

Once you have removed Tomcat 6, install Tomcat 7 using the yum install tomcat7 command.

[root@eapps-example ~]# yum install tomcat7

Once the installation completes, you will need to redeploy your applications and copy over your configuration files, and test.

Tomcat 7 to Tomcat 7 (newer version)

Before upgrading, make a backup of your applications (usually in /opt/tomcat7/webapps), any configuration files you have changed, and your data. This way you can redeploy your applications if necessary after the upgrade.

Upgrade Tomcat using the yum update tomcat7 command.

[root@eapps-example ~]# yum update tomcat7

Once the update completes, test your existing applications.