You should not add Context elements to server.xml. Context elements should be defined in their own files (under TOMCAT_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost), the WAR's META-INF/context.xml file or similar places. Or omitted, in which case Tomcat will construct a minimal default Context. If you define a Context
and you drop a WAR into TOMCAT_HOME/webapps, that would be takes as 2 distinct webapps based on the same WAR code (unless the context was in the WAR's META-INF/context.xml file).
You also do not add Host elements to server.xml unless you intend to define multiple virtual hosts. The only mods most people need to make to server.xml are for setting up TLS/SSL Connections.
For cleanest results, do the following:
1. Stop Tomcat
2. Delete everything under TOMCAT_HOME/work, TOMCAT_HOME/temp, TOMCAT_HOME/logs
3. Verify that TOMCAT_HOME/webapps contains what you want it to. It's OK (and normal) for the same webapp to be in there as both a WAR file and an exploded WAR directory. If that's the case, the directory will be used and the WAR file will be ignored. Even if it's newer than the directory.
4. Verify that you don't have anything unwanted in TOMCAT_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost, and if you do, remove it.
5. Alternatively, just unzip a clean copy of Tomcat and use that.
6. When starting Tomcat, start it from the command shell, not as a Windows Service or via the WTP plugin that comes bundled with
J2EE Eclipse (Run as Server menu). WTP mangles things and confuses the issue. Basically, you want to be running Tomcat and only Tomcat here. If you can get it to work properly stand-alone, then it's much easier to get it to run in the specialized environments.