Apache Tomcat High Availability and Load Balancing

[lao zhang]

I searched Tomcat HA on internet. a lot of talks are about Apache Web Server + Mod JK + Tomcat, which use one Apache as dispatcher. My question is do I have to load balancing the apache web server? What if the apache web server failed?

And also could we put hardware load balancer in front of Tomcat servers? How do I do that?

[Tim Holloway]

Apache itself is frequently clustered, so it's not a single point of failure unless you set it up that way.

But there's no reason why you can't skip Apache and just use a hardware load balancer if you prefer. Apache is common in large part because it can also serve up non-Java content. And, of course because it's a lot cheaper than a hardware load balancer!

To use a hardware load balancer with Tomcat, consult the manufacturer's instructions.