It seems that when an exception falls through to Tomcat that the Tomcat instance (and all installed apps) stop functioning.
No, at least for exceptions occurring in a normal request
Thread.
Once the exception has fallen all the way through to the service method it gets reported but Tomcat remains able to accept new requests.
If this is happening to you, some unusual circumstances must exist. What do you mean by "stop functioning"?
How are you starting Tomcat?
Mention
Java version, Tomcat version and operating system to save time.
Bill
Bill