Configuring your Tomcat environment's proxy server

Tomcat platform versions based on Amazon Linux AMI (preceding Amazon Linux 2) use Apache 2.4 for the proxy by default. You can choose to use Apache 2.2 or nginx by including a configuration file in your source code. The following example configures Elastic Beanstalk to use nginx.

option_settings:
  aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy:
    ProxyServer: nginx

If your application was developed for Apache 2.2, read this section to learn about migrating to Apache 2.4.

Starting with Tomcat platform version 3.0.0 configurations, which were released with the Java with Tomcat platform update on May 24, 2018, Apache 2.4 is the default proxy of the Tomcat platform. The Apache 2.4 .conf files are mostly, but not entirely, backward compatible with those of Apache 2.2. Elastic Beanstalk includes default .conf files that work correctly with each Apache version. If your application doesn't customize Apache's configuration, as explained in Extending and overriding the default Apache configuration — Amazon Linux AMI (AL1), it should migrate to Apache 2.4 without any issues.

If your application extends or overrides Apache's configuration, you might have to make some changes to migrate to Apache 2.4. For more information, see Upgrading to 2.4 from 2.2 on The Apache Software Foundation's site. As a temporary measure, until you successfully migrate to Apache 2.4, you can choose to use Apache 2.2 with your application by including the following configuration file in your source code.

option_settings:
  aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy:
    ProxyServer: apache/2.2

For a quick fix, you can also select the proxy server in the Elastic Beanstalk console.

You can extend the Elastic Beanstalk default Apache configuration with your additional configuration files. Alternatively, you can override the Elastic Beanstalk default Apache configuration completely.

To extend the Elastic Beanstalk default Apache configuration, add .conf configuration files to a folder named .ebextensions/httpd/conf.d in your application source bundle. The Elastic Beanstalk Apache configuration includes .conf files in this folder automatically.

~/workspace/my-app/
|-- .ebextensions
|   -- httpd
|      -- conf.d
|         -- myconf.conf
|         -- ssl.conf
-- index.jsp

For example, the following Apache 2.4 configuration adds a listener on port 5000.

listen 5000
<VirtualHost *:5000>
  <Proxy *>
    Require all granted
  </Proxy>
  ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/ retry=0
  ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/
  ProxyPreserveHost on

  ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/elasticbeanstalk-error_log
</VirtualHost>

To override the Elastic Beanstalk default Apache configuration completely, include a configuration in your source bundle at .ebextensions/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.

~/workspace/my-app/
|-- .ebextensions
|   `-- httpd
|       `-- conf
|           `-- httpd.conf
`-- index.jsp

If you override the Elastic Beanstalk Apache configuration, add the following lines to your httpd.conf to pull in the Elastic Beanstalk configurations for Enhanced health reporting and monitoring, response compression, and static files.

IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf
IncludeOptional conf.d/elasticbeanstalk/*.conf

If your environment uses Apache 2.2 as its proxy, replace the IncludeOptional directives with Include. For details about the behavior of these two directives in the two Apache versions, see Include in Apache 2.4, IncludeOptional in Apache 2.4, and Include in Apache 2.2.

For a working example, take a look at the Elastic Beanstalk default configuration file at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf on an instance in your environment. All files in the .ebextensions/httpd folder in your source bundle are copied to /etc/httpd during deployments.

To extend Elastic Beanstalk's default nginx configuration, add .conf configuration files to a folder named .ebextensions/nginx/conf.d/ in your application source bundle. The Elastic Beanstalk nginx configuration includes .conf files in this folder automatically.

~/workspace/my-app/
|-- .ebextensions
|   `-- nginx
|       `-- conf.d
|           |-- elasticbeanstalk
|           |   `-- my-server-conf.conf
|           `-- my-http-conf.conf
`-- index.jsp

Files with the .conf extension in the conf.d folder are included in the http block of the default configuration. Files in the conf.d/elasticbeanstalk folder are included in the server block within the http block.

To override the Elastic Beanstalk default nginx configuration completely, include a configuration in your source bundle at .ebextensions/nginx/nginx.conf.

~/workspace/my-app/
|-- .ebextensions
|   `-- nginx
|       `-- nginx.conf
`-- index.jsp

For a working example, take a look at the Elastic Beanstalk default configuration file at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf on an instance in your environment. All files in the .ebextensions/nginx folder in your source bundle are copied to /etc/nginx during deployments.