How to set up Apache Tomcat 8 to run a servlet application on HTTPS

Question

I want to run my servlet on HTTPS instead of HTTP, so I followed the instructions on this thread and made the following changes to the web.xml of my servlet application:

<security-constraint>
    <web-resource-collection>
        <web-resource-name>Bookyard Server</web-resource-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </web-resource-collection>
    <user-data-constraint>
        <transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
    </user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>

However, when I Run As -> Run on Server in Eclipse, I get the following page:

When I compose the same request in Fiddler, I see that the server returns a 502, indicating that the server is not listening on the port (8443) I use.

HTTP/1.1 502 Fiddler - Connection Failed Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2016 12:22:14 GMT Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Connection: close Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate Timestamp: 17:52:14.594

[Fiddler] The connection to 'localhost' failed.
Error: ConnectionRefused (0x274d).
System.Net.Sockets.SocketException No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:8443

And when I make a web request to this Url via code, it results in a java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused exception.

Therefore, I am obviously not setting things up correctly. Could you please help me?

UPDATE

After making the changes suggested in the answer provided by Nicolas Filotto, when I launch Tomcat manually by starting the startup.bat file in the Tomcat installation folder and then browse to https://localhost:8443, it gives me the invalid certificate error in the browser, and I add an exception for this URL in my browser and I see the Tomcat splash screen just fine.

But when I launch the application in Eclipse, it resorts to the old non-SSL URL and serves the page as though it were from an insecure URL.

The console window outputs this, if this may a useful hint about the error.

Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:Bookyard.server' did not find a matching property. Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Server version: Apache Tomcat/8.0.36 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Server built: Jun 9 2016 13:55:50 UTC Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Server number: 8.0.36.0 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: OS Name:
Windows 7 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: OS Version: 6.1 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Architecture: amd64 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Java Home: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_65 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: JVM Version: 1.8.0_65-b17 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: JVM Vendor: Oracle Corporation Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: CATALINA_BASE:
C:\Sathyaish\Practice\Java\eclipse\workspace.metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp1 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: CATALINA_HOME: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 8.0 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Command line argument: -Dcatalina.base=C:\Sathyaish\Practice\Java\eclipse\workspace.metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp1 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Command line argument: -Dcatalina.home=C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 8.0 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Command line argument: -Dwtp.deploy=C:\Sathyaish\Practice\Java\eclipse\workspace.metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp1\wtpwebapps Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Command line argument: -Djava.endorsed.dirs=C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 8.0\endorsed Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener log INFO: Command line argument: -Dfile.encoding=Cp1252 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener lifecycleEvent INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_65\bin;C:\Windows\Sun\Java\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_65/bin/server;C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_65/bin;C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_65/lib/amd64;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Startup Setting Tool;C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Smart Projects\IsoBuster;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\TypeScript\1.0\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Client SDK\ODBC\110\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files\nodejs\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\;C:\Users\computer\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Scripts\;C:\Users\computer\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\;C:\Users\computer.dnx\bin;C:\Users\computer\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Sathyaish\Software\eclipse-jee-mars-2-win32-x86_64\eclipse;;. Aug 29, 2016 6:47:16 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"] Aug 29, 2016 6:47:17 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool getSharedSelector INFO: Using a shared selector for servlet write/read Aug 29, 2016 6:47:17 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"] Aug 29, 2016 6:47:17 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool getSharedSelector INFO: Using a shared selector for servlet write/read Aug 29, 2016 6:47:17 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load INFO: Initialization processed in 2448 ms Aug 29, 2016 6:47:17 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal INFO: Starting service Catalina Aug 29, 2016 6:47:17 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.0.36 Aug 29, 2016 6:47:19 PM org.apache.catalina.util.SessionIdGeneratorBase createSecureRandom INFO: Creation of SecureRandom instance for session ID generation using [SHA1PRNG] took [283] milliseconds. Aug 29, 2016 6:47:20 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8080"] Aug 29, 2016 6:47:20 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"] Aug 29, 2016 6:47:20 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start INFO: Server startup in 2920 ms

Answer 1

You have also to uncomment the connector for https in your file conf/server.xml:

<Connector port="8443" protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
               maxThreads="150" SSLEnabled="true" scheme="https" secure="true"
               clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" />

Simply follow this guide as you will also need to create a certificate and add the related attributes to your connector's configuration.

At the end, it should look like something like this:

<Connector
           protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
           port="8443" maxThreads="150"
           scheme="https" secure="true" SSLEnabled="true"
           keystoreFile="/path/to/my/keystore" keystorePass="My keystore password"
           clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS"/>