2 Easy Steps to Enable SSL / HTTPS on Tomcat Server

If you are running tomcat server that runs only on HTTP, follow the 2 easy steps mentioned below, to configure tomcat for SSL.

1. Create Keystore using Java keytool

First use the keytool to create a java keystore as shown below. Make sure to note down the password that you enter while creating the keystore.

# $JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA
Enter keystore password:
Re-enter new password:
What is your first and last name?
 [Unknown]:  Ramesh Natarajan
What is the name of your organizational unit?
 [Unknown]:  Development
What is the name of your organization?
 [Unknown]:
What is the name of your City or Locality?
 [Unknown]:  Los Angeles
What is the name of your State or Province?
 [Unknown]:  CA
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
 [Unknown]:  US
Is CN=Ramesh, OU=Development, O=Unknown, L=Los Angeles, ST=CA, C=US correct?
 [no]:  yes

Enter key password for
   (RETURN if same as keystore password):

This will create the .keystore file under the /root home directory as shown below.

# ls -l /root/.keystore
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1391 Apr  6 11:19 .keystore

2. Modify the server.xml file

Locate the conf/server.xml file located under the tomcat directory. If the Connector port=”8443″ is commented out, you should uncomment it first. Please note that the comments in the server.xml file are enclosed in <!– and –> as shown below. You should remove the 1st and last line from the following code snippet.

# vi server.xml
   <!--
   <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
              maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"
              clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" />
   -->

Now, add the keystore information to the server.xml as shown below. Replace the your-key-password with the password you provided in the step 1 while creating the keystore.

# vi server.xml
   <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
              maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"
              keystoreFile="/root/.keystore" keystorePass="your-key-password"
              clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" />

Finally, restart the tomcat server and access the application using https://{your-ip-address}:8443/

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