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After spending about at least a few days researching and implementing this topic, hard work has finally paid off.

Requirements for this tutorial:

• Intermediate knowledge of the HTTP Protocol
• Basic knowledge of Windows XP (e.g. how to navigate folder directories)
• Java Runtime Environment 5.0 (JRE)
• A glass of water, cup of tea, cider, or whatever floats your boat
• About an hour to spare

 Since there isn't a tutorial out there that deals specifically with Apache 2.2 and Tomcat 6.0 on Windows XP, I thought I would do the honours.  First of all, download and install Apache – I prefer AppServ – and download and install Tomcat.  Check it works by browsing to localhost and localhost:8080 respectively.  If so, we are ready to follow the next steps.

• Download mod_jk (the file name should be mod_jk-1.2.28-httpd-2.2.3.so)

• Copy to C:\AppServ\Apache2.2\modules and rename to mod_jk.so
• Open the Apache httpd.conf file (found in C:\AppServ\Apache2.2\conf) and add the following line:

LoadModule jk_module modules/mod_jk.so

• Open Tomcat's server configuration file (C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\conf\Server.xml)
• Look for the line that says:

<Server port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN" debug="0">

• Add the following line directly after it:

<Listener className="org.apache.jk.config.ApacheConfig" modJk="c:/
AppServ/Apache2.2/modules/mod_jk.so" workersConfig="C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Tomcat 6.0/conf/workers.properties" />

• Just below this line:

<Host name="localhost" appBase="webapps" unpackWARs="true"
autoDeploy="true" xmlValidation="false" xmlNamespaceAware="false">

• Add this:

        <Listener className="org.apache.jk.config.ApacheConfig" append="true" forwardAll="false" modJk="c:/AppServ/Apache2.2/modules/mod_jk.so" />

• Restart the Tomcat service
• If all goes well, you should find that a new directory has been added – C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\conf\auto with a file called mod_jk.config in it
• Edit the Apache httpd.conf file.  Add the following

Include "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Tomcat 6.0/conf/auto//mod_jk.conf"

• Create a file called workers.properties in tomcat/conf/jk, and add the following lines to it:

# BEGIN workers.properties
# Definition for Ajp13 worker
worker.list=ajp13
worker.ajp13.port=8009
worker.ajp13.host=localhost
worker.ajp13.type=ajp13
# END workers.properties

 

Restart the Tomcat service and Apache service.  You may need to reboot in Apache's case – it seems fussy about that on Windows XP.  I still needed to make a few modifications to my setup in order for it to work properly.  The first time I restarted Apache I got a message saying:

Useless use of AllowOverride

In order to solve this error, I had to create a custom mod_jk.conf file, and delete all the AllowOverride None statements.  After doing this, you will no longer be able to use the auto generated file.  Rename the file to mod_jkCustom.conf and save it to C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\conf.  Update your Apache httpd.conf file as follows:

Include "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Tomcat 6.0/conf/mod_jkCustom.conf"

Restart Apache and reboot Windows.  Now navigate to localhost and localhost:8080 to check that both servers are running.  If all is well, navigate to localhost/examples.  You should get error 403, forbidden.  This is far better than a 404 error, at least it's working. 

In order to fix this, look for the following in the Apache httpd.conf file:

<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Satisfy all
Deny from all
</Directory>

Change "Deny from all" to "Allow from all".  This seems to be the only thing that works.  Restart Apache and restart Windows.  Navigate to localhost/examples.  You should get a surprise.  It works!

I hope this has helped someone out there.  I had previously tried unsuccessfully to do this on IIS, which seems slightly more complicated, but considering I'm using Windows XP Home Edition, I won't be using IIS for the near future.  Apache seems to serve all my needs for the time being.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!