Starting of Tomcat failed from Netbeans

It affects at least NetBeans versions 7.4 through 8.0.2. It was first reported from version 8.0 and fixed in NetBeans 8.1. It would have had the problem for any tomcat version (confirmed for versions 7.0.56 through 8.0.28).

Specifics are described as Netbeans bug #248182.

This problem is also related to postings mentioning the following error output:

'127.0.0.1*' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

For a tomcat installed from the zip file, I fixed it by changing the catalina.bat file in the tomcat bin directory.

Find the bellow configuration in your catalina.bat file.

:noJuliConfig
set "JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% %LOGGING_CONFIG%"

:noJuliManager
set "JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% %LOGGING_MANAGER%"

And change it as in below by removing the double quotes:

:noJuliConfig
set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% %LOGGING_CONFIG%

:noJuliManager
set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% %LOGGING_MANAGER%

Now save your changes, and start your tomcat from within NetBeans.

This affects:

• All versions of Tomcat starting from 8.5.3 onwards.
• All versions of Netbeans up to 8.1 (It is fixed in Netbeans 8.2).

This is because Netbeans does not 'see' that tomcat is started, although it started just fine.

I have filed Bug #262749 with NetBeans.

Workaround

In the server.xml file, in the Connector element for HTTP/1.1, add the following attribute: server="Apache-Coyote/1.1".

Example:

<Connector
  connectionTimeout="20000"
  port="8080"
  protocol="HTTP/1.1"
  redirectPort="8443"
  server="Apache-Coyote/1.1"
/>

Cause

The reason for that is that prior to 8.5.3, the default was to set the server header as Apache-Coyote/1.1, while since 8.5.3 this default has now been changed to blank. Apparently Netbeans checks on this header.

Maybe in the future we can expect a fix in netbeans addressing this issue.

I was able to trace it back to a change in documentation.

Tomcat 8.5:

"Overrides the Server header for the http response. If set, the value for this attribute overrides any Server header set by a web application. If not set, any value specified by the application is used. If the application does not specify a value then no Server header is set."

Tomcat 8.0:

"Overrides the Server header for the http response. If set, the value for this attribute overrides the Tomcat default and any Server header set by a web application. If not set, any value specified by the application is used. If the application does not specify a value then Apache-Coyote/1.1 is used. Unless you are paranoid, you won't need this feature."

That explains the need for explicitly adding the server attribute since version 8.5.3.