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Cannot see Tomcat homepage( http://localhost:8080) when starting it from eclipse. But it loads when I start it from tomcat bin directory. Any idead?

I have added tomcat 7 to my eclipse.
When I start the server it gets started successfully(shows the message in console) but when I hit the URL http://localhost:8080 it says "404 resource not found".
Strange thing is when I go to Tomcat bin directory and start it through start.bat, the same url http://localhost:8080 shows the tomcat homepage in browser without any issue.
Any idea? Help is appreciated.

You need to be aware of two directory trees with Tomcat : TOMCAT_HOME and TOMCAT_BASE.
TOMCAT_HOME contains binary related data and can be shared by many running Tomcat instances (it contains jar, dll, exe and other non-contextual data).
TOMCAT_BASE specifies configuration files (ie catalina.properties, server.xml, context configurations), webapp directories and further files such as specific librairies if required.
When running Tomcat from his installation directory: TOMCAT_HOME and TOMCAT_BASE are set to same location. Then, Tomcat serves ${TOMCAT_HOME}\webapps directory. The special ROOT context let serve the root path and by default contains a simple webapp (browse ${TOMCAT_HOME}\webapps\ROOT for more information).
When running Tomcat from Eclipse, Eclipse will setup two directories:
with editable configuration (generally goes under ${WORKSPACE}\Servers\${SERVER_NAME}-conf)
with deployed files from last describe directory, served context configuration, deployed context and some other working files such as log and work directories.
This last directory generally goes under your workspace metadata but you can edit it from the server editor. And Eclipse uses this directory as TOMCAT_BASE. To this directory, Eclipse doesn't deploy the default ROOT webapp neither other default ones (docs, examples, host-manager and manager). If necessary you can add them from the server configuration directory (first one described).

Unable to open "Tomcat web application manager"

I am new to java web programming and eclipse-apache Tomcat. I have small login web-application which includes (one jsp page , one servlet class).
I want to configure/deploy this application on apache web application manager. I mean I don't want to run this application in eclipse. I hope you understand my point.
Whenever I run my server in eclipse it run successfully. But when I want to open apache default page by typing http://localhost:8080 or http://localhost:8080 to configure my app It wouldn't open.
Please advice me.

To deploy a web application on Tomcat, you need to first compile your web application into a WAR file. Then, take that WAR file (let's assume it's called "MyApp.WAR") and put that into the tomcat/webapps directory. Restart the tomcat service. Tomcat will extract that WAR to a folder in the webapps directory. After that, any request to localhost:8080/MyApp will go to your webapp.

Make sure you have java installed, and add JAVA_HOME to your environment variable. (it is the path to java installation directory for e.g. C:\Program Files\java\jdk-1.6)
i.e
JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\java\jdk-1.6
install TOMCAT from here "http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi"
make sure you do not install it in you "c:\program files" due to some permission issues.
Lets say you installed tomcat at "c:\webserver\apache-tomcat\" this is your CATALINA_HOME, add it to your environment variable
i.e CATALINA_HOME=c:\webserver\apache-tomcat\
to acess tomcat webapp manager you need to configure user in %CATALINA_HOME%\conf\tomcat-users.xml
Add a role and a user :
Have your WAR file ready with you (this is how you create WAR "How to make war file in Eclipse")
move your WAR file to "%CATALINA_HOME%\webapp" directory. lets say "TestWeb.WAR" is your application with index.jsp page in it.
Now go to your %CALALINA_HOME%\bin and launch the startup.bat file (you would be using startup.bat to start and shutdown.bat to stop tomcat)
once tomcat is up and running check http://localhost:8080 is working fine.
P.S. If port 80 is already in use then try configuring your tomcat to some other unused PORT here "http://www.mkyong.com/tomcat/how-to-change-tomcat-default-port/"
go to your browser type http://localhost:8080/TestWeb/index.jsp
now you can to lot of configuration to your web app like having a default page and all
Hope this help you !

Normally eclipse uses Tomcat as an eclipse project, hence it uses metadata.
Server > Double click on the tomcat server instance > Server Location > Select "Use Tomcat installation"
Update: Tested just now. Set Deploy path to webapps folder. Works fine :)

Tomcat interrogation with eclipse under linux/mac

I added my local tomcat 8.0.14 with eclipse successfully. My local tomcat is located at /Users/masum/tool/tomcat-8.0.14. I can see it form eclipse runtime Environment as well. Whenever I deploy any webapp to eclipse's tomcat. It doesn't appear in local tomcat-8.0.14/webapps directory. I expected it should go there. But it doesn't.
Also is I do any changes in tomcat/conf/server.xml. These changes doesn't effect in eclipse integrated tomcat. Also if local tomcat is running, port number conflicts with eclipse's tomcat. I have to stop local tomcat to work with eclipse tomcat. Looks like two different instance of tomcat.
My question is where does eclipse tomcat physically located? If I deploy any web app in eclipse tomcat where it actually goes? How can I configure Tomcat so that I can control it both from eclipse and also manually?
Thanks in advance.

Double click your tomcat server in the servers tab. In the servers tab you will see "Server path" under server locations. This is the location of eclipse's tomcat working directory. If you stop tomcat and undeploy all web apps, start and stop again, you will be able to select other options. Click "Use custom location" to set the location to a place of your choosing. In project Explorer you should see a tomcat folder. Under that folder you will find server.xml and the other config files, which you can modify as needed.

Tomcat server could not start

I am developing a dynamic web application on JBoss developer, but I am getting an error message:
Could not load the Tomcat server configuration at
\Servers\Tomcat v6.0 Server at localhost-config. The Servers project
is closed.
Even when I try to start the server on the servers tab, it doesn't start.
Any suggestions?

Sounds to me as if you're doing this inside Eclipse with WTP?
If so then you need to make sure that the Eclipse project called Servers which is created and maintained by WTP is open.
Open the Navigator view
Locate the Servers project
right-mouse click
Open Project

You have been closed server project in eclipse which will come by default after adding tomcat into eclipse. So try to open server project and start Tomcat it will Work..
Steps:
Go to project explorer.
Double click on server project.

You installed Tomcat v6 within eclipse using the “Add server” wizard and the “download and install” button.
You tried to start Tomcat and got the following error:
****“Could not load the Tomcat server configuration at /Servers/Tomcat v6.0 Server at localhost-config. The configuration may be corrupt or incomplete”****
How to solve:
1) . Close Eclipse
2) . Copy all files from TOMCAT_6_HOME/conf to WORKSPACE_FOLDER/Servers/Tomcat v6.0 Server at localhost-config
3) . Start Eclipse
4) . Expand the Servers project, click on the Tomcat 6 project and hit F5
5) . Start Tomcat from Eclipse
6) . Enjoy!!!

Just after many trying I got the solution for this problem. The problem is when your server is created using your IDE(Eclipse, JBoss or any) that time the server is not getting the configuration file. To resolve this problem you need to copy all the configuration files from the tomcat conf directory to your IDE server directory. If I will step out the solution than I can list the steps as-
Locate your Tomcat installation directory
Find the conf directory, sometime you will get it into skel directory
Copy all the files from conf and now change the directory to your IDE workspace
In Server directory paste all the files in your Tomcat configuration directory.

If you are using a Linux-based Eclipse:
Check user and group ownership and permissions to your server directory and subdirectories inside Eclipse. It MUST allow read-write config files by the current Eclipse user. Test it copying config files directly to it and, after that, accessing it through Eclipse text/xml editor.
It's usefull too to check the same for tomcat directory, because Eclipse may be bloked if its owner doesn't have permissions to access that files.

the solution to this problem is :
cd /usr/local/tomcat//conf
chmod 777 *
and it's done

I got the same issue. This is because it's missing "Servers" folder that contains Tomcat in Project Explorer. I already downloaded and configured my Tomcat, but after I created another new java web project, Server stopped working.
To solve this problem right click on "Tomcat v6.0 Server at localhost
[Strated,Synchronized]"
at bottom of your Eclipse.
click "General"
click "Switch Location"
click "Apply"
enter image description here

This usually happens when the "Close unrelated projects" button is clicked. A simple and straightforward solution to this issue:
Go to the bottom of the Project Explorer tab and there will be a project named "Servers". If it's closed, the icon will have a different color than the projects that are open.
Double-click on "Servers". Now the project will be open and this issue will get resolved.

Location of localhost folder in Ubuntu 12.04

I'm running eclipse Juno, with Tomcat 7.0.29. I have some files that are saved to the root of the webapp by my webapp and I want to delete them. I'm trying to find the localhost folder in order to be able to do this. Everything I'm reading tells me it should be at /var/www, however there is not /www directory in var. Where could it be?

Since you're using Eclipse IDE and you don't know where your Tomcat installation folder is, you can find it using the IDE by going to Windows/Preferences. It will pop a Preferences window, select the Server/Runtime Environment option in the left tree, in the right side must appear Apache Tomcat v7.x. Select it from the list and select the Edit... option, it will show you the tomcat installation directory. Let's call this folder <tomcat>
Now you know the folder installation, but maybe Eclipse is not using it to deploy the Java Web applications. To make sure of this, in your Eclipse, go to the Servers view (if it's not visible in the IDE, go to Window/Show view/Servers), it will show you your tomcat server (and others), double click on it. In the Tomcat overview window, check the Server locations panel, expand it and check where the webapp is deployed:
If selected option is Use Tomcat installation then the web app must be in <tomcat>webapps
If selected option is Use workspace metadata then the web app must be in your workspace inside .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.wst.server.core/tmp[number]/wtpwebapps (thanks to Lars Vogel blog post). This is a special folder created by Eclipse.

Default tomcat folder is at /var/lib/tomcat7. Your webapps are under /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps
Not sure what localhost folder you are referring to. There is /etc/tomcat7/Catalina/localhost but I dont see a reason why you should be touching it.
This assumes you used standard Ubuntu tools to install tomcat.