bitnami-containers/bitnami/tomcat

Bitnami Secure Image for Apache Tomcat

What is Apache Tomcat?

Apache Tomcat is an open-source web server designed to host and run Java-based web applications. It is a lightweight server with a good performance for applications running in production environments.

Overview of Apache Tomcat Trademarks: This software listing is packaged by Bitnami. The respective trademarks mentioned in the offering are owned by the respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

TL;DR

docker run --name tomcat bitnami/tomcat:latest

You can find the default credentials and available configuration options in the Environment Variables section.

⚠️ Important Notice: Upcoming changes to the Bitnami Catalog

Beginning August 28th, 2025, Bitnami will evolve its public catalog to offer a curated set of hardened, security-focused images under the new Bitnami Secure Images initiative. As part of this transition:

• Granting community users access for the first time to security-optimized versions of popular container images.
• Bitnami will begin deprecating support for non-hardened, Debian-based software images in its free tier and will gradually remove non-latest tags from the public catalog. As a result, community users will have access to a reduced number of hardened images. These images are published only under the “latest” tag and are intended for development purposes
• Starting August 28th, over two weeks, all existing container images, including older or versioned tags (e.g., 2.50.0, 10.6), will be migrated from the public catalog (docker.io/bitnami) to the “Bitnami Legacy” repository (docker.io/bitnamilegacy), where they will no longer receive updates.
• For production workloads and long-term support, users are encouraged to adopt Bitnami Secure Images, which include hardened containers, smaller attack surfaces, CVE transparency (via VEX/KEV), SBOMs, and enterprise support.

These changes aim to improve the security posture of all Bitnami users by promoting best practices for software supply chain integrity and up-to-date deployments. For more details, visit the Bitnami Secure Images announcement.

Why use Bitnami Secure Images?

• Bitnami Secure Images and Helm charts are built to make open source more secure and enterprise ready.
• Triage security vulnerabilities faster, with transparency into CVE risks using industry standard Vulnerability Exploitability Exchange (VEX), KEV, and EPSS scores.
• Our hardened images use a minimal OS (Photon Linux), which reduces the attack surface while maintaining extensibility through the use of an industry standard package format.
• Stay more secure and compliant with continuously built images updated within hours of upstream patches.
• Bitnami containers, virtual machines and cloud images use the same components and configuration approach - making it easy to switch between formats based on your project needs.
• Hardened images come with attestation signatures (Notation), SBOMs, virus scan reports and other metadata produced in an SLSA-3 compliant software factory.

Only a subset of BSI applications are available for free. Looking to access the entire catalog of applications as well as enterprise support? Try the commercial edition of Bitnami Secure Images today.

How to deploy Apache Apache Tomcat in Kubernetes?

Deploying Bitnami applications as Helm Charts is the easiest way to get started with our applications on Kubernetes. Read more about the installation in the Bitnami Apache Apache Tomcat Chart GitHub repository.

Why use a non-root container?

Non-root container images add an extra layer of security and are generally recommended for production environments. However, because they run as a non-root user, privileged tasks are typically off-limits. Learn more about non-root containers in our docs.

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

Learn more about the Bitnami tagging policy and the difference between rolling tags and immutable tags in our documentation page.

You can see the equivalence between the different tags by taking a look at the tags-info.yaml file present in the branch folder, i.e bitnami/ASSET/BRANCH/DISTRO/tags-info.yaml.

Subscribe to project updates by watching the bitnami/containers GitHub repo.

Get this image

The recommended way to get the Bitnami Apache Tomcat Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/tomcat:latest

To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the list of available versions in the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/tomcat:[TAG]

If you wish, you can also build the image yourself by cloning the repository, changing to the directory containing the Dockerfile and executing the docker build command. Remember to replace the APP, VERSION and OPERATING-SYSTEM path placeholders in the example command below with the correct values.

git clone https://github.com/bitnami/containers.git
cd bitnami/APP/VERSION/OPERATING-SYSTEM
docker build -t bitnami/APP:latest .

Persisting your application

If you remove the container all your data and configurations will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a directory at the /bitnami path. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run.

docker run -v /path/to/tomcat-persistence:/bitnami bitnami/tomcat:latest

Alternatively, modify the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  tomcat:
  ...
    volumes:
      - /path/to/tomcat-persistence:/bitnami
  ...

NOTE: As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

Deploying web applications on Apache Tomcat

The /bitnami/tomcat/data directory is configured as the Apache Tomcat webapps deployment directory. At this location, you either copy a so-called exploded web application, i.e. non-compressed, or a compressed web application resource (.WAR) file and it will automatically be deployed by Apache Tomcat.

Additionally a helper symlink /app is present that points to the webapps deployment directory which enables us to deploy applications on a running Apache Tomcat instance by simply doing:

docker cp /path/to/app.war tomcat:/app

In case you want to create a custom image that already contains your application war file, you need to add it to the /opt/bitnami/tomcat/webapps folder. In the example below we create a forked image with an extra .war file.

FROM bitnami/tomcat:latest
COPY sample.war /opt/bitnami/tomcat/webapps

Note! You can also deploy web applications on a running Apache Tomcat instance using the Apache Tomcat management interface.

Further Reading:

• Apache Tomcat Web Application Deployment

Accessing your Apache Tomcat server from the host

To access your web server from your host machine you can ask Docker to map a random port on your host to port 8080 exposed in the container.

docker run --name tomcat -P bitnami/tomcat:latest

Run docker port to determine the random ports Docker assigned.

$ docker port tomcat
8080/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:32768

You can also manually specify the ports you want forwarded from your host to the container.

docker run -p 8080:8080 bitnami/tomcat:latest

Access your web server in the browser by navigating to http://localhost:8080.

Configuration

Environment variables

Customizable environment variables

Name	Description	Default Value
TOMCAT_SHUTDOWN_PORT_NUMBER	Tomcat shutdown port number.	8005
TOMCAT_HTTP_PORT_NUMBER	Tomcat HTTP port number.	8080
TOMCAT_AJP_PORT_NUMBER	Tomcat AJP port number.	8009
TOMCAT_USERNAME	Tomcat username.	manager
TOMCAT_PASSWORD	Tomcat password.	nil
TOMCAT_ALLOW_REMOTE_MANAGEMENT	Whether to allow connections from remote addresses to the Tomcat manager application.	yes
TOMCAT_ENABLE_AUTH	Whether to enable authentication for Tomcat manager applications.	yes
TOMCAT_ENABLE_AJP	Whether to enable the Tomcat AJP connector.	no
TOMCAT_START_RETRIES	The number or retries while waiting for Catalina to start.	12
TOMCAT_EXTRA_JAVA_OPTS	Additional Java settings for Tomcat.	nil
TOMCAT_INSTALL_DEFAULT_WEBAPPS	Whether to add default webapps (ROOT, manager, host-manager, etc.) for deployment.	yes
JAVA_OPTS	Java runtime parameters.	-Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+UseG1GC -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Djava.net.preferIPv4Addresses=true -Duser.home=${TOMCAT_HOME}

Read-only environment variables

Name	Description	Value
TOMCAT_BASE_DIR	Tomcat installation directory.	${BITNAMI_ROOT_DIR}/tomcat
TOMCAT_VOLUME_DIR	Tomcat persistence directory.	/bitnami/tomcat
TOMCAT_BIN_DIR	Tomcat directory for binary files.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/bin
TOMCAT_LIB_DIR	Tomcat directory for library files.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/lib
TOMCAT_WORK_DIR	Tomcat directory for runtime files.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/work
TOMCAT_WEBAPPS_DIR	Tomcat directory where webapps are stored.	${TOMCAT_VOLUME_DIR}/webapps
TOMCAT_CONF_DIR	Tomcat configuration directory.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/conf
TOMCAT_DEFAULT_CONF_DIR	Tomcat default configuration directory.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/conf.default
TOMCAT_CONF_FILE	Tomcat configuration file.	${TOMCAT_CONF_DIR}/server.xml
TOMCAT_USERS_CONF_FILE	Tomcat configuration file.	${TOMCAT_CONF_DIR}/tomcat-users.xml
TOMCAT_LOGS_DIR	Directory where Tomcat logs are stored.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/logs
TOMCAT_TMP_DIR	Directory where Tomcat temporary files are stored.	${TOMCAT_BASE_DIR}/temp
TOMCAT_LOG_FILE	Path to the log file for Tomcat.	${TOMCAT_LOGS_DIR}/catalina.out
TOMCAT_PID_FILE	Path to the PID file for Tomcat.	${TOMCAT_TMP_DIR}/catalina.pid
TOMCAT_HOME	Tomcat home directory.	$TOMCAT_BASE_DIR
TOMCAT_DAEMON_USER	Tomcat system user.	tomcat
TOMCAT_DAEMON_GROUP	Tomcat system group.	tomcat
JAVA_HOME	Java installation folder.	${BITNAMI_ROOT_DIR}/java

Creating a custom user

By default, a management user named manager is created and is not assigned a password. Passing the TOMCAT_PASSWORD environment variable when running the image for the first time will set the password of this user to the value of TOMCAT_PASSWORD.

Additionally you can specify a user name for the management user using the TOMCAT_USERNAME environment variable. When not specified, the TOMCAT_PASSWORD configuration is applied on the default user (manager).

Specifying Environment variables using Docker Compose

This requires a minor change to the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  tomcat:
  ...
    environment:
      - TOMCAT_USERNAME=my_user
      - TOMCAT_PASSWORD=my_password
  ...

Specifying Environment variables on the Docker command line

docker run --name tomcat \
  -e TOMCAT_USERNAME=my_user \
  -e TOMCAT_PASSWORD=my_password \
  bitnami/tomcat:latest

Configuration files

During the initialization of the container, the default Apache Tomcat configuration files are modified with the basic options defined through environment variables. If you want to add more specific configuration options, you can always mount your own configuration files under /opt/bitnami/tomcat/conf/ to override the existing ones. Please note that those files should be writable by the system user of the container.

docker run --name tomcat -v /path/to/config/server.xml:/opt/bitnami/tomcat/conf/server.xml bitnami/tomcat:latest

or using Docker Compose:

services:
  tomcat:
  ...
    volumes:
      - /path/to/config/server.xml:/opt/bitnami/tomcat/conf/server.xml
  ...

Refer to the Apache Tomcat configuration manual for the complete list of configuration options.

FIPS configuration in Bitnami Secure Images

The Bitnami Apache Tomcat Docker image from the Bitnami Secure Images catalog includes extra features and settings to configure the container with FIPS capabilities. You can configure the next environment variables:

• OPENSSL_FIPS: whether OpenSSL runs in FIPS mode or not. yes (default), no.

Logging

The Bitnami Apache Tomcat Docker image sends the container logs to the stdout. To view the logs:

docker logs tomcat

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs tomcat

You can configure the containers logging driver using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

Maintenance

Upgrade this image

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of Apache Tomcat, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container.

Step 1: Get the updated image

docker pull bitnami/tomcat:latest

or if you're using Docker Compose, update the value of the image property to bitnami/tomcat:latest.

Step 2: Stop and backup the currently running container

Stop the currently running container using the command

docker stop tomcat

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose stop tomcat

Next, take a snapshot of the persistent volume /path/to/tomcat-persistence using:

rsync -a /path/to/tomcat-persistence /path/to/tomcat-persistence.bkp.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H.%M.%S)

Step 3: Remove the currently running container

docker rm -v tomcat

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose rm -v tomcat

Step 4: Run the new image

Re-create your container from the new image.

docker run --name tomcat bitnami/tomcat:latest

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose up tomcat

Notable Changes

Debian: 9.0.26-r0, 8.5.46-r0, 8.0.53-r382, 7.0.96-r50. Oracle: 9.0.24-ol-7-r35, 8.5.45-ol-7-r34, 8.0.53-ol-7-r426, 7.0.96-ol-7-r61

• Decrease the size of the container. The configuration logic is now based on Bash scripts in the rootfs/ folder.

9.0.13-r27 , 8.5.35-r26, 8.0.53-r131 & 7.0.92-r20

• The Apache Tomcat container has been migrated to a non-root user approach. Previously the container ran as the root user and the Apache Tomcat daemon was started as the tomcat user. From now on, both the container and the Apache Tomcat daemon run as user 1001. As a consequence, the data directory must be writable by that user. You can revert this behavior by changing USER 1001 to USER root in the Dockerfile.

8.0.35-r3

• TOMCAT_USER parameter has been renamed to TOMCAT_USERNAME.

8.0.35-r0

• All volumes have been merged at /bitnami/tomcat. Now you only need to mount a single volume at /bitnami/tomcat for persistence.
• The logs are always sent to the stdout and are no longer collected in the volume.

Using docker-compose.yaml

Please be aware this file has not undergone internal testing. Consequently, we advise its use exclusively for development or testing purposes. For production-ready deployments, we highly recommend utilizing its associated Bitnami Helm chart.

If you detect any issue in the docker-compose.yaml file, feel free to report it or contribute with a fix by following our Contributing Guidelines.

Contributing

We'd love for you to contribute to this container. You can request new features by creating an issue or submitting a pull request with your contribution.

Issues

If you encountered a problem running this container, you can file an issue. For us to provide better support, be sure to fill the issue template.

License

Copyright © 2025 Broadcom. The term "Broadcom" refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.