Rating: 
Summary: Good thorugh reference for all aspects of tomcat admin
Review: First note that this book is for tomcat 4, not 5. Hopefully there will soon be an up to date version of this book available.
Note also that this book is from an administrator's perspective, not a developer's. You won't learn how to write custom tag libs from reading this.
Note also that if you are new to tomcat, and just want to get the thing running, there is sufficient on line documentation to do this at the jakarta site. Don't spend money on this book unless you want a solid administration reference.
That being said, it is an great reference to all aspects of tomcat administration. Every element of every configuration file is explained. Also, there is an excellent chapter on tomcat security.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Understand
Review: I found this easy to understand and comprehensive. Instructions are easy to follow. You can get started in less than 10 minutes. The first chapter covers the installation in almost all operating systems where Java is available, which is good especially if you are not using the mainstream OS's.Most material can probably be found in Tomcat's website itself, but this book still has good value for money. You might also want to look at Wrox' "Professional Apache Tomcat", which is equally good. For advanced users, you might want to check "How TOmcat Works" (download sample chapters from the publisher's site first because as I said this is not for beginners) that covers beyond configuration and administration.
Rating:
Summary: Most concise Tomcat book yet
Review: I just got this book saturday (it's now monday) and this book has already helped me solve two problems and clairify my Tomcat thinking. This book is the best Tomcat book yet for Administrators. I have used the others (Professional Apache-Tomcat, Mastering Tomcat Development, and Apache-Jakarta Tomcat), but this one has been the best. It is very well organized and has some great helps in it. It does not try to cover everything, but it focuses on some. For example, Tomcat 3 is not covered by this book. Mod_webapp is not covered, but mod_jk2 is very well covered. The authors covers how to secure Tomcat through chroot (using a special file they ported from OpenBSD called jbchroot.c), run Tomcat as an unpriviledged user on port 80, Clustering with or without Apache, Apache integration is given REAL coverage. The best thing about this book is the focus on Administration and not development, this is obviously for administrators. The other books were focused on developers and were either way to short or had way too much scattered and confused information. Admins like things well organized and consistant.
If you are a Sys Admin and need a book on Tomcat administration, get this book and forget about the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Very easy to understand and tells you stuff you need to know
Review: I'm just getting into JSP/Servlet via Tomcat 4. I found this book very easy to read and understand. I was actually reading through the book at the bookstore. It was exactly what I was looking for as a person with limited UNIX and J2EE experience.
The book clearly tells you what you need to do and tells you how to confirm that something is working. Of greatest interest to me was how Tomcat would be implemented. The book listed the 4 ways to integrate Tomcat with an existing Apache server running in addition to running Tomcat as a stand-alone HTTP server. The book is sensitive to readers that may be running Tomcat on several platforms other than UNIX and XP. I found this book to be informative. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Ideal for System Admins
Review: If you are a System Admin, and you want to learn how to effectively run and maintain a Tomcat web server, this is the book for you. I found myself in this very situation not too long ago. After reading sparse Tomcat docs (and getting very confused) I bought this book, read it in a few days. Before long, I was running a proper Tomcat web server for a few users. I cannot speak for the development side of this book, though I think this book gave a nice introduction to JSPs and servlets for someone who is not a Java programmer. I can speak for the administrative side of it, and it is very good. The authors are very thorough in showing you how to setup a Tomcat server, and provide a couple different setups to use, and how to approach each. In addition, they cover security, dealing with users, and configuring the server. For setting up and running a Tomcat server, this book is certainly a good buy. If you are a web server admin, take the time to read this book. :)
Rating: 
Summary: TOMCAT - SERIOUS LEVEL GUIDANCE
Review: In short, this book provides comprehensive instructions for almost anyone wanting to deploy the TOMCAT Server. This book is a good starting place for programmers or admins who expect to quickly understand basic concepts. Chapter-by-chapter the book presents new concepts accompanied by examples and descriptions for installing, configuring, and some debugging of the servlet engine. While the book tends to be Unix-centric, information for other Operating Environments is provided. Each successive chapter tends to expand on the previous chapter increasing the reader's knowledge along the way. It adequately serves as an introduction to Tomcat but it is also a good book to keep around as a technical administrative reference. The book provides specific information on Tomcat interfaces and components through a "user guide" type format. For example, information is presented for Tomcat's setup, configuration files, environment variables, servlets and JSP's, JDBC, SSL and much more. What this book is not is a programmer guide but is a good how-to for programmers wanting to administer the server. Examples are provided for using and running Tomcat as a stand-alone web server. In summary, this book is a success in explaining the relatively technical concepts of Tomcat and also provides very useful and relevant information about Tomcat features.
Rating:
Summary: TOMCAT - SERIOUS LEVEL GUIDANCE
Review: In short, this book provides comprehensive instructions for almost anyone wanting to deploy the TOMCAT Server. This book is a good starting place for programmers or admins who expect to quickly understand basic concepts. Chapter-by-chapter the book presents new concepts accompanied by examples and descriptions for installing, configuring, and some debugging of the servlet engine. While the book tends to be Unix-centric, information for other Operating Environments is provided. Each successive chapter tends to expand on the previous chapter increasing the reader's knowledge along the way. It adequately serves as an introduction to Tomcat but it is also a good book to keep around as a technical administrative reference. The book provides specific information on Tomcat interfaces and components through a "user guide" type format. For example, information is presented for Tomcat's setup, configuration files, environment variables, servlets and JSP's, JDBC, SSL and much more. What this book is not is a programmer guide but is a good how-to for programmers wanting to administer the server. Examples are provided for using and running Tomcat as a stand-alone web server. In summary, this book is a success in explaining the relatively technical concepts of Tomcat and also provides very useful and relevant information about Tomcat features.
Rating:
Summary: Fast Changing Tomcat
Review: Projects from Apache Jakarta must be hard to write about since they change so fast. The projects are open source and, in the case of Tomcat, considered to be specification implementations. This makes it very difficult to find an up-to-date text on the projects. Tomcat: The Definitive Guide addresses the latest technology in the Tomcat project. You will find the latest information on configuring Tomcat and also on 3rd party tools related to the technology. It's the best book available on the topic...for now. Let's hope the projects reach some level of stability (like Apache, Linux, etc.) at which point books will be easier to write and more helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: rushed and shallow
Review: This book is a great, concise guide to setting up and administering Tomcat. No assumptions are made that you have years of Java or system administration experience. The book directly tackles ninety-eight percent of the questions that the average Tomcat administrator is going to have without having to sift through thousands of pages of worthless fluff. I was able to sit down and read the book over a single weekend. As concise and straightforward as the book is, it still takes on the more complex topics like Building Tomcat from Source, Tomcat Security, and Tomcat Clustering. But I imagine that, like me, you will end up permanently creasing the book binding on Chapter 7: Configuration Files and Their Elements. Especially if you actually end up setting up and running Tomcat. In typical O'REILLY style the book is well organized and well written. It is not one of those technical books that require reading the same sentence three times just to understand its content. Instead the authors have an easy to read style that gracefully flows from topic to topic. Thanks to the authors Jason Brittain and Ian F. Darwin and of course to O'REILLY for another worthy edition to my reference library.
Rating:
Summary: Concise, Organized and Well Written
Review: This book is a great, concise guide to setting up and administering Tomcat. No assumptions are made that you have years of Java or system administration experience. The book directly tackles ninety-eight percent of the questions that the average Tomcat administrator is going to have without having to sift through thousands of pages of worthless fluff. I was able to sit down and read the book over a single weekend. As concise and straightforward as the book is, it still takes on the more complex topics like Building Tomcat from Source, Tomcat Security, and Tomcat Clustering. But I imagine that, like me, you will end up permanently creasing the book binding on Chapter 7: Configuration Files and Their Elements. Especially if you actually end up setting up and running Tomcat. In typical O'REILLY style the book is well organized and well written. It is not one of those technical books that require reading the same sentence three times just to understand its content. Instead the authors have an easy to read style that gracefully flows from topic to topic. Thanks to the authors Jason Brittain and Ian F. Darwin and of course to O'REILLY for another worthy edition to my reference library.
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