Rating: 
Summary: A Must have!
Review: First, the book covers the "old" Tomcat 3.x and the "new" Tomcat 4.x. I used it with 4.1.12 and the 4.1.15 (alpha).I am a software developer that recently changes to the world of XML/XSLT. I am using Apache Cocoon at work. And I can said that this book is a must have to everyone who wants understand how Apache Tomcat works, how to configure and how get the best performance most from it. You can will learn how to test the application load before you deploy it. When you will use this book to solve a problem, you will smile when you will see the picture at front of the book, because your problem will be solved. ;-D I recommend to buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: *Wow* Awesome Book
Review: I am a professor at a large technical college. I use Tomcat in my Distributed Java class and I have to say this is one of the finest books on Tomcat I have seen. I have recommended this book to all of my students. The book is well-laid out. It offers a good overview of all of the major pieces of functionality in Tomcat and does a particularly good job of describing the different manners which you can integrate Tomcat and Apache. My only complaint might be that the section on Axis was extremly light-weight. I would have loved to see more detail in this chapter, even though the information in the chapter was a good starter.
Rating:
Summary: Book paid for itself in first 30 minutes
Review: I had been playing with Tomcat for several weeks before getting this book. My biggest problem was getting it to integrate with IIS. 30 minutes after getting this book, I had the IIS integration up and running perfectly! I would recommend this book to anyone that needs to learn about configuring Tomcat!
Rating: 
Summary: So-called cryptic tomcat documentation is a better read.
Review: I purchased the book literally "fooled" by the title. There is nothing professional about this book. All this book tells you is the documentation that comes with tomcat! It does not even provide some naive examples (forget "professional" ones). (Does not explain jk2 installation, hardly any detailed configuration routines!) The only other purpose this book can serve to anyone, is to save paper while printing tomcat documentation.
Rating:
Summary: So-called cryptic tomcat documentation is a better read.
Review: I purchased the book literally "fooled" by the title. There is nothing professional about this book. All this book tells you is the documentation that comes with tomcat! It does not even provide some naive examples (forget "professional" ones). (Does not explain jk2 installation, hardly any detailed configuration routines!) The only other purpose this book can serve to anyone, is to save paper while printing tomcat documentation.
Rating:
Summary: Very thorough, lots of practical information
Review: I was quite pleased with this book. I've been active on the Tomcat mailing lists for many months, and have seen the level of frustration experienced by new users firsthand due to the existing Tomcat documentation. While lack of solid documentation is one of the problems most open source projects face, there are always books written as supplements, and of the Tomcat books I have read, this one stands out far above the rest. In particular, I found the chapters on Shared Tomcat Hosting (Chapter 19), Log4J (Chapter 18), Server Load Testing (Chapter 20), and the web server connectors to be the most valuable. Most of the traffic on the mailing lists is generated from problems using the connectors, and the authors went to great lengths to explain their configuration and usage in a clear and concise manner, even in a load balancing environment. For systems administrators in a corporate or ISP environment, the chapter on shared hosting is worth the price of the book all by itself. It lays out how to handle shared hosting with Tomcat solo as well as integrated with Apache, and also describes setting up a separate JVM for each virtual host, something that can be critical to making system administration easy. After all, you don't want a problem with one client's Tomcat to cause problems for other clients. The book deserves the use of the word "Professional" in its title, as it goes way beyond simply setting up Tomcat to work with servlets and JSP. Especially in later chapters, the issues encountered by administrators and developers in a professional or corporate, mixed-use environment are covered concisely and thoroughly. All told, one of the better technical books I have read, and I have read more than I care to count. In addition to being a solid reference, this book gave me information I was able to use at an advanced level right away on my own servers for my own clients. You can't ask for more than that.
Rating:
Summary: Very thorough, lots of practical information
Review: I was quite pleased with this book. I've been active on the Tomcat mailing lists for many months, and have seen the level of frustration experienced by new users firsthand due to the existing Tomcat documentation. While lack of solid documentation is one of the problems most open source projects face, there are always books written as supplements, and of the Tomcat books I have read, this one stands out far above the rest. In particular, I found the chapters on Shared Tomcat Hosting (Chapter 19), Log4J (Chapter 18), Server Load Testing (Chapter 20), and the web server connectors to be the most valuable. Most of the traffic on the mailing lists is generated from problems using the connectors, and the authors went to great lengths to explain their configuration and usage in a clear and concise manner, even in a load balancing environment. For systems administrators in a corporate or ISP environment, the chapter on shared hosting is worth the price of the book all by itself. It lays out how to handle shared hosting with Tomcat solo as well as integrated with Apache, and also describes setting up a separate JVM for each virtual host, something that can be critical to making system administration easy. After all, you don't want a problem with one client's Tomcat to cause problems for other clients. The book deserves the use of the word "Professional" in its title, as it goes way beyond simply setting up Tomcat to work with servlets and JSP. Especially in later chapters, the issues encountered by administrators and developers in a professional or corporate, mixed-use environment are covered concisely and thoroughly. All told, one of the better technical books I have read, and I have read more than I care to count. In addition to being a solid reference, this book gave me information I was able to use at an advanced level right away on my own servers for my own clients. You can't ask for more than that.
Rating:
Summary: Broad, Solid, Practical Coverage
Review: I was quite surprised by this book when I read it-- the topical coverage goes from fundamentals of a web server's role in J2EE development, to installing one, to adding various connector tools , and finally to testing web apps for load. That's going from start to finish for a service administrator, all in a tidy 500+ pages. Many guides try to cover all the details of a tool and get lost in explaining too much. This guide remains practical, and might even frustrate someone who does want every detail. For those who want to get something done and need reliable information, this book is an ideal desktop reference. If you want to learn some J2EE stuff by example and using a tool, this book will prepare you well for further reading on J2EE design. I also like the coverage on Ant and Log4J -- more books should explain how such tools integrate into a larger environment. This book will help anyone who feels confident with a web server to build and extend Apache/Tomcat on their own. I recommend it to anyone who supports the product or wants an aid to experimenting with it.
Rating:
Summary: Good for non-developers too
Review: I'm not a software developer but need to know about Tomcat - detail on what it can do and how it relates to web servers and applications servers. Before picking up this book I had no direct experience of running either Tomcat or even the Apache Server. This book provides an excellent introduction to the subject as well as having a wealth of detail for the more demanding reader. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Professional!
Review: If you are using Tomcat frequently then this is the book for you! I got all I needed about the http server integration issues, security, configs and database connection setup etc. The chapter on Ant was quite useful for our builds. The book covers 4.1.x which was crucial to upgrading our server. There is also enough specific info on security, hosting, load management and administering of Tomcat. Excellent buy!
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