Tomcat is a core project in the Jakarta project of the Apache Software Foundation, which is jointly developed by Apache, Sun, and some other companies and individuals. Thanks to Sun's participation and support, the latest Servlet and JSP specifications can always be reflected in Tomcat. Tomcat 5 supports the latest Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 specifications. Because Tomcat has advanced technology, stable performance, and free of charge, it is loved by Java enthusiasts and recognized by some software developers, making it a popular Web application server.
Tomcat server is a free and open source web application server, which is a lightweight application server. It is commonly used in small and medium-sized systems and where there are not many concurrent users. It is the first choice for developing and debugging JSP programs. For a beginner, you can think of it this way. When an Apache server is configured on a machine, it can be used to respond to HTML (an application under the Standard Universal Markup Language) page access request. In fact, Tomcat is an extension of the Apache server, but it runs independently at runtime, so when you run tomcat, it actually runs as a separate process from Apache.
The trick is that when configured correctly, Apache serves HTML pages, while Tomcat actually runs JSP pages and servlets. In addition, Tomcat, like IIS and other Web servers, has the function of processing HTML pages. In addition, it is also a Servlet and JSP container. The independent Servlet container is the default mode of Tomcat. However, Tomcat is not as capable of handling static HTML as the Apache server. The latest version of Tomcat is currently 9.0.
1. nginx
Nginx (engine x) is a high-performance HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as an IMAP/POP3/SMTP server. Nginx was developed by Igor Sesoyev for the second most visited site in Russia, Rambler.ru (Russian: Рамблер). The first public version 0.1.0 was released on October 4, 2004.
It releases the source code in the form of a BSD-like license, and is known for its stability, rich feature set, sample configuration files, and low system resource consumption. On June 1, 2011, nginx 1.0.4 was released.
Nginx is a lightweight web server/reverse proxy server and email (IMAP/POP3) proxy server, and is issued under a BSD-like protocol. Its characteristics are that it occupies less memory and has strong concurrency. In fact, nginx's concurrency ability does perform better in the same type of web server. Mainland Chinese users who use nginx websites include: Baidu, JD, Sina, NetEase, Tencent, Taobao, etc.
2. The difference between nginx and tomcat
The servers on the web are all called web servers, but the division of labor is also different.
Nginx is often used as a static content service and proxy server (not your FQ proxy), and directly forwards external requests to subsequent application services (tomcat, django, etc.). Tomcat is more used as an application container to allow java web apps to run The things in it correspond to jboss, jetty and other things at the same level.
But nothing is absolute, nginx can also provide application functions through module development, and tomcat can also directly provide http services, which are usually used in scenarios where small services such as intranet and flow control are not required.
Apache is used less and less, and generally overlaps more with nginx.
Strictly speaking, Apache/Nginx should be called "HTTP Server"; while Tomcat is an "Application Server", or more accurately, a container for "Servlet/JSP" applications (developed in other languages such as Ruby/Python) The application also cannot run directly on Tomcat).
An HTTP Server is concerned with transmission and access control at the HTTP protocol level, so you can see proxy, load balancing and other functions on Apache/Nginx. The client accesses the resources (HTML files, image files, etc.) stored on the server through the HTTP Server. Through the CGI technology, the processed content can also be distributed through the HTTP Server, but an HTTP Server always just faithfully transfers the files on the server to the client through the HTTP protocol.
The application server is a container for application execution. It first needs to support the Runtime of the development language (for Tomcat, it is Java) to ensure that the application can run normally on the application server. Secondly, it needs to support application-related specifications, such as class libraries and security features. For Tomcat, it is necessary to provide the standard class library, Interface, etc. required for the operation of JSP/Sevlet. For convenience, application servers often integrate the functions of HTTP Server, but they are not as powerful as professional HTTP Server, so application servers often run behind HTTP Server, execute applications, and convert dynamic content into static content. HTTP Server is distributed to clients.
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