GlassFish vs tomcat

java jakarta-ee glassfish application-server tomcat5.5
Bogdan picture Bogdan · May 9, 2014 · Viewed 57.6k times · Source

I would like to start using JEE6 in the next project that I have to work on at my job, but there is also a limitation (sort of): Tomcat 5.5 My question is, what improvements would bring GlassFish to the table (security/speed) vs the existing Tomcat(5.5) or an upgrade to the newer version 7?

Answer

Miljen Mikic picture Miljen Mikic · May 9, 2014

Q: My question is, what improvements would bring GlassFish to the table (security/speed) vs the existing Tomcat(5.5) or an upgrade to the newer version 7?

Tomcat 7 compared to Tomcat 5.5 supports newer version of JSR specifications. Therefore, if you wish to use for example Servlet 3.0 or Websockets, you don't have other choice but to upgrade the Tomcat version. See this link for the full list of Tomcat versions and supported specifications.

However, Tomcat is not Java EE container, but only a servlet container. In other words, if you plan to use full Java EE (which includes security and many other things), you have to switch from Tomcat to some of full Java EE application servers. Glassfish is one of them, others are TomEE (similar to Tomcat, so perhaps a good starting point), WildFly, IBM Websphere, Oracle Weblogic etc. Unfortunately, Oracle recently decided to abandon commercial support for Glassfish, so maybe it would be wise choice to go with some other application server if you would like to use it commercially.

One way or another, move from Tomcat 5.5 because it is a quite old version of Tomcat.

See also:

Related questions

How do I access Glassfish V3 Administration Console Website from a remote host

I have installed Glassfish v3 on a standalone server running ubuntu-server 9.10. I can open the Admin website if I use a browser running on the server by browsing to: http:// localhost:4848/ I would like to access it from a remote …

Read More
Address already in use: JVM_Bind

I'm using Glassfish 3.0.1, JVM 1.6.0_21 on Windows XP Pro; I don't know exactly what has changed in my environment but I get this stacktrace as soon as I try to deploy an enterprise application (ejb module + app client module). There is …

Read More
Would you, at present date, use JBoss or Glassfish (or another) as Java EE server for a new project?

If you started a new Java EE project today which is to be finished in about a year, which application server would you choose and why? Part of your answer should include your arguments for your decision. And also how …

Read More