Can a single Apache server handle both Tomcat and PHP?

Question

I have a requirement as to have a single server with both a Java application and a PHP application, running on the same Apache. Is this possible?

This question may be very silly but I have no clue about java requirements or installation procedures.

Can I do such a thing that as to have the java application running on one port and the PHP application on another port, both on the same Apache?

Answer 1

This is possible using Apache Reverse Proxy,

I configured one Apache virtual host that serves one PHP website (Drupal) and one java (tomcat, for business logic) that are stored in the same server using a reverse proxy with 2 locations, the advantage of this configuration is that it doesn't expose the port that Tomcat is using on the URL which was mandatory for me for security reasons.

This is how I achieved this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ProxyPreserveHost       On
DocumentRoot            "/srv/www/htdocs/"
ErrorLog                /var/log/httpd/app_error_log.log
CustomLog               /var/log/httpd/app_log.log combined
ServerName              myapp.com

#Drupal PHP Content, stored at / as the main front end website.
<Location />
    ProxyPass http://localhost/
    ProxyPassReverse http://localhost
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Location>

#Tomcat/java content, secondary site used to process payments and business logic:
<Location /javaApp>
    ProxyPass http://localhost:8080/javaApp/
    ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:8080/javaApp/
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Location>

</VirtualHost>

Restart Apache:

service httpd restart;

Test your reverse proxies: PHP/Drupal (In my case i'm using drupal but can be any PHP code):

http://yourserverip/ or http://localhost/

Java:

http://yourserverip/javaApp or http://localhost/javaApp

I hope someone can find this useful. I had a hard time trying to figure this out. :)

Regards.