how to use httpPlatformHandler with Tomcat on Virtual Directory only

Question

I host a webapp on TomEE and want it available from a front-end IIS Server (same server).

My server is built this way :

• Windows Server 2016
• IIS 10 with httpPlatformHandler module v1.2 installed
• TomEE 9.1.1 microprofile in "C:\tomee\apache-tomee-9.1.1-microprofile"
• JDK 11.0.18 in "C:\tomee\jdk-11.0.18+10"
• Main IIS ASP.Net app available at https://myserver.mydomain.tld/main/
• MyApp.war deployed and available at http://localhost:8080/myapp/ (before further change to the port number)
• Virtual Directory named "myapp", with physical path "C:\tomee\iis_virtual_directory"

I need to access to MyApp with an URL like https://myserver.mydomain.tld/myapp/, but that doesn't work right now, Tomcat isn't even starting, I get a 502.3 Bad Gateway error.

I put this web.config file under "C:\tomee\iis_virtual_directory" :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
 <system.webServer>
 <handlers>
 <add name="httpplatformhandler" path="*" verb="*" modules="httpPlatformHandler" resourceType="Unspecified"/>
 </handlers>
 <httpPlatform processPath="C:\tomee\apache-tomee-9.1.1-microprofile\\bin\startup.bat" arguments="start" stdoutLogEnabled="true" stdoutLogFile="C:\tomee\iis_virtual_directory\log.txt">
 <environmentVariables>
 <environmentVariable name="JRE_HOME" value="C:\tomee\jdk-11.0.18+10" />
 <environmentVariable name="CATALINA_HOME" value="C:\tomee\apache-tomee-9.1.1-microprofile" />
 <environmentVariable name="CATALINA_OPTS" value="-Dport.http=%HTTP_PLATFORM_PORT%" />
 </environmentVariables>
 </httpPlatform>
 </system.webServer>
</configuration>

I also updated below attribute in TomEE server.xml

<Server port="-1" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">
<Connector port="${port.http}" protocol="HTTP/1.1">

I managed to get it working only when I put these web.config parameters inside the main web.config file in c:\inetpub\wwwroot, but then the main ASP.Net app wasn't available anymore.

Then i changed path attribute this way :

<add name="httpplatformhandler" path="myapp/*" verb="*" modules="httpPlatformHandler" resourceType="Unspecified" />

And both apps are available. But I wonder : what am I missing ? why can't i use a web.config file inside Virtual Directory ? At this point the Virtual Directory is useless and I can delete it without breaking access to MyApp.

• Jalpa Panchal: have you tried to use the path as application instead of the virtual directory
• Cyril: you mean convert virtual directory to application ? I thought I could do that only if it is an ASP.NET app.
• Jalpa Panchal: another thing you could try is that set the inheritance to false: <location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false">
• Jalpa Panchal: choose like this in the iis to convert virtual directory to application image

Answer 1

Thanks to Jalpa Panchal comment, i made it work as intended. I converted virtual directory to application in IIS Manager, and voila. Not sure why that didn't work before though.

• Jalpa Panchal: the config file setting was not getting applied to the virtual directory so i suggest you to add the location path to apply or the other way to convert to the application that way application can get the correct configuration setting for the specific site or application