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I'm running a java web app in Eclipse (Helios) using Tomcat 7. The server startups up successfully (duration indicated) however Eclipse's progress bar still spins saying that Tomcat is starting up. Eventually the timeout is reached and an error is thrown.

I believe Tomcat is fine as I've taken the command that it uses and ran it manually in the shell. Tomcat runs fine and I'm able to hit the web app at the expected URL. I can also hit it after it's started up and before the timeout occurs.

I've reinstalled Eclipse, I ran it with clean, I deleted/recreated the server. Nothing has worked. Anybody have any clues?

pschang
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7 Answers7

7

I had this issue, it seems that the Eclipse calls the application url after start up to make sure it is running.

A proxy client (pshione) had changed the system proxy so the eclipse could not call the start page and thinks that the application is not starting yet!!

I removed the proxy and it works fine now!

Edited:

This can also happen when you start your tomcat with SSL, but the ssl certification is not valid. When you make a call to and invalid SSL certification site, some browser confirm if you want to go one or not, but eclipse can not connect to your invalid ssl site! I suggest test your site with normal http instead of https.

Alireza Fattahi
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    +1 for SSL cert note. My fix was re-adding the 8080 Connector (but still keeping my self-signed cert 8443 Connector). – csd Feb 07 '14 at 19:24
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This issue is related to a tomcat configured with HTTPS without a HTTP connector.

I had this SSL connector in server.xml and my tomcat in Eclipse is always showing Starting:

<Connector SSLEnabled="true" asyncTimeout="10000000" clientAuth="false" 
    connectionTimeout="10000000" keepAliveTimeout="10000000" 
    keystoreFile="/opt/config/selfsigned.p12" keystorePass="changeit" 
    keystoreType="PKCS12" maxThreads="200" port="443"
    protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" scheme="https"
    secure="true" sslProtocol="TLS"/>

I suppose Eclipse uses a HTTP connection to the server to verify that instance of Tomcat is available.

I've solve this problem including an aditional HTTP connector redirecting to HTTPS in server.xml.

<Connector connectionTimeout="20000" port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
    redirectPort="443"/>

<Connector SSLEnabled="true" asyncTimeout="10000000" clientAuth="false" 
    connectionTimeout="10000000" keepAliveTimeout="10000000" 
    keystoreFile="/opt/config/selfsigned.p12" keystorePass="changeit" 
    keystoreType="PKCS12" maxThreads="200" port="443"
    protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" scheme="https"
    secure="true" sslProtocol="TLS"/>

With this change my tomcat in Eclipse starts properly showing Debugging state.

carlosyague
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3

Some updates of Java cause problems with Eclipse's networking operation. Specifically, Eclipse tries to use IPv6 instead of IPv4 and sometimes fails. When Eclipse starts up Tomcat, one of the final steps that it does is tests the a debug call to Tomcat. This is likely to be the part that is hanging. Fortunately, the fix is very easy. We simply tell Eclipse to use IPv4 instead.

To do this, edit the eclipse.ini file (found in the Eclipse directory) and add the following to the end of the file on its own line:

-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true

Restart Eclipse and you should be good to go.

PeterToTheThird
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3

I had the same issue, it was due to the connectors I had defined (I only had an AJP connector).

Adding an HTTP connector to Tomcat's server.xml solved the problem.

Paul Podgorsek
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1

I've found the answer (just after posting here which, ironically, seems to be how to find answer's to one's own question.)

The answer was that the port was being used by another process. I should've known but upgraded several different packages will do this. But onto the symptoms:

  • Tomcat starts successfully. Able to hit the application before timeout.
  • Eclipse looks like it's unable to determine whether the server has started or stopped.

HTTP is currently running under the default of 8080. Unfortunately, my data store was listening at 8080 (my guess as I'm not particularly sure what it does with the port except that it's allocated for jmx). I'm guessing that Eclipse is unable to detect Tomcat at 8080.

pschang
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  • the question is in you and the answer is also in you. ;) – R K Feb 05 '11 at 08:51
  • Exactly my problem too... thanks for the answer! I had a Vagrant instance running mapped to 8080, but sadly Eclipse does not show the problem during startup, and it happily reports "Server startup in xxxxx ms" instead. – uncrase Sep 04 '15 at 15:15
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I got this problem, it seems that my tomcat version was buggy (tomcat 7.0.23) switch your tomcat version to another (i.e tomcat 7.0.14) it works for me.

good luck

eXiaMike
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This could happen if two servlets have been mapped to the same request URL, Tomcat will start up fine but eclipse won't be able to generate the correct web.xml file and therefore won't be able to publish the webApp. Check your servlet mapping @WebServlet("\TheURLThatShouldInvokeThisServlet") make sure two servlets dont have the same "TheURLThatShouldInvokeThisServlet".

(putting it for the record!)

Shasak
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