bitnami/tomcat Docker Image

Bitnami Secure Image for Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat is an open-source web server designed to host and run Java-based web applications. It is a lightweight server with a good performance for applications running in production environments.

https://tomcat.apache.org/ Trademarks: This software listing is packaged by Bitnami. The respective trademarks mentioned in the offering are owned by the respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

TL;DR

console
docker run --name tomcat REGISTRY_NAME/bitnami/tomcat:latest

You can find the default credentials and available configuration options in the Environment Variables section.

Using docker-compose.yml

The docker-compose.yaml file of this container can be found in the https://github.com/bitnami/containers/.

https://github.com/bitnami/containers/tree/main/bitnami/tomcat/docker-compose.yml

Please be aware this file has not undergone internal testing. Consequently, we advise its use exclusively for development or testing purposes. For production-ready deployments, we highly recommend utilizing its associated https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/main/bitnami/tomcat.

How to deploy Apache Apache Tomcat in Kubernetes?

Deploying Bitnami applications as Helm Charts is the easiest way to get started with our applications on Kubernetes. Read more about the installation in the https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/master/bitnami/tomcat.

Why use a non-root container?

Non-root container images add an extra layer of security and are generally recommended for production environments. However, because they run as a non-root user, privileged tasks are typically off-limits. Learn more about non-root containers https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-tanzu/application-catalog/tanzu-application-catalog/services/tac-doc/apps-tutorials-work-with-non-root-containers-index.html.

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

Learn more about the Bitnami tagging policy and the difference between rolling tags and immutable tags https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-tanzu/application-catalog/tanzu-application-catalog/services/tac-doc/apps-tutorials-understand-rolling-tags-containers-index.html.

Get this image

The Bitnami Apache Tomcat Docker image is only available to https://bitnami.com customers.

Persisting your application

If you remove the container all your data and configurations will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a directory at the /bitnami path. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run.

NOTE As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

Deploying web applications on Apache Tomcat

The /bitnami/tomcat/data directory is configured as the Apache Tomcat webapps deployment directory. At this location, you either copy a so-called exploded web application, i.e. non-compressed, or a compressed web application resource (.WAR) file and it will automatically be deployed by Apache Tomcat.

Additionally a helper symlink /app is present that points to the webapps deployment directory which enables us to deploy applications on a running Apache Tomcat instance by simply doing:

console
docker cp /path/to/app.war tomcat:/app

In case you want to create a custom image that already contains your application war file, you need to add it to the /opt/bitnami/tomcat/webapps folder. In the example below we create a forked image with an extra .war file.

Dockerfile
FROM REGISTRY_NAME/bitnami/tomcat:latest
COPY sample.war /opt/bitnami/tomcat/webapps

Note! You can also deploy web applications on a running Apache Tomcat instance using the Apache Tomcat management interface.

Further Reading:

• https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-11.0-doc/deployer-howto.html

Configuration

The following section describes the supported environment variables

Environment variables

The following tables list the main variables you can set.

Customizable environment variables

Read-only environment variables

Creating a custom user

By default, a management user named manager is created and is not assigned a password. Passing the TOMCAT_PASSWORD environment variable when running the image for the first time will set the password of this user to the value of TOMCAT_PASSWORD.

Additionally you can specify a user name for the management user using the TOMCAT_USERNAME environment variable. When not specified, the TOMCAT_PASSWORD configuration is applied on the default user (manager).

Configuration files

During the initialization of the container, the default Apache Tomcat configuration files are modified with the basic options defined through environment variables. If you want to add more specific configuration options, you can always mount your own configuration files under /opt/bitnami/tomcat/conf/ to override the existing ones. Please note that those files should be writable by the system user of the container.

Refer to the https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-11.0-doc/config/index.html manual for the complete list of configuration options.

FIPS configuration in Bitnami Secure Images

The Bitnami Apache Tomcat Docker image from the https://go-vmware.broadcom.com/contact-us catalog includes extra features and settings to configure the container with FIPS capabilities. You can configure the next environment variables:

• OPENSSL_FIPS: whether OpenSSL runs in FIPS mode or not. yes (default), no.
• JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: controls Java FIPS mode. Use -Djava.security.properties==/opt/bitnami/java/conf/security/java.security.restricted (restricted), -Djava.security.properties==/opt/bitnami/java/conf/security/java.security.relaxed (relaxed), or -Djava.security.properties==/opt/bitnami/java/conf/security/java.security.original (off).

Logging

The Bitnami Apache Tomcat Docker image sends the container logs to the stdout. You can configure the containers https://docs.docker.com/engine/admin/logging/overview/ using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

Notable Changes

Debian: 9.0.26-r0, 8.5.46-r0, 8.0.53-r382, 7.0.96-r50. Oracle: 9.0.24-ol-7-r35, 8.5.45-ol-7-r34, 8.0.53-ol-7-r426, 7.0.96-ol-7-r61

• Decrease the size of the container. The configuration logic is now based on Bash scripts in the rootfs/ folder.

9.0.13-r27 , 8.5.35-r26, 8.0.53-r131 & 7.0.92-r20

• The Apache Tomcat container has been migrated to a non-root user approach. Previously the container ran as the root user and the Apache Tomcat daemon was started as the tomcat user. From now on, both the container and the Apache Tomcat daemon run as user 1001. As a consequence, the data directory must be writable by that user. You can revert this behavior by changing USER 1001 to USER root in the Dockerfile.

8.0.35-r3

• TOMCAT_USER parameter has been renamed to TOMCAT_USERNAME.

8.0.35-r0

• All volumes have been merged at /bitnami/tomcat. Now you only need to mount a single volume at /bitnami/tomcat for persistence.
• The logs are always sent to the stdout and are no longer collected in the volume.

License

Copyright © 2026 Broadcom. The term "Broadcom" refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.