When using a single server, the performance when using a native webserver in front of the Tomcat instance is most of the time significantly worse than a standalone Tomcat with its default HTTP connector, even if a large part of the web application is made of static files. If integration with the native webserver is needed for any reason, an AJP connector will provide faster performance than proxied HTTP. AJP clustering is the most efficient from the Tomcat perspective. It is otherwise functionally equivalent to HTTP clustering.
The native connectors supported with this Tomcat release are:
- JK 1.2.x with any of the supported servers
- mod_proxy on Apache HTTP Server 2.x (included by default in Apache HTTP Server 2.2), with AJP enabled