Apache Tomcat - Embedded Servlet Container Clustering
Enable in-memory session replication to replicate web application session deltas.
Clustering Type | Description |
---|---|
DEFAULT |
Discovers cluster members via multicast discovery and optionally via staticly defined cluster members using the clusterMembers . SimpleTcpCluster with McastService
|
CLOUD |
For use in Kubernetes where members are discovered via accessing the Kubernetes API or doing a DNS lookup of the members of a Kubernetes service. Documentation is currently light, see code for details. |
Membership Providers | Description |
---|---|
kubernetes |
Uses Kubernetes API to find other pods in a deployment. API is discovered and accessed via information in environment variables set in the container. The KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE environment variable is used to query the pods in the namespace and it will treat other pods in that namespace as potential cluster members but they can be filtered using the KUBERNETES_LABELS environment variable which are used as a label selector. |
dns |
Uses DNS lookups to find addresses of the cluster members behind a DNS name specified by DNS_MEMBERSHIP_SERVICE_NAME environment variable. Works in Kubernetes but doesn’t rely on Kubernetes. |
MembershipProvider class |
Use a membership provider implementation of your choice. |
Most settings apply to the DEFAULT
clustering type, which requires members to be defined via clusterMembers
if multicast discovery doesn’t work. The cloudMembershipProvider
setting applies to the CLOUD
type.
The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:
Configuration Metadata
The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.
Be Selective
This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.
YAGNI
Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.
Naming Convention
Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty
, cas.some-property
, cas.some_property
are all valid names. While all
forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where
this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those
that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc.

When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value
.
The only possible exception to this rule is when naming actuator endpoints; The name of the
actuator endpoints (i.e. ssoSessions
) MUST remain in camelCase mode.
Settings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas
. All other settings are controlled and provided
to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with
the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition
or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the
way you intend.
Validation
Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.
Indexed Settings
CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value
. The index [0]
is meant to be
incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.