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How To Upgrade Tomcat In XAMPP

I couldn't find any definitive and organized resources on upgrading Tomcat in XAMPP but found many people are asking, so I thought it best to share the steps I took. For this guide, I will be using XAMPP 7.4.8 on Windows 10, which comes packaged with Tomcat 7.0.105, and upgrading to Tomcat 9.0.37. While I have not tested the following with other versions of XAMPP and Tomcat, this guide should cover most (if not all) versions. This guide assumes you have already downloaded and installed XAMPP on your OS of choice.

Solution

  • Step 1 - Scrap Old Tomcat

    1. Navigate to your XAMPP base directory (I'll call it %XAMPP_DIR%). E.g., C:\xampp.
    1. Delete the folder named tomcat.

    Step 2 - Install New Tomcat

    1. Download Tomcat. You can choose your version here.
    2. Extract the contents of apache-tomcat-[VERSION] to %XAMPP_DIR%\tomcat (the folder you deleted).

    Step 3 - Configure XAMPP

    By default, XAMPP will point towards the Tomcat version it was bundled with. You need to configure it so it will search for the new version you've install.

    1. Open %XAMPP_DIR%\xampp-control.ini.
    2. Change [BinaryNames]->Tomcat to match the version you are using. E.g., tomcat9.exe (just the major version number).
    3. You should also change [ServiceNames]->Tomcat to match the version you are using, but it is not required. E.g., Tomcat9.
    1. Check if XAMPP recognizes your new Tomcat. You can do this by opening the XAMPP Control Panel. If the log says Problem detected: Tomcat Not Found! then review the steps to ensure you correctly set up Tomcat.
    2. You are good to go! Try starting Tomcat via the XAMPP Control Panel.

    Extra

    If you plan on running Tomcat as a standalone service, edit %XAMPP_DIR%\catalina_service.bat. Just search for the term tomcat and replace values as needed.

    Do not forget to enable JMX if you need it. I just add the following line near the top of %XAMPP_DIR%\tomcat\bin\catalina.bat:

    set CATALINA_OPTS=-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=8008 -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false