Tomcat 9 does not provide a dedicated Maven plugin. The Tomcat Manager interface, however, is backward-compatible, so the Tomcat 7 Maven Plugin can be used to deploy to Tomcat 9. This guide shows two setups:

• Using the Tomcat 8 Maven Plugin (historical build that requires custom plugin repositories)
• Using the Tomcat 7 Maven Plugin to deploy to a locally running Tomcat 9

Option A: Referencing the Tomcat 8 Maven Plugin from custom repositories

Some legacy builds used tomcat8-maven-plugin 3.0-r1655215. If you need it, add plugin repositories and the plugin declaration:

<!-- pom.xml -->
<pluginRepositories>
  <pluginRepository>
    <id>alfresco-public</id>
    <url>https://artifacts.alfresco.com/nexus/content/groups/public</url>
  </pluginRepository>
  <pluginRepository>
    <id>alfresco-public-snapshots</id>
    <url>https://artifacts.alfresco.com/nexus/content/groups/public-snapshots</url>
    <snapshots>
      <enabled>true</enabled>
      <updatePolicy>daily</updatePolicy>
    </snapshots>
  </pluginRepository>
  <pluginRepository>
    <id>beardedgeeks-releases</id>
    <url>http://beardedgeeks.googlecode.com/svn/repository/releases</url>
  </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
      <artifactId>tomcat8-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>3.0-r1655215</version>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

Using Tomcat 7 Maven Pluginn to deploy to Tomcat 9

1) Create a deployment user in Tomcat 9

Edit the Tomcat users file at TOMCAT_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml and add a user with the Manager roles. Choose your own strong password; the example uses deployer/s3cr3t!.

<!-- TOMCAT_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml -->
<tomcat-users>
  <!-- Manager roles required for CLI/HTTP text API -->
  <role rolename="manager-script"/>
  <role rolename="manager-gui"/>
  <role rolename="manager-status"/>
  <role rolename="manager-jmx"/>
  <user username="deployer"
        password="s3cr3t!"
        roles="manager-script,manager-gui,manager-status,manager-jmx"/>
</tomcat-users>

2) Store credentials in Mavan settings

Add a server entry in your Maven settings (usually ~/.m2/settings.xml). The id is referenced from the project POM.

<!-- ~/.m2/settings.xml -->
<settings>
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>tomcat9-local</id>
      <username>deployer</username>
      <password>s3cr3t!</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

3) Configure the Tomcat Maven Plugin in you're POM

Use the Tomcat 7 Maven Plugin to talk to Tomcat 9’s Manager app. Ensure the server id matches the one in settings.xml. Specify the Manager text URL and the webapp context path.

<!-- pom.xml -->
<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
      <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.2</version>
      <configuration>
        <!-- Must match <server><id> in ~/.m2/settings.xml -->
        <server>tomcat9-local</server>
        <!-- Tomcat Manager text interface -->
        <url>http://localhost:8080/manager/text</url>
        <!-- Deployed context path (e.g., http://localhost:8080/myapp) -->
        <path>/myapp</path>
        <!-- Allow overwriting deployments on redeploy -->
        <update>true</update>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

Running the deployment

• Start you're local Tomcat 9 instance
• Build the application

mvn clean package

• Deploy to Tomcat 9 via the Manager API

mvn tomcat7:deploy

• Verify the application at

http://localhost:8080/myapp

• To redeploy after changes

mvn tomcat7:redeploy

Troubleshooting

• Confirm Tomcat is running and the Manager app is reachable:
  • http://localhost:8080
  • http://loclahost:8080/manager/html (GUI)
  • http://localhost:8080/manager/text (API)
• Ensure tomcat-users.xml contains manager-script (required for text API)
• Verify the Maven settings.xml server id and credentials match the POM configuration