This chapter will cover the steps involved in getting Tomcat up and running from scratch. A lot of this material is fairly simple, so if you already have tomcat up and running you can safely skip this chapter and move on. On the other hand, if you already read the rest of the book and would like to get a better grip on a few of the basics of tomcat, or you would like to start slow, read on.

As Tomcat is a Java application, to run it you will need a JDK. However, unlike most Java applications, Tomcat cannot run on a JRE. Why not? The JRE (Java Runtime Environment) contains only the neccessary software required to execute Java Bytecode. The difference between the JRE and JDK (Java Development Kit) is that the JDK also includes the software required to compile Java source code into Bytecode. As JSPs are compiled into servlets, Tomcat requires the JDK for compiling. Think of Tomcat as doing your job, hence it needs the same (or similar) tools as you do.

Ok, so you run IBM's JDK and you want to know if that is alright? That is perfectly ok - as long as it is the JDK and not the JRE.