How to install mod_jk on Mac OS X

Question

I am looking for a correct way to install mod_jk on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or above. The goal is to test Tomcat behind Apache HTTPD.

I've found so far the only way to install mod_jk is to download source then configure it in the console and make and make install.

This is not very true because I will need to manage mod_jk installation and configuration myself. I for example can forget to delete mod_jk later when needed. Anyway I think there should be more friendly way to install mod_jk like some kind of DMG package.

I also found that mod_jk is available in the OS X Server. Actually it's on my development machine, but available only for the server.

<IfDefine MACOSXSERVER>
...
#LoadModule jk_module libexec/apache2/mod_jk.so
...
</IfDefine MACOSXSERVER>

May be there is a package for mod_jk somewhere for developers who don't install OS X Server or any other way.

UPDATES

1. mod_proxy_ajp is an alternative. Main Pros: it's bundled with Apache and Mac OS X
2. I now tested mod_proxy_ajp in my configuration and can say that it's even better - because no need extra configuration. mod_proxy_ajp goes out of the box on Mac and perhaps on linux-server too I believe. You also don't need to use extra workers.properties file.

Here is how my config looks like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "/Users/me/Sites/projekt"
    ServerName projekt.local

    <Directory "/Users/me/Sites/projekt">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    <Proxy *>
      AddDefaultCharset Off
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
    </Proxy>

    ProxyPass /coolapp ajp://localhost:8009/coolapp
    ProxyPassReverse /coolapp ajp://localhost:8009/coolapp

    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/projekt.local-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/projekt.local-access_log" common    
</VirtualHost>

This above and configured Tomcat with AJP connector is only what you need. Amazing!

Reference:

1. Install mod_jk on OS X - http://www.bartbusschots.ie/blog/?p=1347
2. Comparison mod_jk vs. mod_proxy_ajp apache to tomcat: mod_jk vs mod_proxy
3. How to configure mod_proxy_ajp with Tomcat ?

Please suggest.

Modular

What "config file" do you refer to? Does the text you show, beginning <VirtualHost *:80> go into httpd.conf or somewhere else? – Ibby

@Ibby - the config goes in /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf for me. But you can also manage to it somewhere else when it's appropriate, for example in users config - /etc/apache2/users/... I decided for myself that this httpd-vhosts.conf fits better for my installation. – Modular

I don't understand what the "/coolapp" refers to. What's the relation of that to the DocumentRoot setting? – Ibby

What's the syntax for the LoadModule line that goes into httpd.conf for mod_proxy_ajp? That is, what is "xxx" in LoadModule xxx modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so? – Ibby

To answer my question about the LoadModule syntax, what seems to work is: LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so. – Ibby

To answer my question, what seems to work is: LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so. – Ibby

To answer my question about "/coolapp", I figured out that this can be just a subdirectory of the webapps directory; and indeed it can be merely / to indicate webapps itself. – Ibby

@Ibby When you deploy a webapp on Tomcat - the app gets url according to the app name like /coolapp, /myapp. It's also easier to manage when you want to deploy different apps on the same server. And yeah - technically webapp dir is root place for different apps. – Modular

Answer 1

You can give mod_proxy_ajp a shot. It does AJP13 and load balancing just like mod_jk but ships with Mac OS X.

Idolist

Cool - I didn't know about it - will check. How you can compare them? – Modular

Looks like here is the difference - #1082418 – Modular

Great - it works out of the box and is even easier to configure, e.g. no extra workers.properties file needed. Thank you @Philippe. Looks like answer from the real Philippe Marschall from Seaside Community - cool. – Modular

Thanks, I was failing on mod_jk on Mac, too. But That worked straight out of the box. – Chaker

Seems the High Sierra mod_proxy_ajp got a problem. Some XML data posted to the server contains a leading special character, which causes XML parsers in Tomcat to fail. I needed to switch to HomeBrew httpd to fix this problem. – Wulfenite