Redirect http requests to https with tomcat server and aws load balancer

Question

I have set up an ec2 instance with a java web application running on a tomcat server and an aws application load balancer which directs port 80 and 443 to port 8080 on the ec2 instance.

I have changed the server.xml configuration on tomcat to the following

<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
proxyPort="443"
proxyName="sub.mydomain.com"
scheme="https"
secure="true"
connectionTimeout="20000"
redirectPort="8443" />

Now I am able to connect go to "sub.mydomain.com" and "https ://sub.mydomain.com". But how do I redirect all "http ://sub.mydomain.com" requests to "https ://sub.mydomain.com"?

You don't want redirectPort="8443". You want redirectPort="443" instead. If port 8080 is the secure port on your Tomcat node, then you don't need a redirectPort at all (since Tomcat will never use it). — Christopher Schultz
@jzaa The example in the referenced page is correct, but it's a PHP example. In the Java world, you'll want to use something like Tomcat's rewrite valve or Tuckey's urlrewrite filter. — Christopher Schultz
ChristopherSchultz , @jzaa , thanks for your inputs. Here's how I managed to get it working. I redirected all 443 requests from the elb to port 8080 on the ec2 instance and all 80 requests on the elb to port 80. Inside the instance, I set up a nginx server which reroutes all requests with $http_x_forwarded_proto = '80' to https — Siddharth Das

Bikash Bikash · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-16T10:35:31

Just add this in your web.xml

<security-constraint>
    <web-resource-collection>
        <web-resource-name>HTTPSOnly</web-resource-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </web-resource-collection>
    <user-data-constraint>
        <transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
    </user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>

Redirect http requests to https with tomcat server and aws load balancer

1 Answers