How to run Tomcat on a different port number

Tomcat web server by default runs on port number 8080, which is also the default port number used by some other popular servers like JBoss, JavaEE SDK, Sun Java System Application Server. When this port number is already used by another process, you will get the following error:

logs/catalina.2007-01-09.log:
...
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/5.5.20
Jan 11, 2007 9:36:12 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost start
INFO: XML validation disabled
Jan 11, 2007 9:36:13 AM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol start
SEVERE: Error starting endpoint
java.net.BindException: Address already in use: JVM_Bind:8080
       at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.initEndpoint(PoolTcpEndpoi
nt.java:297)
       at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.startEndpoint(PoolTcpEndpo
int.java:312)
       at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol.start(Http11BaseProtocol.
java:150)
       at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.start(Http11Protocol.java:75)

       at org.apache.catalina.connector.Connector.start(Connector.java:1089)
       at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:4
59)
       at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:709
)
       at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:551)

To use a different port number, back up and edit the port attribute value of Connector element in $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml:

<!-- Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080 -->
<Connector port="8081" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192"

Restart Tomcat ($CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh on Unix or %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\startup.bat on Windows), and check server status at URL http://localhost:8081

Tags: Tomcat, Apache Tomcat, Tomcat port number