Connector attribute SSLCertificateFile must be defined when using SSL with APR

I was recently setting up SSL for Apache Tomcat based on this article: https://support.comodo.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/646/0/tomcat-ssl-connector

However, after setting up SSL in my server.xml file according to the article, I received the following error message:

"Connector attribute SSLCertificateFile must be defined when using SSL with APR"

Well, as it turns out, this line in my server.xml file was causing problems:

<Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8443" />

Since I was running my Apache Tomcat SSL on the same port as AJP, it was causing conflicts and throwing this exception!

 

Therefore, my solution consisted of two parts:

 

Remove the redirectPort attribute from this element:

 

<Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" />

Next, remove the Listener element from the server.xml file:

 

<Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener" SSLEngine="on" />

I created a handy little PowerShell script to accomplish these tasks:

[CmdletBinding()]

Param(

[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=1)]

[string]$KeyStoreFile,

[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]

[string]$KeyStorePwd,

[Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]

[string]$PortNumber="8443"

)

$BaseScriptDir = "C:\MyCerts"

$ApacheTomcatDir = "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 8.0"

$ApacheTomcatConfDir = "$ApacheTomcatDir\conf"

$JavaCertFile = "$BaseScriptDir\$KeyStoreFile"

$ServerXMLFile = "$ApacheTomcatConfDir\server.xml"

$TomcatServiceName = "Tomcat8"

$BakFileExtension = ".bak"

$AJPPortNumber = "8943"

Write-Host "Copy the Java SSL Certificate for Apache Tomcat SSL"

Copy-Item $JavaCertFile $ApacheTomcatConfDir

Write-Host "Create a backup of the Apache Tomcat server.xml file"

Copy-Item $ServerXMLFile ($ServerXMLFile + $BakFileExtension)

#Stop the Apache Tomcat Service

Stop-Service $TomcatServiceName

#Read the content of the XML File

$serverXMLDoc = [xml](Get-Content $ServerXMLFile)

#Update the Http Protocol connector

$connectorXPath = "//Connector[@protocol='HTTP/1.1']"

$connectorNode = Select-Xml -Xml $serverXMLDoc -XPath $connectorXPath | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("port", $PortNumber)

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("SSLEnabled", $true)

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("maxThreads", 150)

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("scheme", "https")

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("secure", $true)

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("keystoreFile", "$ApacheTomcatConfDir\$KeyStoreFile")

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("keystorePass", $KeyStorePwd)

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("clientAuth", $false)

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("sslProtocol", "TLS")

$connectorNode.SetAttribute("maxHttpHeaderSize", "8192")

$connectorNode.RemoveAttribute("redirectPort")

#Update the AJP connector

$AJPConnectorXPath = "//Connector[@protocol='AJP/1.3']"

$AJPConnectorNode = Select-Xml -Xml $serverXMLDoc -XPath $AJPConnectorXPath | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node

$AJPConnectorNode.RemoveAttribute("redirectPort")

#Remove the AJP Listener

$ListenerXPath = "//Listener[@className='org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener']"

$ListenerNode = [System.Xml.XmlElement](Select-Xml -Xml $serverXMLDoc -XPath $ListenerXPath | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node)

$ServerXPath = "//Server"

$ServerNode = [System.Xml.XmlElement](Select-Xml -Xml $serverXMLDoc -XPath $ServerXPath | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node)

$ServerNode.RemoveChild($ListenerNode)

#Save the changes and update the server.xml file

$serverXMLDoc.Save($ServerXMLFile)

#Restart the Apache Tomcat service

Start-Service $TomcatServiceName