Web Servlet Container

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A Web servlet container is often required on a GFIPM IDP to run the IDP core software module. (It is required in the case of Shibboleth.) Many such Web servlet containers are available for use, but GFIPM participants have chosen to use the freely available Tomcat [Tomcat] open-source servlet container. Tomcat was chosen for several reasons. First, Tomcat is fully compatible with the Shibboleth IDP middleware; in other words, it runs the Shibboleth code without any problems. Second, Tomcat supports connection-level encryption using both SSL and TLS. Third, Tomcat supports client certificate authentication of browsers with support for certificate revocation lists (CRLs). Fourth, Tomcat runs on both of the major operating system platforms (Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux) that GFIPM participants use.

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