Dockerizing A Maven Web Application

A Maven web application normally depends on Java, Maven, a servlet container, and the application files. Docker lets us package that setup so the application can run in a repeatable way.

The basic idea is simple: build the Maven project, create a deployable artifact, copy it into an image, and run it inside a container.

Typical Maven web app output

Many older Java web applications produce a .war file.

target/my-web-app.war

A WAR file usually runs inside a servlet container such as Tomcat.

Dockerfile example

For a simple Maven web app, you can use a Tomcat base image:

FROM tomcat:10-jdk17
COPY target/my-web-app.war /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/ROOT.war
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["catalina.sh", "run"]

This image starts Tomcat and deploys the WAR file as the root application.

Build the Maven project

First build the app locally:

mvn clean package

Then check the target folder and confirm the WAR file exists.

Build and run the Docker image

Build the image:

docker build -t maven-web-app:1.0 .

Run it:

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name maven-web maven-web-app:1.0

Open:

http://localhost:8080

What Docker is doing

Written By: Shiva Srivastava