ENV var for Tomcat `maxHttpHeaderSize` in Web Author Docker image

[frnwb]

Hello,

we're running Web Author 28.1 in Docker behind a reverse proxy with enterprise SSO (Azure AD / OIDC) and hit Tomcat's default 8 KB header limit.

The problem: Azure AD sessions are stored in large chunked cookies (`.AspNetCore.Cookies`, `.AspNetCore.Cookies.C1`, …). The proxy forwards these to Tomcat unchanged, and once the total header size exceeds 8 KB, Tomcat returns `HTTP 400` before the request even reaches Web Author.

Why we can't strip the cookies at the proxy: the REST plugin re-uses those cookies to authenticate its server-to-server calls to our CMS endpoints. Stripping them breaks document opening entirely.

Current workaround: we use the official `web-author-docker` GitHub repository as a Git subtree (unmodified upstream). On top of it we maintain a thin custom Docker layer that replaces `server.xml` just to add one attribute:

Code: Select all

<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1" connectionTimeout="20000" maxHttpHeaderSize="65536"/>

Because we cannot modify the upstream files (a `git subtree pull` would overwrite any local change), we have to own a full copy of `server.xml` and manually diff it against the upstream version after every Web Author update.

Request: could you support an env var like `WA_MAX_HTTP_HEADER_SIZE=65536` that the startup script applies before Tomcat starts? This is a common need in enterprise SSO setups and would eliminate the need to maintain a full `server.xml` override.

Thanks
Frank

[cosminef]

Hello,

Are you using a Web Author Component license or a Web Author product license?
Our public Docker image for Web Author uses the All-Platforms distribution, which comes with its own Tomcat server.

If you want to use Web Author Component (.war), you can create a Docker image from scratch and configure the servlet container in which the WAR is deployed according to your requirements.

Best,
Cosmin