tomcat Embedding into an application Embed tomcat using maven

Example

      <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>tomcat-run</id>
                      <goals>
                        <goal>exec-war-only</goal>
                     </goals>
<!--This phase is for creating jar file.You can customize configuration -->
                        <phase>package</phase>
                    <configuration>
                        <path>/WebAppName</path>
                        <enableNaming>false</enableNaming>
                        <finalName>WebAppName.jar</finalName>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
<!--This configuration is for running application in your ide-->
            <configuration>
                <port>8020</port>
                <path>/webappName</path>
        <!--These properties are optional-->
                <systemProperties>
                    <CATALINA_OPTS>-Djava.awt.headless=true -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
                        -server -Xms1536m -Xmx1536m
                        -XX:NewSize=256m -XX:MaxNewSize=256m -XX:PermSize=256m
                        -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:+DisableExplicitGC
                        -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC
                        -XX:+CMSIncrementalMode
                        -XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing
                        -XX:CMSIncrementalDutyCycleMin=0
                        -XX:-TraceClassUnloading
                    </CATALINA_OPTS>
                </systemProperties>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

You can run the above tomcat in your ide using goal tomcat:run. If you run package goal it will create a jar file in your target folder which can create tomcat instance itself and run.

Using </CATALINA_OPTS> you can specify properties like permgen max and min size, Garbage Collection mechanism etc.which are completely optional.