Turns out my first request problem WAS a configuration issue. Here's the details in case you see something similar... When you have two tomcats and wish to cluster them with simpleTCPCluster and AJP protocol via an Apache HTTPD reverse proxy... You MUST specify a 'jvmRoute' for each Tomcat in their 'server.xml' files AND a 'route' in the proxy balancer... server.xml ---- <Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="tc1"> --- httpd.conf ---- BalancerMember ajp://127.0.0.1:18009 route=tc1 ---- Otherwise the first (and only the first) request fails - the load balancer sends the 2nd request to the wrong node. This is even if you are NOT using mod_jk as specified on the how-to docs... http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/cluster-howto.html In other words - the docs need updated. At least in my opinion. Oh and watch out! If you copy and paste the value from the xml to the conf file be sure to remove the quotes - as the conf file will take them as part of the route name and drive you INSANE whilst you try to figure out what is wrong. ( route="tc1" will not match with jvmRoute="tc1" ). -- Rob (rob.rstuff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) --------------------------------------------------------------------- The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server Project. See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info. To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx " from the digest: users-digest-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx