Assuming you have already properly installed JDK1.4 and Tomcat, you can follow the steps to set up Tomcat to use SSL connection if you're using openSSL.

Install openssl and set up the CA

Assume that openssl is installed, here are the steps to generate the ca certificate:

    openssl req -new -newkey rsa:512 -nodes -out ca.req -keyout ca.key
    
    openssl x509 -trustout -signkey ca.key -days 365 -req -in ca.req -out ca.crt

Now the files 'ca.key' and 'ca.crt' exist (the CA's signing key and certificate, respectively).

Set up Tomcat to use SSL connection

1. For Tomcat, edit conf/server.xml to enable SSL.
2. Generate a new server private key for Tomcat in local keystore, use server's DNS name as common name.

               
       keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA -validity 500 -keystore .keystore
   
   
       Here is an example for wazoo.stanford.edu:
           D:\>keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA -validity 500 -keystore .keystore
           Enter keystore password:  ustorit
           What is your first and last name?
             [Unknown]:  wazoo.stanford.edu
           What is the name of your organizational unit?
             [Unknown]:  CSD
           What is the name of your organization?
             [Unknown]:  Stanford University
           What is the name of your City or Locality?
             [Unknown]:  Palo Alto
           What is the name of your State or Province?
             [Unknown]:  California
           What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
             [Unknown]:  US
           Is CN=wazoo.stanford.edu, OU=CSD, O=Stanford University, L=Palo Alto, ST=California, C=US correct?
             [no]:  yes
           
           Enter key password for 
                   (RETURN if same as keystore password):
   

3. Generate a certificate signing request for Tomcat.

       keytool -certreq -alias tomcat -file tomcat.csr -keystore .keystore
   

4. Go to the computer running CA (e.g. Wazoo), sign the request to generate server certificate.

       openssl x509 -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -in tomcat.csr -out tomcat.crt -req -CAcreateserial -days 500
   

5. Import CA cert and tomcat server cert into the .keystore file

       keytool -import -file ca.crt -alias RootCert
       
       keytool -import -file tomcat.crt -alias tomcat
   

6. Import CA cert into JRE cacerts file

       keytool -import -keystore $(JAVA_HOME)/jre/lib/security/cacerts -file ca.crt