Tomcat multiple requests same user, same url (is that caching? thread keep-alive?)

Question

I am working with a new server which I have total control of my Tomcat 7 configurations.

I've optimized my memory usage, permgem space and bzip compression which really is making the difference... but I noticed something in my old server (which I can't control or see the configs)... it seems to be using some kind of caching? or maybe it is just the way the threads are being allocated to handle the requests, I don't know...

By using the Firebug, more specifically, at Net panel, I got this from my old server:

First request from a "tough" process took almost 6s and then the next 2 seems to be cached opening it a lot faster.

In my new server, however, each request seems to be handled by a new thread every time (my guess) and it is going through the tough process each time...

Well, my question is... what can I do in my Tomcat in order to achieve the same results from the old server? Besides my optimizations (memory, compression) is there anything else you could recommend?

That would be all by now, thanks in advance for the answers.

Answer 1

probably old server had expiry headers set. you can do that through a Tomcat Valve or if you have a fronting Apache Httpd you can do it there