ServletRequest.getAttribute("javax.servlet.request.X509Certificate") returns null - ssl

Question

I've got a stop-ship problem that is driving me crazy. I hope that one of you experts out there can help.
I'm running the latest release version of TomEE+ (1.6.0.2) and the latest version of Java 8 (build 1.8.0_05-b13). No matter what I try, the following line of code in my HttpServlet always returns null.
X509Certificate certs[] = (X509Certificate[])request.getAttribute("javax.servlet.request.X509Certificate");
I initially assumed that I had specified the attribute name incorrectly, so to diagnose the problem, I decided to take a look at the full list of attributes using the following:
Enumeration<String> enums = request.getAttributeNames();
However that showed me were only two attributes: one for the cipher suite and the other for the key strength.
I read the other articles and verified that my connector was correct and that it had the clientAuth attribute set properly. Here's the connector:
<Connector port="4449" protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol"
maxThreads="150" SSLEnabled="true" scheme="https" secure="true"
clientAuth="true" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2"
SSLCertificateFile="/etc/unipagos/certs/pay.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile="/etc/unipagos/certs/pay.key"
SSLVerifyClient="required"
SSLHonorCipherOrder="true"
ciphers="TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384"/>
The connection seems to work, however using openssl s_client with -msg shows that the server isn't asking for the client certificate.
Why is the server not asking for a client certificate? What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I have a working connector configuration for tomee and server is requesting client cert.
you can try
<Connector port="7443" protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol"
maxThreads="150" SSLEnabled="true" scheme="https" secure="true"
SSLProtocol="TLSv1.2"
SSLVerifyClient="require"
SSLCertificateFile="/opt/_cdrom_apache/certs/ec-dev-apr.pem"
SSLCertificateKeyFile="/opt/_cdrom_apache/certs/ec-dev.key"
SSLCACertificateFile="/opt/_cdrom_apache/certs/CA.pem"
/>