By default tomcat uses the MemoryRealm for authentication. You need to add two roles to be able to use the manager application.
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <tomcat-users> <role rolename="tomcat"/> <role rolename="manager"/> <role rolename="admin"/> <user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat"/> <user username="admin" password="XXXX" roles="admin,manager"/> </tomcat-users>