Deploying a REST API (Spring Boot) application on a Tomcat Server from IntelliJ IDEA - spring-boot

Question

I'm trying to deploy a simple REST API application (made with Spring Boot and IntelliJ IDEA) on a Tomcat Server (10.0.27) installed on a VMWare machine running Ubuntu Server 20. My POM file is the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>2.6.3</version>
<relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>
<groupId>com.jrgs2122.unit6</groupId>
<artifactId>EmployeeDepartmentApp</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>EmployeeDepartmentApp</name>
<description>EmployeeDepartmentApp</description>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<properties>
<java.version>11</java.version>
<start-class>com.jrgs2122.unit6.EmployeeDepartmentApp.EmployeeDepartmentApp</start-class>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-rest</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
<scope>runtime</scope>
<optional>true</optional>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
<artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
<artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
</build>
</project>
And my Spring Boot app:
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;
#SpringBootApplication
public class EmployeeDepartmentApp extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
#Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
return application.sources(EmployeeDepartmentApp.class);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(EmployeeDepartmentApp.class, args);
}
}`
And the application.properties file:
spring.datasource.username = postgres
spring.datasource.password = postgres
spring.datasource.driver-class-name = org.postgresql.Driver
spring.datasource.url = jdbc:postgresql://192.168.224.125:5432/Employees
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect
spring.data.rest.base-path=/
server.contextPath=/employeeAPIREST
The PostgreSQL server is running on the same machine that the Tomcat is. I generate the WAR file using the Maven package option, and I upload to the server using the Manager App web interface. But whenever I try to access to the app, I get a 404 error.
I have changed the name of the app and the REST API base path with no success. The VM machine is running Java 11 and my app is Java 11 too.
I have follow the instructions both in:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/spring_boot/spring_boot_tomcat_deployment.htm
and in:
https://www.baeldung.com/spring-boot-war-tomcat-deploy
with no success. What it confuses me is the fact that the application runs normally on localhost (as if the embedded Tomcat server was still running).