diff --git a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/README.txt b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/README.txt
index c90ca4c45c0..7d1841bf9d8 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/README.txt
+++ b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/README.txt
@@ -25,13 +25,9 @@ Alternative: WAR deployment of service to Tomcat (either embedded or standalone)
 value, for running this sample on your local machine most likely:
 "http://localhost:8080/java_first_jaxws/services/hello_world".
 
-2.) Standalone Tomcat: Manually copy the generated WAR file to the Tomcat webapps folder, 
-or, if you have Maven and Tomcat set up to use the Tomcat Maven Plugin 
-(http://tomcat.apache.org/maven-plugin-2.2/tomcat7-maven-plugin/index.html) you can
-use the mvn tomcat7:redeploy command instead.  
+2.) Standalone Tomcat: Manually copy the generated WAR file to the Tomcat webapps folder
 
-For embedded Tomcat 7: Just run mvn tomcat7:run-war from the project base folder.
-For embedded Tomcat 8: Just run mvn cargo:run from the project base folder.
+For embedded Tomcat: Just run mvn cargo:run from the project base folder.
 
 Prior to running the client (mvn -Pclient) it would be good to confirm the 
 generated WSDL can be seen from a web browser at:
diff --git a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/pom.xml b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/pom.xml
index afb96ba605d..5a631a19460 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/pom.xml
+++ b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/java_first_jaxws/pom.xml
@@ -37,23 +37,13 @@
                     <webXml>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml</webXml>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
-            <plugin>
-                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
-                <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.2</version>
-                <configuration>
-                    <server>myTomcat</server>
-                    <url>http://localhost:8080/manager/text</url>
-                    <path>/${project.build.finalName}</path>
-                </configuration>
-            </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
                 <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>1.8.5</version>
                 <configuration>
                     <container>
-                        <containerId>tomcat8x</containerId>
+                        <containerId>tomcat</containerId>
                         <artifactInstaller>
                             <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
                             <artifactId>tomcat</artifactId>
diff --git a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/README.txt b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/README.txt
index 7d41f61f4c4..fe584ed09e3 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/README.txt
+++ b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/README.txt
@@ -16,13 +16,13 @@ Using either UNIX or Windows:
 
 This will produce a war file in the target folder.
 
-To run the war file using jetty9
+To run the war file using jetty
 
   mvn jetty:run-war  (from one command line window)
 
-To run the war file using tomcat7
+To run the war file using tomcat
 
-  mvn tomcat7:run-war  (from one command line window)
+  mvn cargo:run  (from one command line window)
 
 To remove the target dir, run mvn clean".
 
diff --git a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/pom.xml b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/pom.xml
index db362ed87d2..ebcfb83f122 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/pom.xml
+++ b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/jax_rs/websocket_web/pom.xml
@@ -50,62 +50,39 @@
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
-                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
-                <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.2</version>
+                <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
+                <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>1.8.5</version>
                 <configuration>
-                    <warSourceDirectory>${project.build.directory}/${project.artifactId}</warSourceDirectory>
-                    <port>9000</port>
-                    <path>/</path>
+                    <container>
+                        <containerId>tomcat</containerId>
+                        <artifactInstaller>
+                            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
+                            <artifactId>tomcat</artifactId>
+                            <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
+                        </artifactInstaller>
+                    </container>
+                    <configuration>
+                        <type>standalone</type>
+                        <home>
+                            ${project.build.directory}/apache-tomcat-${cxf.tomcat.version}
+                        </home>
+                        <properties>
+                            <cargo.servlet.port>8080</cargo.servlet.port>
+                            <cargo.logging>high</cargo.logging>
+                        </properties>
+                    </configuration>
+                    <deployables>
+                        <deployable>
+                            <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
+                            <artifactId>${project.artifactId}</artifactId>
+                            <type>war</type>
+                            <properties>
+                                <context>/${project.build.finalName}</context>
+                            </properties>
+                        </deployable>
+                    </deployables>
                 </configuration>
-                <executions>
-                    <execution>
-                        <id>run-tomcat</id>
-                        <configuration>
-                            <fork>true</fork>
-                        </configuration>
-                        <goals>
-                            <goal>run</goal>
-                        </goals>
-                    </execution>
-                </executions>
-                <dependencies>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-core</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-logging-juli</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-jasper</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-jasper-el</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-jsp-api</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                    <dependency>
-                        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
-                        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-websocket</artifactId>
-                        <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
-                    </dependency>
-                </dependencies>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
diff --git a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/README.txt b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/README.txt
index af5fca2f196..030a0256dab 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/README.txt
+++ b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/README.txt
@@ -99,11 +99,9 @@ switching the soap:address value to the servlet-specific one (presently
 commented-out).
 
 2.) For standalone Tomcat: You can manually copy the generated WAR file to the Tomcat 
-webapps folder, or, if you have Maven and Tomcat set up to use the Tomcat Maven Plugin 
-(http://tomcat.apache.org/maven-plugin-2.1/tomcat7-maven-plugin/index.html) 
-you can use the mvn tomcat7:redeploy command instead. 
+webapps folder.
 
-For embedded Tomcat: Just run mvn tomcat7:run-war from the project base folder.
+For embedded Tomcat: Just run mvn cargo:run from the project base folder.
 
 3.) Next activate the client via mvn -Pclient as explained in the previous section.
 
diff --git a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/pom.xml b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/pom.xml
index b5a373c770f..34e3b8fc728 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/pom.xml
+++ b/distribution/src/main/release/samples/wsdl_first/pom.xml
@@ -49,13 +49,38 @@
                     </configuration>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
-                    <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>2.2</version>
+                    <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
+                    <version>1.8.5</version>
                     <configuration>
-                        <server>myTomcat</server>
-                        <url>http://localhost:8080/manager/text</url>
-                        <path>/${project.build.finalName}</path>
+                        <container>
+                            <containerId>tomcat</containerId>
+                            <artifactInstaller>
+                                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
+                                <artifactId>tomcat</artifactId>
+                                <version>${cxf.tomcat.version}</version>
+                            </artifactInstaller>
+                        </container>
+                        <configuration>
+                            <type>standalone</type>
+                            <home>
+                                ${project.build.directory}/apache-tomcat-${cxf.tomcat.version}
+                            </home>
+                            <properties>
+                                <cargo.servlet.port>8080</cargo.servlet.port>
+                                <cargo.logging>high</cargo.logging>
+                            </properties>
+                        </configuration>
+                        <deployables>
+                            <deployable>
+                                <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
+                                <artifactId>${project.artifactId}</artifactId>
+                                <type>war</type>
+                                <properties>
+                                    <context>/${project.build.finalName}</context>
+                                </properties>
+                            </deployable>
+                        </deployables>
                     </configuration>
                 </plugin>
             </plugins>