When deploying an app from a context descriptor inside a webapp/META-INF directory via context.xml, the className is ignored and the context is created as a StandardContext. I've tried to use a ReplicatedContext class in a cluster from this configuration and it does not work. However, it does work if i move the context.xml to $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[EngineName]/[HostName]/webapp.xml.
This issue and some related issues have been fixed in trunk and proposed for 6.0.x
The patch to trunk had some issues. I am working on a better one.
I finally got around to taking another look at this. A new patch has been committed to trunk and proposed for 6.0.x.
This has been fixed in 6.0.x and will be in 6.0.19 onwards.
*** Bug 20608 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***