It would appear not possible to use the http connector when encrypting the mod_cluster connection. For mod_cluster to use the 8443 connector in JBoss, one has to comment out both the 8009 connector and 8080. But this raises a question, even if it were possible to keep the 8080 connector, it doesn't appear mod_cluster is able to hit both, as there would need to be multiple mod_cluster VHs in httpd.