diff --git a/docs/howto.md b/docs/howto.md
index 52981c1d04..4868e2df5f 100644
--- a/docs/howto.md
+++ b/docs/howto.md
@@ -151,6 +151,14 @@ Tomcat APIs are quite rich so once you have access to the
 of ways. Or the nuclear option is to add your own
 `TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory`.
 
+## Use Tomcat 8
+
+Tomcat 8 works with Spring Boot, but the default is to use Tomcat 7
+(so we can support Java 1.6 out of the box). You should only need to
+change the classpath to use Tomcat 8 for it to work. The
+[websocket sample](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/blob/master/spring-boot-samples/spring-boot-sample-websocket/pom.xml)
+shows you how to do that in Maven.
+
 ## Configure Jetty
 
 Generally you can follow the advice [here](#discover.options) about
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfiguration.java
index e178a1af53..4cddf95839 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -16,7 +16,17 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.batch;
 
+import javax.sql.DataSource;
+
+import org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.ListableJobLocator;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.converter.JobParametersConverter;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.explore.JobExplorer;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.explore.support.JobExplorerFactoryBean;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.launch.JobLauncher;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.launch.JobOperator;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.launch.support.SimpleJobOperator;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.repository.JobRepository;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
 import org.springframework.boot.ExitCodeGenerator;
 import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
@@ -26,6 +36,7 @@ import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnExpression;
 import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnMissingBean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
+import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcOperations;
 import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 
 /**
@@ -37,20 +48,23 @@ import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
  * @author Dave Syer
  */
 @Configuration
-@ConditionalOnClass({ JobLauncher.class })
+@ConditionalOnClass({ JobLauncher.class, DataSource.class, JdbcOperations.class })
 public class BatchAutoConfiguration {
 
 	@Value("${spring.batch.job.name:}")
 	private String jobName;
 
+	@Autowired(required = false)
+	private JobParametersConverter jobParametersConverter;
+
 	@Bean
-	@ConditionalOnMissingBean(BatchDatabaseInitializer.class)
+	@ConditionalOnMissingBean
 	public BatchDatabaseInitializer batchDatabaseInitializer() {
 		return new BatchDatabaseInitializer();
 	}
 
 	@Bean
-	@ConditionalOnMissingBean(JobLauncherCommandLineRunner.class)
+	@ConditionalOnMissingBean
 	@ConditionalOnBean(JobLauncher.class)
 	@ConditionalOnExpression("${spring.batch.job.enabled:true}")
 	public JobLauncherCommandLineRunner jobLauncherCommandLineRunner() {
@@ -62,10 +76,34 @@ public class BatchAutoConfiguration {
 	}
 
 	@Bean
-	@ConditionalOnMissingBean(ExitCodeGenerator.class)
+	@ConditionalOnMissingBean
 	@ConditionalOnBean(JobLauncher.class)
 	public ExitCodeGenerator jobExecutionExitCodeGenerator() {
 		return new JobExecutionExitCodeGenerator();
 	}
 
+	@Bean
+	@ConditionalOnMissingBean
+	public JobExplorer jobExplorer(DataSource dataSource) throws Exception {
+		JobExplorerFactoryBean factory = new JobExplorerFactoryBean();
+		factory.setDataSource(dataSource);
+		factory.afterPropertiesSet();
+		return (JobExplorer) factory.getObject();
+	}
+
+	@Bean
+	@ConditionalOnMissingBean
+	public JobOperator jobOperator(JobExplorer jobExplorer, JobLauncher jobLauncher,
+			ListableJobLocator jobRegistry, JobRepository jobRepository) throws Exception {
+		SimpleJobOperator factory = new SimpleJobOperator();
+		factory.setJobExplorer(jobExplorer);
+		factory.setJobLauncher(jobLauncher);
+		factory.setJobRegistry(jobRegistry);
+		factory.setJobRepository(jobRepository);
+		if (this.jobParametersConverter != null) {
+			factory.setJobParametersConverter(this.jobParametersConverter);
+		}
+		return factory;
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfigurationTests.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfigurationTests.java
index 63098e1366..7682694b12 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfigurationTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/batch/BatchAutoConfigurationTests.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import org.springframework.batch.core.JobExecutionException;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.JobParameters;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.Step;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.annotation.EnableBatchProcessing;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.explore.JobExplorer;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.job.AbstractJob;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.launch.JobLauncher;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.repository.JobRepository;
@@ -75,6 +76,7 @@ public class BatchAutoConfigurationTests {
 				PropertyPlaceholderAutoConfiguration.class);
 		this.context.refresh();
 		assertNotNull(this.context.getBean(JobLauncher.class));
+		assertNotNull(this.context.getBean(JobExplorer.class));
 		assertEquals(0, new JdbcTemplate(this.context.getBean(DataSource.class))
 				.queryForList("select * from BATCH_JOB_EXECUTION").size());
 	}