I can duplicate the problem with my Jenkins instance, running 2.176.2 with the Deploy To Container plugin 1.14; downgrading to 1.13 solves the issue for me. I am certain that my Tomcat manager is running and functional; no config for the working job had changed except for upgrading this plugin.
Relevant logs with 1.14:
[DeployPublisher][INFO] Attempting to deploy 1 war file(s)
[DeployPublisher][INFO] Deploying /var/lib/jenkins/workspace/Processor Development (PD)/config-database/Testing Test and Deploy (from Master)/Lab/build/install/Lab.war to container Tomcat 7.x Remote with context lab
ERROR: Build step failed with exception
org.codehaus.cargo.container.ContainerException: Failed to redeploy [/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/Processor Development (PD)/config-database/Testing Test and Deploy (from Master)/Lab/build/install/Lab.war]
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.AbstractTomcatManagerDeployer.redeploy(AbstractTomcatManagerDeployer.java:188)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter.deploy(CargoContainerAdapter.java:81)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter$DeployCallable.invoke(CargoContainerAdapter.java:167)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter$DeployCallable.invoke(CargoContainerAdapter.java:136)}}
{{ at hudson.FilePath$FileCallableWrapper.call(FilePath.java:3050)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:212)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:54)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.Request$2.run(Request.java:369)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.InterceptingExecutorService$1.call(InterceptingExecutorService.java:72)}}
{{ at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)}}
{{ at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)}}
{{ at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)}}
{{ at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)}}
{{ Suppressed: hudson.remoting.Channel$CallSiteStackTrace: Remote call to pd-jenkins-ls1}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.Channel.attachCallSiteStackTrace(Channel.java:1743)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.UserRequest$ExceptionResponse.retrieve(UserRequest.java:357)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.Channel.call(Channel.java:957)}}
{{ at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:1070)}}
{{ at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:1059)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter.redeployFile(CargoContainerAdapter.java:133)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.PasswordProtectedAdapterCargo.redeployFile(PasswordProtectedAdapterCargo.java:95)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.DeployPublisher.perform(DeployPublisher.java:113)}}
{{ at hudson.tasks.BuildStepCompatibilityLayer.perform(BuildStepCompatibilityLayer.java:79)}}
{{ at hudson.tasks.BuildStepMonitor$3.perform(BuildStepMonitor.java:45)}}
{{ at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.perform(AbstractBuild.java:741)}}
{{ at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.performAllBuildSteps(AbstractBuild.java:690)}}
{{ at hudson.model.Build$BuildExecution.post2(Build.java:186)}}
{{ at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.post(AbstractBuild.java:635)}}
{{ at hudson.model.Run.execute(Run.java:1843)}}
{{ at hudson.model.FreeStyleBuild.run(FreeStyleBuild.java:43)}}
{{ at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:97)}}
{{ at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:429)}}
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: http://REDACTED:8080/null/list
{{ at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream0(HttpURLConnection.java:1890)}}
{{ at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1492)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.TomcatManager.invoke(TomcatManager.java:577)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.TomcatManager.list(TomcatManager.java:882)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.TomcatManager.getStatus(TomcatManager.java:895)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.AbstractTomcatManagerDeployer.redeploy(AbstractTomcatManagerDeployer.java:169)}}
{{ ... 12 more}}
java.io.FileNotFoundException: http://REDACTED:8080/null/list
{{ at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream0(HttpURLConnection.java:1890)}}
{{ at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1492)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.TomcatManager.invoke(TomcatManager.java:577)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.TomcatManager.list(TomcatManager.java:882)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.TomcatManager.getStatus(TomcatManager.java:895)}}
{{ at org.codehaus.cargo.container.tomcat.internal.AbstractTomcatManagerDeployer.redeploy(AbstractTomcatManagerDeployer.java:169)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter.deploy(CargoContainerAdapter.java:81)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter$DeployCallable.invoke(CargoContainerAdapter.java:167)}}
{{ at hudson.plugins.deploy.CargoContainerAdapter$DeployCallable.invoke(CargoContainerAdapter.java:136)}}
{{ at hudson.FilePath$FileCallableWrapper.call(FilePath.java:3050)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:212)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:54)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.Request$2.run(Request.java:369)}}
{{ at hudson.remoting.InterceptingExecutorService$1.call(InterceptingExecutorService.java:72)}}
{{ at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)}}
{{ at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)}}
{{ at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)}}
{{ at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)}}
Build step 'Deploy war/ear to a container' marked build as failure
[Slack Notifications] found #203 as previous completed, non-aborted build
Finished: FAILURE
I have to figure the null/list bit has something to do with it. When I put "/manager/" at the end of the Tomcat deploy URL in the job configuration, I saw instead
http://REDACTED:8080/manager//manager/text/list
Something in the newer version of the plugin that constructs the URLs is broken, I suspect.
The error message is quite clear. There is no Tomcat manager running at the specified location.