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Recipe: Configure Spring Boot on Cloud Foundry

This recipe is illustrated in the PAL Tracker example project.

1. Inject Environment Variables into a Controller

Update the WelcomeController so that the sayHello() method returns a message field set by the constructor. Use the @Value annotation to inject the value from the environment:

package io.pivotal.pal.tracker;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class WelcomeController {

    private String message;

    public WelcomeController(
        // Injects the WELCOME_MESSAGE environment variable
        @Value("${welcome.message}") String message
    ) {
        this.message = message;
    }

    @GetMapping("/")
    public String sayHello() {
        return message;
    }
}

Running the app now will result in a failure: Could not resolve placeholder 'welcome.message' in value "${welcome.message}".

To resolve this, update the build.gradle to set the WELCOME_MESSAGE environment variable in the bootRun configuration:

bootRun.environment([
     "WELCOME_MESSAGE": "hello",
])

2. Built-in Cloud Foundry Environment Variables

Cloud Foundry comes with several built-in environment variables accessible to your application. To show this, let's create a new controller called EnvController:

package io.pivotal.pal.tracker;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

@RestController
public class EnvController {

	private final String port;
	private final String memoryLimit;
	private final String cfInstanceIndex;
	private final String cfInstanceAddress;

	public EnvController(
		// Injects the PORT environment variable, defaults to NOT SET
		@Value("${port:NOT SET}") String port,
		// Injects the MEMORY_LIMIT environment variable, defaults to NOT SET
		@Value("${memory.limit:NOT SET}") String memoryLimit,
		// Injects the CF_INSTANCE_INDEX environment variable, defaults to NOT SET
		@Value("${cf.instance.index:NOT SET}") String cfInstanceIndex,
		// Injects the CF_INSTANCE_ADDR environment variable, defaults to NOT SET
		@Value("${cf.instance.addr:NOT SET}") String cfInstanceAddress
	) {
		this.port = port;
		this.memoryLimit = memoryLimit;
		this.cfInstanceIndex = cfInstanceIndex;
		this.cfInstanceAddress = cfInstanceAddress;
	}

	// Maps GET requests to /env
	@GetMapping("/env")
	public Map<String, String> getEnv() {
		Map<String, String> result = new HashMap<>();
		result.put("PORT", port);
		result.put("MEMORY_LIMIT", memoryLimit);
		result.put("CF_INSTANCE_INDEX", cfInstanceIndex);
		result.put("CF_INSTANCE_ADDR", cfInstanceAddress);
		return result;
	}
}

Run the app and visit the /env end-point to see the output in your local environment:

{
	"PORT": "NOT SET",
	"CF_INSTANCE_ADDR": "NOT SET",
	"CF_INSTANCE_INDEX": "NOT SET",
	"MEMORY_LIMIT": "NOT SET"
}

Set Environment Variables in Cloud Foundry

Deploy the app to see what happens in production:

cf push -p build/libs/pal-tracker.jar

The app will crash because the WELCOME_MESSAGE environment variable isn't set. The environment variable can be set using cf set-env then restaging:

cf set-env pal-tracker WELCOME_MESSAGE hi
cf restage pal-tracker # no need to re-push

Now when you check the Cloud Foundry endpoint, it will have the actual values:

{
    "PORT": "80",
    "CF_INSTANCE_ADDR": "1.2.3.4:80",
    "CF_INSTANCE_INDEX": "1",
    "MEMORY_LIMIT": "1GB"
}

3. Scale your Cloud Foundry App

Scaling can be done horizontally, vertically, or both using the cf scale command:

# Scale to 3 instances, 2GB storage, 1024M memory and force a restart
cf scale APP -i 3 -k 2G -m 1024M -f

Check on the process by running cf app pal-tracker.

4. Use a Manifest File

The manifest.yml specified an application's environment defaults, so they only need to be managed with the CLI if they need to be overridden. Rather than setting the WELCOME_MESSAGE value using cf set-env, the value can be specified in the manifest.yml:

---
applications:
- name: pal-tracker
  path: build/libs/pal-tracker.jar
  env:
    WELCOME_MESSAGE: Hello from the Manifest

Run cf push again to see the updated WELCOME_MESSAGE value in the CF environment.

Broader Topics Related to Spring Boot Environment Configuration on Cloud Foundry

Java

Java

A cross-platform, object-oriented programming language

PAL Tracker (Example Java Application)

PAL Tracker (Example Java Application)

An example application to demonstrate application deployment and management strategies in Java, Spring Boot, and Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry

An open-source, on-premise cloud platform for enterprise IT organizations

Spring Boot Environment Configuration on Cloud Foundry Knowledge Graph