Since the very foundation, CloudJiffy PaaS evangelizes the idea of making an application deployment process as easy and universal as possible. Keep following our mission, today we are glad to introduce another newcomer within a family of certified Java-powered stacks – Spring Boot server for standalone and clustered applications or microservices.

With CloudJiffy’s Spring Boot stack template, you can effortlessly run various Java-based applications inside the cloud via an easy-to-use graphic interface or automation scripts. The following Java project types can be hosted within this server:

• JAR – for standalone Java apps or stateless microservice instances, created using Spring Boot, Dropwizard, or Spark frameworks
• WAR – for web applications with the embedded servlet container

In this way, Spring Boot enables me to keep things portable, whilst CloudJiffy ensures quick delivery of applications to production and their comprehensive management via GUI, API or Cloud Scripting.   

Creation of Spring Boot Environment

So, log in to your CloudJiffy Cloud account and let’s get started.

1. First of all, create a New Environment – use the same-named button to launch the topology wizard. Switch to Java language tab and choose SpringBoot template within application server layer at the left-hand panel as shown below. Set the number of allocated resources, type my environment name and click Create to proceed.

2. When a new environment appears on the dashboard click Open in the browser to launch the pre-installed Hello World application sample.  

In this way, you can make sure my Spring Boot instance is up and running.

Now let’s consider how to integrate my custom Java application into the created Spring Boot environment.

Signup Now for a 14-day free trial to try out Springboot on CloudJiffy.

Deploying Java Applications to Spring Boot

To launch the Spring Boot project inside CloudJiffy, you need to preliminary pack it into an executable archive with all the appropriate compiled classes and associated resources inside (including embedded servlet container for handling self-contained applications). The following archive types are supported:

• JAR – the most common Java-archive type; should either contain a manifest with declared entry point class or be built as all-in “fat” JAR or nested JAR file
• WAR – for deployment of applications with embedded servlet container; in particular, should be used for JSP-based projects for solving known supportability issues within Spring Boot

ZIP Bundle

By default, any executable JAR file, created by Spring Boot, contains property files and additional settings. However, in the case of production deployment, it is more convenient to distribute these files outside of the packaged archive. For example, this can be applied to externalized configuration property files (application.property, application.yml) or logging configurations (log4j2.properties, logback.xml).

To simplify application deployment in these cases, CloudJiffy supports the deployment of a ZIP bundle, which may contain an executable JAR file and any additional files or directories.

While unpacking a ZIP bundle, CloudJiffy processes all the included folders to detect the runnable JAR. To be considered as an execution point, a JAR file should contain the Main-Class declaration inside its META-INF/MANIFEST.MF manifest file. Once such JAR file is located, CloudJiffy will run JVM with “java –jar /path/to/jar” parameters inside the directory that corresponds to the root folder of the deployed archive.

Example

Below is a sample directory structure of a ZIP bundle that can be used for deployment into CloudJiffy Cloud.

If deploying such an archive, CloudJiffy will run JVM with the “java -jar lib/my-springboot-app.jar” arguments from a directory that corresponds to the root folder of the unpacked  application.zip archive.

Application Deployment

CloudJiffy provides versatile possibilities for my application deployment into the Cloud, allowing to choose the most preferable one.

• Manual Deployment

The most evident and comfortable approach is to perform this manually through the convenient CloudJiffy GUI.

For that, Upload an archive with my app via Deployment Manager and initiate its deployment by selecting the destination environment (the previously created spring-boot-app in our case).

In the opened dialog, select the destination environment (the previously created spring-boot-app in our case) and confirm Deploy with the same-named button. Wait till the corresponding task is finished.

Checking Logs

When the deployment is finished, give the system some more time to run the required services (where delay directly depends on your project complexity) - the current progress of this operation can be tracked in real-time via the run.log server log.

After completion, your application web interface (if such is run on the default 8080 port) can be accessed identically you’ve done this for preinstalled Hello World - by clicking Open in Browser for your environment.

Ways to Build a Spring Boot Application

Ways to Build a Spring Boot Application

To create an appropriate archive file for my application hosting inside CloudJiffy Cloud, either Gradle or Maven build tools can be used.

• The minimal base for Gradle build script (build.gradle) is listed below, where parameters in curly braces should be substitutes with my custom values:

buildscript {
  ext {
     springBootVersion = '{X.X.X.RELEASE}'
  }
  repositories {
     mavenLocal()
     mavenCentral()
  }
  dependencies {
     classpath("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-gradle-plugin:${springBootVersion}")
  }
}
apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'eclipse'
apply plugin: 'org.springframework.boot'
sourceCompatibility = 1.8
targetCompatibility = 1.8
jar {
  baseName = '{your_app_name}'
  version =  '{your_app_version}'
}
repositories {
  mavenLocal()
  mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
  compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter")
}
task wrapper(type: Wrapper) {
  gradleVersion = '{used_gradle_version}'
}

To build an executable JAR file with this script, use the following command:

./gradlew clean assemble

The generated archive will be stored upon the ..build/libs/{app_name}-{app-version}.jar path.

• The minimal base for pom.xml Maven project description includes the following parameters (where parameters in curly braces should be substitutes with my custom values):

 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  4.0.0
  
     org.springframework.boot
     spring-boot-starter-parent
     {Х.Х.Х.RELEASE}
  
  org.springframework
  {your_app_name}
  {your_app_version}
  
     1.8
  
  
     
     
        org.springframework.boot
        spring-boot-starter-web
     
  
  
     
        
           org.springframework.boot
           spring-boot-maven-plugin
        
     
  

To produce an executable JAR with Maven, execute the following command:

mvn clean package

Your app archive will be placed at the …target/{app_name}-{app-version}.jar location

CloudJiffy Maven Plugin

As more convenient joint build & deployment option, consider CloudJiffy Maven plugin, which is aimed to facilitate application delivery to the Cloud. Integrate it into your Maven project’s pom.xml configuration file and get the ability to build application archive and instantly push it to a target environment with a single command.

CI/CD Tools for Java Applications in the Cloud

Dedicated Maven Build Node in the Cloud  

In case you do prefer working via GUI, leverage dedicated Maven build node the CloudJiffy Platform provides out-of-box. Being included to an environment alongside with Java application server, it can be used to fetch, compile and deploy the application from its sources within a specified remote GIT/SVN repository.

CI/CD Automation Add-On

In addition to all the above-mentioned options, CloudJiffy offers a special Git-Push-Deploy add-on for continuous application deployment from GitHub & GitLab repositories via the automatically integrated CI/CD pipeline. It can be especially useful in case my project is under intensive development yet, which implies lots of repetitive commits. With this solution, my application will be automatically rebuilt and delivered to a target server upon any change is made within its code, making the newest version available via the corresponding domain in a matter of minutes.

Maintaining my Spring Boot Server

The majority of basic server management operations can be performed right via CloudJiffy Cloud UI with the appropriate embedded tools, e.g.:

• use the built-in Configuration Manager to create or upload new files, edit or delete the existing ones, set up mount points and manage exported data from other servers

• set up custom Java options and arguments for my server by adjusting the JAVA_OPTS and JAVA_ARGS environment variables

• • explore server Logs to get the details on run operations for efficient service administration and troubleshooting
  • track the Statistics on consumed resources to be aware of the capacities my server actually needs and define the best approach for their allocation 
    

  For more complex maintenance operations, the CloudJiffy SSH Gate can be used. It allows managing my containers remotely with a full root access provided. For that, I just need to connect to my account with the previously generated SSH key pair. And the following tips can come in handy when working with my Spring Boot server:

  • My application files can be located in the /opt/shared/apps/APP directory, which is considered as “current” or “working” for Java process
  • Java Virtual Machine (JVM) configuration parameters can be customized within the /opt/shared/conf/variables.conf file (e.g. to enable remote debugging or pass any additional arguments to JVM)
  • to inspect log files, refer to the /opt/repo/logs directory
  • the /opt/shared/home location is considered as a home directory
  • JDK is located in the /usr/java/default directory
  • to restart my application, execute the sudo service cartridge restart command

  In particular, ability to operate server via console can be especially useful when handling a non-web Spring Boot applications.

  Automatic Scaling for Spring Boot Server

  CloudJiffy Platform provides a real-time elastic scalability that is available out-of-the-box for any server. By enabling both automatic vertical and horizontal scaling, I can make my Spring Boot application fully adaptable to changeable workloads.

  Automatic Vertical Scaling

  The automatic vertical scaling is enabled by default and ensures my service remains available during the load spikes, and at the same time, eliminates the need to pay for unused resources. Just decide on a maximum limit of resources (set with cloudlets) my application may consume and CloudJiffy will automatically adjust the maximum memory size (-Xmx) for my application based on these capacities, for example:

  • 8 cloudlets (1GiB RAM) set the maximum heap size to 819 MB
  • 16 cloudlets (2GiB RAM) set the maximum heap size to 1638 MB

  To customize -Xmx or any other JVM options, edit the /opt/shared/conf/variables.conf file either via Configuration Manager or CloudJiffy SSH Gate.

  Automatic Horizontal Scaling

  The automatic horizontal scaling functionality allows adjusting the number of web and application servers according to the resources consumption of my application. It is implemented by means of the tunable monitoring triggers that are based on the usage of a particular resource type:

  • CPU
  • Memory (RAM)
  • Network
  • Disk I/O
  • Disk IOPS

Herewith, all the newly added nodes will be created at different hardware servers to ensure high-availability for my application.

Traffic Encryption with SSL

If project requires some complex configurations for requests handling, like HTTPS and load balancing, feel free to leverage the following security options:

• built-in CloudJiffy SSL functionality allows you to instantly apply traffic encryption for my application's internal domain (i.e. https://{env_name}{platform_domain}) with CloudJiffy wildcard SSL certificate

• as a free-of-charge SSL alternative, applicable for both internal and custom domains, a special CloudJiffy-developed Let’s Encrypt add-on can be used

Applying any of these solutions to the Load Balancer node will enable traffic encryption on the environment level, eliminating the necessity to configure it inside your application. As a result, the received encrypted traffic will be terminated at the load balancing layer and proxied further to the application server in plain view.

Custom Ports & HTTP/HTTPS Usage Considerations

By default, the majority of Java applications listen to port 8080 on HTTP level, thus it is considered the standard Spring Boot endpoint for HTTP traffic.

Herewith, when environment link is requested over the Internet, the ports are automatically mapped as follows:

• internal HTTP port 8080 refers to the port 80
• secure HTTPS port 8043 refers to the ports 443 and 80

Thus, if working over standard HTTP/HTTPS ports, your application can be accessed directly via the environment URL with the corresponding protocol specified, with no necessity to enter the appropriate port number.  

And if your application does need to process the requests on some custom interface, CloudJiffy allows exposing private container TCP and UDP ports via Endpoints. After adding such, the corresponding port will be automatically enabled in server firewall settings, making it accessible to the rest of the world.

Signup Now for a 14-day free trial to try out Springboot on CloudJiffy.