Deploying Spring apps to Cloud Foundry

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This guide walks you through deploying a Spring app to Cloud Foundry. You can choose whether to push a sample app, your own app, or both.

If you experience a problem following the steps, see the Troubleshooting Cloud Foundry topic, or refer to the Troubleshooting Application Deployment and Health topic.

If you want to go through this tutorial using the sample app, run git clone https://github.com/cloudfoundry-samples/pong_matcher_spring to clone the pongmatcherspring app from GitHub, and follow the instructions in the Sample app step sections.

Ensure that your Spring app runs locally before continuing with this procedure.

Deploy a Spring application

This section describes how to deploy your Spring application to Cloud Foundry.

Prerequisites

The Cloud Foundry Java buildpack uses JDK 1.8, but you can modify the buildpack and the manifest for your app to compile to an earlier version. For more information, see Creating custom buildpacks.

Step 1: (Optional) Declare app dependencies

Make sure to declare all the dependency tasks for your app in the build script of your chosen build tool.

The Spring Getting Started Guides demonstrate features and functionality you can add to your app, such as consuming RESTful services or integrating data. These guides contain Gradle and Maven build script examples with dependencies. You can copy the code for the dependencies into your build script.

The following table lists build script information for Gradle and Maven and provides documentation links for each build tool.

Build Tool Build Script Documentation
Gradle build.gradle Gradle User Guide
Maven pom.xml Apache Maven Project Documentation

You can skip this step. The pom.xml file contains the dependencies for the pongmatcherspring sample app, as the following example shows.

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.flywaydb</groupId>
        <artifactId>flyway-core</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
        <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.jayway.jsonpath</groupId>
        <artifactId>json-path</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Make sure you are not building fully executable jars because application push might fail.

Step 2: (Optional) Allocate sufficient memory

Use the cf push -m command to specify the amount of memory that should be allocated to the application. Memory allocated this way is done in preset amounts of 64M, 128M, 256M, 512M, 1G, or 2G. For example:

$ cf push -m 128M

When your app is running, you can use the cf app APP-NAME command to see memory utilization.

You can skip this step. The Cloud Foundry Java buildpack uses settings declared in the sample app to allocate 1 GB of memory to the app.

Step 3: Provide a JDBC driver

The Java buildpack does not bundle a JDBC driver with your application. If your application accesses a SQL RDBMS, you must do the following:

  • Include the appropriate driver in your application.
  • Create a dependency task for the driver in the build script for your build tool or IDE.

You can skip this step. In the pongmatcherspring sample app, the src/main/resources/application.yml file declares the JDBC driver, and the pom.xml file includes the JDBC driver as a dependency.

Step 4: (Optional) Configure service connections for a Spring app

Cloud Foundry provides extensive support for creating and binding a Spring application to services such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, and RabbitMQ. For more information about creating and binding a service connection for your app, refer to Configuring Service Connections.

Run cf create-service cleardb spark mysql. This creates a service instance named mysql that uses the cleardb service and the spark plan, as this example shows. 
$ cf create-service cleardb spark mysql
Creating service mysql in org Cloud-Apps / space development as a.user@example.com....
OK

You can skip this step because the service instance is already bound. Open the manifest.yml file in a text editor to view the bound service instance information. Locate the file in the app root directory and search for the services sub-block in the applications block, as the example below shows.

---
applications:
...
  services:
    - mysql

Step 5: Configure the deployment manifest

You can specify deployment options in a manifest file manifest.yml that the cf push command uses when deploying your app.

Refer to the Deploying with Application Manifests topic for more information.

You can skip this step. The manifest.yml file for the pongmatcherspring sample app does not require any additional configuration to deploy the app.

Step 6: Log in and target the API endpoint

Enter your log in credentials, and select a space and org.

cf login -a API-ENDPOINT

Where API-ENDPOINT is the URL of the Cloud Controller in your App Cloud instance.

You must do this step to run the sample app.

Step 7: Deploy your app

You must use the cf CLI to deploy apps.

From the root directory of your app, run the following command to deploy your application.

cf push APP-NAME -p PATH-TO-FILE.jar

Most Spring apps include an artifact, such as a .jar, .war, or .zip file. You must include the path to this file in the cf push command using the -p option if you do not declare the path in the applications block of the manifest file. The example shows how to specify a path to the .jar file for a Spring app. Refer to the Tips for Java Developers topic for CLI examples for specific build tools, frameworks, and languages that create an app with an artifact.

The cf push command creates a URL route to your application in the form HOST.DOMAIN, where HOST is your APP-NAME and DOMAIN is specified by your administrator. Your DOMAIN is scapp.io.

For example, cf push my-app creates the URL my-app.scapp.io.

The URL for your app must be unique from other apps that Cloud Foundry hosts or the push fails. Use the following options to help create a unique URL:

  • -n to assign a different HOST name for the app
  • --random-route to create a URL that includes the app name and random words
  • cf help push to view other options for this command

If you want to view log activity while the app deploys, launch a new terminal window and run cf logs APP-NAME.

Once your app deploys, go to your app URL. Search for the urls field in the App started block in the output of the cf push command. Use the URL to access your app online.

Sample app step

  1. Run brew install maven.
  2. Change to the app directory, and run mvn package to build the app.
  3. Run cf push pong_matcher_spring -n HOSTNAME to push the app. Example: cf push pong_matcher_spring -n my-spring-app.

This example works for cf CLI v6. The -n flag is not supported for cf CLI v7/v8. Hostname must be set using the routes property in the manifest. You do not have to include the -p flag when you deploy the sample app. The sample app manifest declares the path to the archive that cf push uses to upload the app files.

The following example shows the terminal output of deploying the pongmatcherspring app. cf push uses the instructions in the manifest file to create the app, create and bind the route, and upload the app. It then binds the app to the mysql service and starts one instance of the app with 1 GB of memory. After the app starts, the output displays the health and status of the app. This example works for cf CLI v6. The -n flag is not supported for cf CLI v7/v8. Hostname must be set using the routes property in the manifest.

$ cf push pong_matcher_spring -n spring1119
Using manifest file /Users/example/workspace/pong_matcher_spring/manifest.yml

Creating app pong_matcher_spring in org Cloud-Apps / space development as a.user@example.com...
OK

Creating route spring1119.cfapps.io...
OK

Binding spring1119.cfapps.io to pong_matcher_spring...
OK

Uploading pong_matcher_spring...
Uploading app files from: /Users/example/workspace/pong_matcher_spring/target/pong-matcher-spring-1.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.jar
Uploading 797.5K, 116 files
OK
Binding service mysql to app pong_matcher_spring in org Cloud-Apps / space development as a.user@example.com...
OK

Starting app pong_matcher_spring in org Cloud-Apps / space development as a.user@example.com...
OK
-----> Downloaded app package (25M)
-----> Downloading Open Jdk JRE 1.8.0_25 from https://download.run.pivotal.io/openjdk/lucid/x86_64/openjdk-1.8.0_25.tar.gz (1.2s)
       Expanding Open Jdk JRE to .java-buildpack/open_jdk_jre (1.1s)
-----> Downloading Spring Auto Reconfiguration 1.5.0_RELEASE from https://download.run.pivotal.io/auto-reconfiguration/auto-reconfiguration-1.5.0_RELEASE.jar (0.1s)

-----> Uploading droplet (63M)

0 of 1 instances running, 1 starting
1 of 1 instances running

App started

Showing health and status for app pong_matcher_spring in org Cloud-Apps / space development as a.user@example.com...
OK

requested state: started
instances: 1/1
usage: 1G x 1 instances
urls: spring1119.cfapps.io

     state     since                    cpu    memory         disk
#0   running   2014-11-19 12:29:27 PM   0.0%   553.6M of 1G   127.4M of 1G

Step 8: Test your deployed app

Use the cf CLI to review information and administer your app and your Cloud Foundry account. For example, you can edit the manifest.yml to increase the number of app instances from 1 to 3, and redeploy the app with a new app name and host name.

See Manage your application with the cf CLI for more information.

Sample app step: To test the sample app, do the following:

1. To export the test host, run export HOST=SAMPLE-APP-URL, substituting the URL for your app for SAMPLE-APP-URL.

1. To clear the database from any previous tests, run:
curl -v -X DELETE $HOST/all
You should get a response of 200.

1. To request a match as “andrew”, run:
curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT $HOST/matchrequests/firstrequest -d '{"player": "andrew"}'
You should again get a response of 200.

1. To request a match as a different player, run:
curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT $HOST/matchrequests/secondrequest -d '{"player": "navratilova"}'

1. To check the status of the first match request, run:
curl -v -X GET $HOST/matchrequests/firstrequest
The last line of the output shows the matchid.

1. Replace MATCHID with the matchid value from the previous step in the following command: 

curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST $HOST/results -d '
{
    "matchid":"MATCHID",
    "winner":"andrew",
    "loser":"navratilova"
}'

You should receive a 201 Created response.

Manage your app with the cf CLI

Run cf help to view a complete list of commands, grouped by task categories, and run cf help COMMAND for detailed information about a specific command. For more information about using the cf CLI, refer to the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI) topics, especially the Getting Started with the cf CLI topic.

You cannot perform certain tasks in the CLI because these are commands that only an administrator can run. If you are not an administrator, the following message displays for these types of commands:

error code: 10003, message: You are not authorized to perform the requested action

Troubleshooting

If your application fails to start, verify that the application starts in your local environment. Refer to the Troubleshooting Application Deployment and Health topic to learn more about troubleshooting.

App deploy fails

Even when the deploy fails, the app might exist on Cloud Foundry. Run the cf apps command to review the apps in the targeted org and space. You might be able to correct the issue using the CLI, or you might have to delete the app and redeploy it.

App requires a Content-Type

If you specify a Content-Encoding header of gzip but do not specify a Content-Type within your application, Cloud Foundry might send a Content-Type of application/x-gzip to the browser. This scenario might cause the deploy to fail if it conflicts with the actual encoded content of your app. To avoid this issue, be sure to explicitly set Content-Type within your app.

App requires a unique URL

Cloud Foundry requires that each app that you deploy have a unique URL. Otherwise, the new app URL collides with an existing app URL and Cloud Foundry cannot successfully deploy the app. You can fix this issue by running cf push with the --random-route flag to create a unique URL. Using --random-route to create a URL that includes the app name and random words might create a long URL, depending on the number of words that the app name includes.

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