Spring Cloud Ribbon with Eureka Example

YatinJune 6th, 2019Last Updated: June 3rd, 2019

0 359 5 minutes read

Welcome readers, in this tutorial, we will explore an interesting Spring Cloud component known as Netflix Ribbon for client-side load balancing.

1. Introduction

Spring Boot is a module that provides rapid application development feature to the spring framework including auto-configuration, standalone-code, and production-ready code
It creates applications that are packaged as jar and are directly started using embedded servlet container (such as Tomcat, Jetty or Undertow). Thus, no need to deploy the war files
It simplifies the maven configuration by providing the starter template and helps to resolve the dependency conflicts. It automatically identifies the required dependencies and imports them in the application
It helps in removing the boilerplate code, extra annotations, and xml configurations
It provides a powerful batch processing and manages the rest endpoints
It provides an efficient jpa-starter library to effectively connect the application with the relational databases
It offers a Microservice architecture and cloud configuration that manages all the application related configuration properties in a centralized manner.

1.1 Load Balancing

Load Balancing is a concept of distributing the workloads across multiple resources such as servers, clusters, or disk drives
Load Balancing aims to improve the application’s response time, avoiding overloading a single resource, optimizing resource usage, and maximizing throughput

Now, open the eclipse ide and let’s see how to implement this tutorial in spring boot. Do note, we’ll use the existing Eureka server and client applications to work on this tutorial. Users can refer to this link for reading.

2. Spring Cloud Ribbon with Eureka Example

Here is a systematic guide for implementing this tutorial.

2.1 Tools Used

We are using Eclipse Kepler SR2, JDK 8 and Maven.

2.2 Project Structure

In case you are confused about where you should create the corresponding files or folder, let us review the Eureka server and Eureka client project structure of the spring boot application.

Spring Cloud Ribbon - Application Structure — Fig. 1: Application Structure

2.3 Project Creation

This section will demonstrate how to create a Java-based Maven project with Eclipse. In Eclipse IDE, go to File -> New -> Maven Project.

Spring Cloud Ribbon - Maven Project — Fig. 2: Create a Maven Project

In the New Maven Project window, it will ask you to select a project location. By default, ‘Use default workspace location’ will be selected. Just click on the next button to proceed.

Spring Cloud Ribbon - Project Details — Fig. 3: Project Details

Select the Maven Web App archetype from the list of options and click next.

Spring Cloud Ribbon - Archetype Selection — Fig. 4: Archetype Selection

It will ask you to ‘Enter the group and the artifact id for the project’. We will input the details as shown in Fig. 5. The version number will be by default: 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.

Fig. 5: Archetype Parameters for Ribbon Client

Click on Finish and the creation of the maven project will be completed. If you observe, it has downloaded the maven dependencies and a pom.xml file will be created for the project. Let’s start building the application!

3. Code changes in Eureka Client

Add the instance id to the application.properties of Springcloudeurekaclient application.

application.properties

eureka.instance.instance-id= ${spring.application.name}:${spring.application.instance_id:${random.value}}

Do remember to start the client application twice by changing the server.port property in the properties file. This is required for the load balancer implementation.

4. Creating a Ribbon Client

Below are the steps involved in developing the application.

4.1 Ribbon Client: Maven Dependencies

Here, we specify the dependencies for Spring Cloud, Discovery server, and Ribbon. Maven will automatically resolve the other dependencies. The updated file will have the following code.

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>jcg.tutorial.springcloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>Springcloudeurekaribbon</artifactId>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
 
    <name>Spring cloud eureka ribbon tutorial</name>
    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
 
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.1.3.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>
 
    <!-- To import the spring cloud parent pom as well. -->
    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.cloud/spring-cloud-starter-parent -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-parent</artifactId>
                <version>Greenwich.RELEASE</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>
 
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-eureka</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.6.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-ribbon</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.6.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
 
    <build>
        <finalName>Springcloudeurekaribbon</finalName>
    </build>
</project>

4.2 Ribbon Client: Configuration File

Create a new properties file at the Springcloudeurekaribbon/src/main/resources/ location and add the following code to it.

application.properties

server.port=9090
spring.application.name=ribbonclient
eureka.client.serviceUrl.defaultZone=http://localhost:7171/eureka/

4.3 Ribbon Client: Implementation Class

Add the following code the main class to bootstrap the application from the main method. Always remember, the entry point of the spring boot application is the class containing @SpringBootApplication annotation and the static main method.

Ribbonapplication.java

package com.eureka.ribbon;
 
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.discovery.EnableDiscoveryClient;
 
@SpringBootApplication
//Below annotation is used to list down the application on the eureka server (i.e. the registry server).
@EnableDiscoveryClient
public class Ribbonapplication {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Ribbonapplication.class, args);
    }
}

4.4 Ribbon Client: Controller Class

Add the following code to the controller class. Please note, this controller class for testing purpose only and developers can access it via the following link – http://localhost:9090/fetch.

Ribbonclient.java

package com.eureka.ribbon.ctrl;
 
import java.io.IOException;
 
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.ServiceInstance;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.loadbalancer.LoadBalancerClient;
import org.springframework.http.HttpEntity;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.HttpMethod;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestClientException;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;
 
@RestController
public class Ribbonclient {
 
    @Autowired
    private LoadBalancerClient lba;
 
    @GetMapping(value= "/fetch")
    public void getGreetings() throws RestClientException, IOException {
        ServiceInstance servInstance= lba.choose("greetings");
        System.out.println(servInstance.getUri());
 
        String baseUrl= servInstance.getUri().toString();
        baseUrl= baseUrl + "/greet/welcome/en";
 
        RestTemplate restTemplate= new RestTemplate();
        ResponseEntity<String> response= null;
        try {
            response= restTemplate.exchange(baseUrl, HttpMethod.GET, getHeaders(), String.class);
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println(ex);
        }
        System.out.println("Output= " + response.getBody());
    }
 
    private static HttpEntity<?> getHeaders() throws IOException {
        HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
        headers.set("Accept", MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE);
        return new HttpEntity<>(headers);
    }
}

5. Run the Applications

As we are ready with all the changes, let us compile the projects and run the applications as a java project.

Run the existing Eureka server and client applications
Right click on the Ribbonapplication.java class, Run As -> Java Application. The application will be started on the 9090 port

Developers can debug the example and see what happens after every step. Enjoy!

6. Project Demo

Now hit the following url on your favorite browser and developers will see the Eureka Server page.

1	`http://localhost:9090/fetch`

Developers can see that the Ribbon Client Load Balancer depending on its algorithm will now call either of the “greetings” instances.

2019-06-02 15:44:03.648  INFO 6984 --- [nio-9090-exec-2] c.n.l.DynamicServerListLoadBalancer      : Using serverListUpdater PollingServerListUpdater
2019-06-02 15:44:03.695  INFO 6984 --- [nio-9090-exec-2] c.netflix.config.ChainedDynamicProperty  : Flipping property: greetings.ribbon.ActiveConnectionsLimit to use NEXT property: niws.loadbalancer.availabilityFilteringRule.activeConnectionsLimit = 2147483647
2019-06-02 15:44:03.698  INFO 6984 --- [nio-9090-exec-2] c.n.l.DynamicServerListLoadBalancer      : DynamicServerListLoadBalancer for client greetings initialized: DynamicServerListLoadBalancer:{NFLoadBalancer:name=greetings,current list of Servers=[hp-PC:8181],Load balancer stats=Zone stats: {defaultzone=[Zone:defaultzone;   Instance count:1;   Active connections count: 0;    Circuit breaker tripped count: 0;   Active connections per server: 0.0;]
},Server stats: [[Server:hp-PC:8181;    Zone:defaultZone;   Total Requests:0;   Successive connection failure:0;    Total blackout seconds:0;   Last connection made:Thu Jan 01 05:30:00 IST 1970;  First connection made: Thu Jan 01 05:30:00 IST 1970;    Active Connections:0;   total failure count in last (1000) msecs:0; average resp time:0.0;  90 percentile resp time:0.0;    95 percentile resp time:0.0;    min resp time:0.0;  max resp time:0.0;  stddev resp time:0.0]
]}ServerList:org.springframework.cloud.netflix.ribbon.eureka.DomainExtractingServerList@6149c43b
http://hp-PC:8181
Output= GOOD MORNING

That is all for this tutorial and I hope the article served you whatever you were looking for. Happy Learning and do not forget to share!

7. Conclusion

In this section, developers learned how to create a Ribbon client application and register it on the Eureka server. Developers can download the sample application as an Eclipse project in the Downloads section.

8. Download the Eclipse Project

This was an example of implementing the Ribbon Client with Spring Cloud.

Download
You can download the full source code of this example here: Spring Cloud Ribbon with Eureka Example

Spring Cloud Ribbon with Eureka Example

1. Introduction

1.1 Load Balancing

2. Spring Cloud Ribbon with Eureka Example

2.1 Tools Used

2.2 Project Structure

2.3 Project Creation

3. Code changes in Eureka Client

4. Creating a Ribbon Client

4.1 Ribbon Client: Maven Dependencies

4.2 Ribbon Client: Configuration File

4.3 Ribbon Client: Implementation Class

4.4 Ribbon Client: Controller Class

Thank you!

5. Run the Applications

6. Project Demo

7. Conclusion

8. Download the Eclipse Project

Thank you!

Yatin

Thank you!

1. Introduction

1.1 Load Balancing

2. Spring Cloud Ribbon with Eureka Example

2.1 Tools Used

2.2 Project Structure

2.3 Project Creation

3. Code changes in Eureka Client

4. Creating a Ribbon Client

4.1 Ribbon Client: Maven Dependencies

4.2 Ribbon Client: Configuration File

4.3 Ribbon Client: Implementation Class

4.4 Ribbon Client: Controller Class

Thank you!

5. Run the Applications

6. Project Demo

7. Conclusion

8. Download the Eclipse Project

Thank you!

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