Enterprise Distributed Application Service (EDAS) hosts Apache Dubbo microservice applications in a non-invasive manner with minimal code changes. Add a few dependencies and update your configuration -- EDAS then manages service discovery, configuration, metadata, and governance so you can focus on business logic. After deployment, you can use EDAS features such as hosting of enterprise-level microservice applications, microservice governance, monitoring and alerting, and application diagnosis.
Dubbo architecture
Two mainstream versions of open source Dubbo are available: 2.6.x and 2.7.x.
The runtime workflow has four steps:
Provider registers. During startup, the provider registers with the registry.
Consumer subscribes. During startup, the consumer subscribes to the services it needs from the registry.
Registry pushes updates. The registry returns a list of provider addresses to the consumer. When a provider changes, the registry pushes the updated addresses automatically.
Consumer routes requests. The consumer selects a provider from the address list based on the software load balancing algorithm and sends the request.
What hosting on EDAS replaces
Hosting a Dubbo application on EDAS means EDAS takes over three core infrastructure components: the registry, the configuration center, and the metadata center. You no longer need to deploy, maintain, or monitor these components yourself.
Before hosting
You must build and maintain all three components independently:
Registry -- an open source component such as ZooKeeper or Nacos
Configuration center and metadata center -- typically managed through Dubbo Admin
You are responsible for availability, upgrades, and scaling of every component.
After hosting
EDAS provides a managed Nacos instance that serves as the registry, configuration center, and metadata center. It also replaces self-managed Dubbo Admin with the Dubbo service governance platform.
Applications deployed to EDAS connect to these managed components automatically.
Alternatively, continue using a self-managed or Microservices Engine (MSE)-hosted ZooKeeper, Nacos, or Eureka registry alongside EDAS governance.
Component comparison
| Component | Open source options | EDAS options | After deployment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registry | Nacos (recommended), ZooKeeper (recommended), etcd, Consul, Eureka | Nacos (recommended), EDAS registry | Auto-connected |
| Configuration center | Nacos (recommended), ZooKeeper (recommended), Apollo | Nacos (recommended) | Auto-connected |
| Metadata center | Nacos (recommended), Redis (recommended), ZooKeeper | Nacos (recommended) | Auto-connected |
Benefits
The entire hosting process is completely transparent to you. It does not require you to learn anything, or increase your development costs.
Reduced infrastructure costs
EDAS provides built-in service discovery and configuration management, eliminating the need to maintain middleware such as Eureka, ZooKeeper, or Consul.
Streamlined deployment
Configure startup parameters, visualize deployment progress, enable graceful service connection and disconnection, and publish in batches -- all from a single platform.
Service governance
EDAS provides comprehensive service governance capabilities including service query, conditional routing, blacklist and whitelist, label-based routing, dynamic configuration, load balancing configuration, weight configuration, and centralized configuration management.
Auto scaling
Dynamically scale applications in or out based on traffic peaks and valleys.
Throttling and degradation
EDAS provides the throttling and degradation feature to ensure high availability of your applications.
Monitoring
EDAS integrates some monitoring features from Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS). In addition to instance information query, you get access to:
Microservice trace query
Service call topology query
Slow SQL query
Supported Dubbo versions
| Version | Status | New features |
|---|---|---|
| Dubbo 2.6.x | Maintained | No -- maintenance only |
| Dubbo 2.7.x | Latest version | Yes |
We recommend that you use Dubbo 2.7.x. If you are on Dubbo 2.6.x, migrate to 2.7.x to access new features.
Get started
EDAS supports multiple methods to develop Dubbo microservice-oriented applications. To build and deploy a Dubbo microservice application on EDAS using Spring Boot, see Use Spring Boot to develop Dubbo microservice applications.