Deploy Spring Cloud Microservices to SAE via Alibaba Cloud Toolkit - Serverless App Engine - Alibaba Cloud - Serverless App Engine

This tutorial walks you through building a Spring Cloud microservices application with Nacos-based service discovery, then deploying it to Serverless App Engine (SAE) directly from IntelliJ IDEA using the Alibaba Cloud Toolkit plug-in — no separate CI/CD pipeline required.

How it works

The application consists of two services that communicate through a local Nacos Server acting as the service registry:

Provider (nacos-service-provider): Exposes GET /echo/{string} and registers itself with Nacos on startup.
Consumer (nacos-service-consumer): Discovers the provider through Nacos and calls it using either RestTemplate or FeignClient.

IntelliJ IDEA
    └── Alibaba Cloud Toolkit plug-in
            │
            ├── Deploy ──► SAE Application: nacos-service-provider (port 18081)
            │                   └── registers as "service-provider" in Nacos
            │
            └── Deploy ──► SAE Application: nacos-service-consumer (port 18082)
                                └── discovers "service-provider" via Nacos
                                └── exposes /echo-rest/{str} and /echo-feign/{str}

During development, both services run locally against an on-premises Nacos Server. After local validation, Alibaba Cloud Toolkit builds and deploys them as SAE applications directly from IntelliJ IDEA.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have:

An activated SAE account. See Activate SAE
Maven installed with environment variables configured
JDK 1.8 or later installed
IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 or later installed
Alibaba Cloud Toolkit installed and configured in IntelliJ IDEA

The JetBrains plug-in server is hosted outside China. If the download is slow, get the offline installation package from the JetBrains website and install it manually. For help, see Contact us.

Step 1: Create placeholder applications in SAE

SAE supports deploying applications from JAR packages and container images. This tutorial uses JAR packages.

Create a provider application and a consumer application in SAE. For step-by-step instructions, see Deploy a microservices application by using a JAR package in the SAE console.

You will publish your local code to these applications in Step 5.

Step 2: Create the provider

Create a Spring Boot project that registers with Nacos as a service provider.

Create a Maven project named nacos-service-provider.

Add the following dependencies to pom.xml:

Spring Cloud Edgware is discontinued. Use Greenwich or later for new projects.

Spring Cloud version	Spring Cloud Alibaba version
Greenwich	2.1.1.RELEASE
Finchley	2.0.1.RELEASE
Edgware	1.5.1.RELEASE

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.4.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/>
</parent>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.alibaba.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-alibaba-nacos-discovery</artifactId>
        <version>2.1.1.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
            <version>Greenwich.SR1</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

This example uses Spring Cloud Greenwich.SR1 with Spring Cloud Alibaba 2.1.1.RELEASE. If your project targets a different Spring Cloud version, use the corresponding Spring Cloud Alibaba version:

In src/main/java, create a package named com.aliware.edas.

In com.aliware.edas, create the startup class ProviderApplication. The @EnableDiscoveryClient annotation enables service registration and discovery:

package com.aliware.edas;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.discovery.EnableDiscoveryClient;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableDiscoveryClient
public class ProviderApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(ProviderApplication.class, args);
    }
}

In com.aliware.edas, create EchoController to expose the provider endpoint:

package com.aliware.edas;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class EchoController {
    @RequestMapping(value = "/echo/{string}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String echo(@PathVariable String string) {
        return string;
    }
}

In src/main/resources, create application.properties and set the Nacos server address:
If your service registry is a self-managed service registry, replace 127.0.0.1 with the address of the self-managed service registry.
```
spring.application.name=service-provider
server.port=18081
spring.cloud.nacos.discovery.server-addr=127.0.0.1:8848
```
Verify the provider registration:
1. Run the main method of ProviderApplication to start the provider.
2. Open the Nacos console at http://127.0.0.1:8848/nacos. The default username and password are both nacos.
3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Service Management > Services. Confirm that service-provider appears in the service list.

Step 3: Create the consumer

Create a Spring Boot project that discovers the provider through Nacos and calls it using RestTemplate and FeignClient.

Create a Maven project named nacos-service-consumer.

Add the following dependencies to pom.xml. The consumer requires the same parent and dependency management as the provider, plus spring-cloud-starter-openfeign:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.4.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/>
</parent>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.alibaba.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-alibaba-nacos-discovery</artifactId>
        <version>2.1.1.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-openfeign</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
            <version>Greenwich.SR1</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

In src/main/java, create a package named com.aliware.edas.

In com.aliware.edas, create the FeignClient interface EchoService:

package com.aliware.edas;

import org.springframework.cloud.openfeign.FeignClient;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;

// Binds this FeignClient to the "service-provider" service in Nacos
@FeignClient(name = "service-provider")
public interface EchoService {
    @RequestMapping(value = "/echo/{str}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    String echo(@PathVariable("str") String str);
}

In com.aliware.edas, create the startup class ConsumerApplication:

@EnableDiscoveryClient enables service registration and discovery.
@EnableFeignClients enables FeignClient.
@LoadBalanced integrates RestTemplate with service discovery so it can resolve service-provider by name.

package com.aliware.edas;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.discovery.EnableDiscoveryClient;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.loadbalancer.LoadBalanced;
import org.springframework.cloud.openfeign.EnableFeignClients;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableDiscoveryClient
@EnableFeignClients
public class ConsumerApplication {

    @LoadBalanced
    @Bean
    public RestTemplate restTemplate() {
        return new RestTemplate();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(ConsumerApplication.class, args);
    }
}

In com.aliware.edas, create TestController to expose two endpoints — one that calls the provider via RestTemplate and one via FeignClient:

package com.aliware.edas;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;

@RestController
public class TestController {

    @Autowired
    private RestTemplate restTemplate;
    @Autowired
    private EchoService echoService;

    // Calls service-provider via RestTemplate
    @RequestMapping(value = "/echo-rest/{str}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String rest(@PathVariable String str) {
        return restTemplate.getForObject("http://service-provider/echo/" + str, String.class);
    }

    // Calls service-provider via FeignClient
    @RequestMapping(value = "/echo-feign/{str}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String feign(@PathVariable String str) {
        return echoService.echo(str);
    }
}

In src/main/resources, create application.properties:
If your service registry is a self-managed service registry, replace 127.0.0.1:8848 with the address of the self-managed service registry.
```
spring.application.name=service-consumer
server.port=18082
spring.cloud.nacos.discovery.server-addr=127.0.0.1:8848
```
Verify the consumer registration:
1. Run the main method of ConsumerApplication to start the consumer.
2. Open the Nacos console at http://127.0.0.1:8848/nacos.
3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Service Management > Services. Confirm that service-consumer appears in the service list.

Step 4: Test the services locally

With both services running, call the consumer to confirm it successfully reaches the provider.

On Linux, Unix, or macOS:

curl http://127.0.0.1:18082/echo-rest/rest-rest
curl http://127.0.0.1:18082/echo-feign/feign-rest

On Windows, open a browser and navigate to:

http://127.0.0.1:18082/echo-rest/rest-rest
http://127.0.0.1:18082/echo-feign/feign-rest

Each request returns the string you passed in the URL path, confirming the consumer is discovering and calling the provider through Nacos.

Step 5: Deploy the applications to SAE

Configure Alibaba Cloud Toolkit in IntelliJ IDEA to build and deploy both applications to the SAE applications you created in Step 1.

Configure your Alibaba Cloud account

Click the Alibaba Cloud Toolkit icon in the toolbar and select Preference… from the drop-down list.
In the left-side navigation pane of the Settings page, choose Alibaba Cloud Toolkit > Accounts.
Enter your Access Key ID and Access Key Secret, then click OK.
To get your Access Key ID and Access Key Secret, click Get existing AK/SK on the Accounts page. This opens the Alibaba Cloud sign-in page. After signing in, go to the Security Management page to retrieve your credentials.

Configure and run the deployment tasks

Click the Alibaba Cloud Toolkit icon and select Deploy to SAE from the drop-down list.
On the Deploy to SAE page, configure the settings for the provider application: Click Apply to save.
- In the Application section, select the region, namespace, and application name that match the provider application you created in Step 1. The Name field refers to the deployment configuration name, not the SAE application name — you typically do not need to change it.
Repeat the previous step for the consumer application, selecting the corresponding region, namespace, and application name. Click Apply to save.
If you use a self-managed service registry, add the following startup commands on the Advanced tab before saving: -Dnacos.use.endpoint.parsing.rule=false and -Dnacos.use.cloud.namespace.parsing=false.
Click Run to deploy the provider, then repeat to deploy the consumer.

Verify the deployment

Bind a Server Load Balancer (SLB) instance to the consumer application to expose it publicly. See Bind an SLB instance to an application.
Send HTTP requests to the consumer using the SLB public IP address (for example, 47.111.XX.XX):
```
# Call via FeignClient
curl http://47.111.XX.XX/echo-feign/feign-rest

# Call via RestTemplate
curl http://47.111.XX.XX/echo-rest/rest-rest
```
Both requests return the string from the URL path, confirming that the consumer on SAE is discovering and calling the provider through Nacos.
View the call data on the related Application Monitoring dashboards.

What's next

Deploy a Java application to SAE 1.0 — other deployment methods supported by SAE
Bind an SLB instance to an application — expose your application to external traffic