Connecting Spring Cloud Config Server to Local Git Repository

Spring Cloud Config is a popular tool used in microservices development to centralize and manage configuration files for multiple services. Configurations are stored in a central repository and can be accessed by the services at runtime. One such repository can be a local Git repository.

Prerequisites

Before setting up Spring Cloud Config Server with a local Git repository, the following prerequisites must be met:

• JDK 1.8 or later
• Spring Boot 2.x or later
• Git installed on the local machine
• A local Git repository with configuration files

Setup

The following steps can be followed to set up Spring Cloud Config Server with a local Git repository:

Step 1: Add Spring Cloud Config Server Dependency

Add the following Spring Cloud Config Server dependency to the pom.xml file in your Spring Boot project:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-cloud-config-server</artifactId>
</dependency>

Step 2: Configure the Git Repository

Create a directory for the Git repository and initialize it:

mkdir my-config-repo
cd my-config-repo
git init

Create a configuration file in the repository. For example, add the following contents to a file named example.properties:

message=Hello from Spring Cloud Config Server

Add and commit the changes:

git add example.properties
git commit -m "Initial commit"

Step 3: Configure Spring Cloud Config Server

Add the following configurations to the application.properties file:

# Enable Spring Cloud Config Server
spring.cloud.config.server.enabled=true

# Specify Git Repository location
spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri=file:///path/to/my-config-repo

# Provide the file details to the endpoint in order to access and manage file contents
spring.cloud.config.server.git.search-paths=/
spring.cloud.config.server.git.username=gituser
spring.cloud.config.server.git.password=gitpassword
spring.cloud.config.server.git.cloneOnStart=false

# Set the application name
spring.application.name=my-application

Step 4: Run the Spring Boot Application

Run the Spring Boot application in your favorite IDE or with the following command:

mvn spring-boot:run

Explanation

Spring Cloud Config Server uses a default URL pattern to access configuration files: /{application}/{profile}/{label}. When a client makes a request with the application name, the profile name, and the label name, the server searches the Git repository and returns the matched configuration file.

In the application.properties file, spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri is a mandatory configuration that tells the server where to find the configuration files. spring.cloud.config.server.git.search-paths specifies the search path within the repository, spring.cloud.config.server.git.username and spring.cloud.config.server.git.password provide Git credentials (if required), and spring.cloud.config.server.git.cloneOnStart specifies whether to clone the repository during start-up.

Use

Connecting Spring Cloud Config Server to a local Git repository enables centralized configuration management of microservices. This enables fast and easy updates of configurations and removes the need to manually update multiple configuration files across microservices.

Important Points

• Spring Cloud Config Server can be connected to a local Git repository for central configuration management.
• The spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri configuration in the application.properties file specifies the location of the Git repository.
• The default URL pattern for configuration files is /{application}/{profile}/{label}.
• Spring Cloud Config server searches the Git repository and returns the matched configuration file to the client.

Summary

In summary, Spring Cloud Config Server makes it easy to manage and centralize configuration files for microservices. With a local Git repository, configuration files can be easily updated and accessed by microservices at runtime. By following the above steps, a Spring Boot application can quickly set up Spring Cloud Config Server with a local Git repository.