13. Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher

Kubernetes provides the ability to mount a ConfigMap or Secret as a volume in the container of your application. When the contents of the ConfigMap or Secret changes, the mounted volume will be updated with those changes.spring-doc.cn

However, Spring Boot will not automatically update those changes unless you restart the application. Spring Cloud provides the ability refresh the application context without restarting the application by either hitting the actuator endpoint /refresh or via publishing a RefreshRemoteApplicationEvent using Spring Cloud Bus.spring-doc.cn

To achieve this configuration refresh of a Spring Cloud app running on Kubernetes, you can deploy the Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher controller into your Kubernetes cluster.spring-doc.cn

The application is published as a container and is available on Docker Hub.spring-doc.cn

Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher can send refresh notifications to applications in two ways.spring-doc.cn

  1. Over HTTP in which case the application being notified must of the /refresh actuator endpoint exposed and accessible from within the clusterspring-doc.cn

  2. Using Spring Cloud Bus, in which case you will need a message broker deployed to your custer for the application to use.spring-doc.cn

13.1. Deployment YAML

Below is a sample deployment YAML you can use to deploy the Kubernetes Configuration Watcher to Kubernetes.spring-doc.cn

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: List
items:
  - apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
      name: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
    spec:
      ports:
        - name: http
          port: 8888
          targetPort: 8888
      selector:
        app: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
      type: ClusterIP
  - apiVersion: v1
    kind: ServiceAccount
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
      name: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
  - apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: RoleBinding
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
      name: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher:view
    roleRef:
      kind: Role
      apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
      name: namespace-reader
    subjects:
      - kind: ServiceAccount
        name: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
  - apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Role
    metadata:
      namespace: default
      name: namespace-reader
    rules:
      - apiGroups: ["", "extensions", "apps"]
        resources: ["configmaps", "pods", "services", "endpoints", "secrets"]
        verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
  - apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    metadata:
      name: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher-deployment
    spec:
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
        spec:
          serviceAccount: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
          containers:
          - name: spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher
            image: springcloud/spring-cloud-kubernetes-configuration-watcher:2.0.1-SNAPSHOT
            imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
            readinessProbe:
              httpGet:
                port: 8888
                path: /actuator/health/readiness
            livenessProbe:
              httpGet:
                port: 8888
                path: /actuator/health/liveness
            ports:
            - containerPort: 8888

The Service Account and associated Role Binding is important for Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration to work properly. The controller needs access to read data about ConfigMaps, Pods, Services, Endpoints and Secrets in the Kubernetes cluster.spring-doc.cn

13.2. Monitoring ConfigMaps and Secrets

Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher will react to changes in ConfigMaps with a label of spring.cloud.kubernetes.config with the value true or any Secret with a label of spring.cloud.kubernetes.secret with the value true. If the ConfigMap or Secret does not have either of those labels or the values of those labels is not true then any changes will be ignored.spring-doc.cn

The labels Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher looks for on ConfigMaps and Secrets can be changed by setting spring.cloud.kubernetes.configuration.watcher.configLabel and spring.cloud.kubernetes.configuration.watcher.secretLabel respectively.spring-doc.cn

If a change is made to a ConfigMap or Secret with valid labels then Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher will take the name of the ConfigMap or Secret and send a notification to the application with that name.spring-doc.cn

13.3. HTTP Implementation

The HTTP implementation is what is used by default. When this implementation is used Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher and a change to a ConfigMap or Secret occurs then the HTTP implementation will use the Spring Cloud Kubernetes Discovery Client to fetch all instances of the application which match the name of the ConfigMap or Secret and send an HTTP POST request to the application’s actuator /refresh endpoint. By default it will send the post request to /actuator/refresh using the port registered in the discovery client.spring-doc.cn

13.3.1. Non-Default Management Port and Actuator Path

If the application is using a non-default actuator path and/or using a different port for the management endpoints, the Kubernetes service for the application can add an annotation called boot.spring.io/actuator and set its value to the path and port used by the application. For examplespring-doc.cn

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    app: config-map-demo
  name: config-map-demo
  annotations:
    boot.spring.io/actuator: http://:9090/myactuator/home
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 8080
      targetPort: 8080
  selector:
    app: config-map-demo

Another way you can choose to configure the actuator path and/or management port is by setting spring.cloud.kubernetes.configuration.watcher.actuatorPath and spring.cloud.kubernetes.configuration.watcher.actuatorPort.spring-doc.cn

13.4. Messaging Implementation

The messaging implementation can be enabled by setting profile to either bus-amqp (RabbitMQ) or bus-kafka (Kafka) when the Spring Cloud Kubernetes Configuration Watcher application is deployed to Kubernetes.spring-doc.cn

13.5. Configuring RabbitMQ

When the bus-amqp profile is enabled you will need to configure Spring RabbitMQ to point it to the location of the RabbitMQ instance you would like to use as well as any credentials necessary to authenticate. This can be done by setting the standard Spring RabbitMQ properties, for examplespring-doc.cn

spring:
  rabbitmq:
    username: user
    password: password
    host: rabbitmq

13.6. Configuring Kafka

When the bus-kafka profile is enabled you will need to configure Spring Kafka to point it to the location of the Kafka Broker instance you would like to use. This can be done by setting the standard Spring Kafka properties, for examplespring-doc.cn

spring:
  kafka:
    producer:
      bootstrap-servers: localhost:9092