Spring Boot Admin Reference Guide

1. What is Spring Boot Admin?

Spring Boot Admin is a simple application to manage and monitor your Spring Boot Applications. The applications register
with our Spring Boot Admin Client (via http) or are discovered using Spring Cloud (e.g. Eureka). The UI is just an Angular.js application on top of the Spring Boot Actuator endpoints. In case you want to use the more advanced features (e.g. jmx-, loglevel-management),
Jolokia must be included in the client application.

2.
Getting started

2.1.
Set up admin server

First you need to setup your server. To do this just setup a simple boot project (using start.spring.io for example).

Add Spring Boot Admin Server and the UI to your dependencies:

pom.xml

<dependency>
<groupId>de.codecentric</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-admin-server</artifactId>
<version>1.3.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>de.codecentric</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-admin-server-ui</artifactId>
<version>1.3.3</version>
</dependency>

Pull in the Boot Admin Server configuration via adding

@EnableAdminServer

to
your configuration:

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@EnableAdminServer
public class SpringBootAdminApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(SpringBootAdminApplication.class, args);
}
}

If you want to setup the Spring Boot Admin Server via war-deployment in a servlet-container, please have a look at the spring-boot-admin-sample-war.

See also the spring-boot-admin-sample project.

2.2.
Register client applications

To register your application at the admin server (next referred as "clients"). Either you can include the

spring-boot-admin

client
or use Spring Cloud Discovery (e.g. Eureka)

2.2.1.
Register clients via spring-boot-admin-client

Each application that want to register itself to the admin has to include the Spring Boot Admin Client.

Add spring-boot-admin-starter-client to your dependencies:

pom.xml

<dependency>
<groupId>de.codecentric</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-admin-starter-client</artifactId>
<version>1.3.3</version>
</dependency>

Trigger the contained AutoConfiguration and tell the client where to find the admin to register at:

application.properties

spring.boot.admin.url=http://localhost:8080

2.2.2.
Discover clients via Spring Cloud Discovery

If you already using Spring Cloud Discovery for your applications you don’t have to add the Spring Boot Admin Client to your applications. Just make the Spring Boot Admin Server a DiscoveryClient, the rest is done by our AutoConfiguration. The following steps
are for using Eureka. Also have a look at the Spring Cloud Netflix documentation.

Add spring-cloud-starter-eureka to you dependencies:

pom.xml

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-eureka</artifactId>
<version>1.0.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Enable discovery by adding

@EnableDiscoveryClient

to
your configuration:

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@EnableDiscoveryClient
@EnableAdminServer
public class SpringBootAdminApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(SpringBootAdminApplication.class, args);
}
}

Tell the Eureka client where to find the service registry:

application.properties

eureka.instance.client.serviceUrl.defaultZone: http://localhost:8761/eureka/[/code] 
See also spring-boot-admin-sample-discovery.

You can include the Spring Boot Admin to your Eureka server. Add the dependencies, add
@EnableAdminServer
 to
your configuration and set 
spring.boot.admin.context-path
 to
something different than 
"/"
 so that the
Spring Boot Admin Server UI won’t clash with Eureka’s one.

3.
Client applications

3.1.
Show version in application list
To get the version show up in the admin’s application list you have to set 
info.version
.
For example using maven filtering during the build:

application.properties

info.version=@project.version@



3.2.
JMX-bean management
To interact with JMX-beans in the admin UI you have to include Jolokia in your application. In case you are using the
spring-boot-admin-starter-client
 it
will be pulled in for you, if not add Jolokia to your dependencies:

pom.xml

<dependency>
<groupId>org.jolokia</groupId>
<artifactId>jolokia-core</artifactId>
</dependency>



3.3.
Loglevel managment
Currently the loglevel management is only available for Logback. It is accessed via JMX so include
Jolokia in your application. In addition you have configure Logback’s 
JMXConfigurator
:

logback.xml

<configuration>
<include resource="org/springframework/boot/logging/logback/base.xml"/>
<jmxConfigurator/>
</configuration>


In case you are deploying multiple applications to the same JVM and multiple Logback-JMX-beans are present, the UI will select the JMXConfigurator with the context-name equals to your applications name. In this case you need to set the 
contextName
 in
your logback-configuration.

3.4.
Spring Boot Admin Client
The Spring Boot Admin Client registers the application at the admin server. This is done by periodically doing a http post-request to the admin server providing informations about the application. It also adds Jolokia to your dependencies, so that JMX-beans
are accessible via http, this is needed if you want to manage loglevels or JMX-beans via the admin UI.

Table 1. Spring Boot Admin Client configuration options

Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.client.enabled

Enables the Spring Boot Admin Client.

true


spring.boot.admin.url

List of URLs of the Spring Boot Admin server to register at. This triggers the AutoConfiguration. Mandatory.

spring.boot.admin.api-path

Http-path of registration endpoint at your admin server.

"api/applications"


spring.boot.admin.username spring.boot.admin.password

Username and password for http-basic authentication. If set the registration uses http-basic-authentication when registering at the admin server.

spring.boot.admin.period

Interval for repeating the registration (in ms).

10.000


spring.boot.admin.auto-registration

If set to true the periodic task to register the application is automatically scheduled after the application is ready.

true


spring.boot.admin.auto-deregistration

Switch to enable auto-deregistration at Spring Boot Admin server when context is closed.

false


spring.boot.admin.client.health-url

Client-health-url to register with. Can be overridden in case the reachable URL is different (e.g. Docker). Must be unique in registry.

Guessed based on management-url and
endpoints.health.id
.

spring.boot.admin.client.management-url

Client-management-url to register with. Can be overridden in case the reachable url is different (e.g. Docker).

Guessed based on service-url,
server.servlet-path
,
management.port
 and
management.context-path
.

spring.boot.admin.client.service-url

Client-service-url to register with. Can be overridden in case the reachable url is different (e.g. Docker).

Guessed based on hostname,
server.port
 and 
server.context-path
.

spring.boot.admin.client.name

Name to register with.

${spring.application.name}
 if set,
"spring-boot-application"
otherwise.

spring.boot.admin.client.prefer-ip

Use the ip-address rather then the hostname in the guessed urls. If
server.address
 /
management.address
 is
set, it get used. Otherwise the IP address returned from
InetAddress.getLocalHost()
 gets
used.

false



4.
Spring Boot Admin Server
Table 2. Spring Boot Admin Server configuration options

Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.context-path

The context-path prefixes the path where the Admin Server’s statics assets and API should be served. Relative to the Dispatcher-Servlet.

spring.boot.admin.monitor.period

Time interval in ms to update the status of applications with expired status-informations.

10.000

spring.boot.admin.monitor.status-lifetime

Lifetime of application statuses in ms. The applications /health-endpoint will not be queried until the lifetime has expired.

10.000


4.1.
Spring Cloud Discovery support
The Spring Boot Admin Server is capable of using Spring Clouds 
DiscoveryClient
 to
discover applications. The advantage is that the clients don’t have to include the 
spring-boot-admin-starter-client
.
You just have to add a DiscoveryClient to your admin server - everything else is done by AutoConfiguration. The setup is explained above.


4.1.1.
Usage of discovery informations
The informations from the discovered services are converted by the 
ServiceInstanceConverter
.
Spring Boot Admin ships with a default and Eureka converter implementation. The correct one is selected by AutoConfiguration. You can use your own conversion by implementing the interface and adding the bean to your application context.

When Eureka discovery is active, the 
EurekaServiceInstanceConverter
 will
use the discovered instances' 
homePageUrl
 and 
healthCheckUrl
.
In case the instances' 
managment.context-path
 is
different from the 
homePageUrl
 you should
add an entry 
management.context-path
 to
the instances'
metadata
-map with the corresponding
value.
When the default conversion kicks in, you can use the 
spring.boot.admin.discovery.converter.*
properties
to control the conversion for all your instances.
Table 3. Discovery configuration options
Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.discovery.enabled

Enables the DiscoveryClient-support for the admin server.

true


spring.boot.admin.discovery.management.context-path (deprecated)

If set this will be appended to the service-url from the discovery information.

spring.boot.admin.discovery.converter.management-context-path

Will be appended to the service-url of the discovered service when the managment-url is converted by the
DefaultServiceInstanceConverter
.

spring.boot.admin.discovery.converter.health-endpoint

Will be appended to the management-url of the discovered service when the health-url is converted by the
DefaultServiceInstanceConverter
.

"health"



4.2.
Hazelcast support
Spring Boot Admin Server supports cluster replication with Hazelcast. It is automatically enabled when a
HazelcastConfig
-
or 
HazelcastInstance
-Bean is present. You
can also configure the Hazelcast instance to be persistent, to keep the status over restarts. Also have a look at the Spring
Boot support for Hazelcast.

Add Hazelcast to your dependencies:

pom.xml

<dependency>
<groupId>com.hazelcast</groupId>
<artifactId>hazelcast</artifactId>
</dependency>


Instantiate a HazelcastConfig:

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@EnableAdminServer
public class SpringBootAdminApplication {
@Bean
public Config hazelcastConfig() {
return new Config().setProperty("hazelcast.jmx", "true")
.addMapConfig(new MapConfig("spring-boot-admin-application-store")
.setBackupCount(1)
.setEvictionPolicy(EvictionPolicy.NONE))
.addListConfig(new ListConfig("spring-boot-admin-event-store")
.setBackupCount(1)
.setMaxSize(1000));
}

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


Table 4. Hazelcast configuration options
Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.hazelcast.enabled

Enables the Hazelcast support

true


spring.boot.admin.hazelcast.application-store

Name of the Hazelcast-map to store the applications

"spring-boot-admin-application-store"


spring.boot.admin.hazelcast.event-store

Name of the Hazelcast-list to store the events

"spring-boot-admin-event-store"



4.3.
Notifications

4.3.1.
Mail notifications
Configure a 
JavaMailSender
 using 
spring-boot-starter-mail
 and
set a recipient.

pom.xml

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-mail</artifactId>
</dependency>


application.properties

spring.mail.host=smtp.example.com
spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.to=admin@example.com


Table 5. Mail notifications configuration options
Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.enabled

Enable mail notifications

true


spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.ignore-changes

Comma-delimited list of status changes to be ignored. Format: "<from-status>:<to-status>". Wildcards allowed.

"UNKNOWN:UP"


spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.to

Comma-delimited list of mail recipients

"root@localhost"


spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.cc

Comma-delimited list of carbon-copy recipients

spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.from

Mail sender

spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.subject

Mail subject. SpEL-expressions are supported

"#{application.name} (#{application.id}) is #{to.status}"


spring.boot.admin.notify.mail.text

Mail body. SpEL-expressions are supported

"#{application.name} (#{application.id})\nstatus changed from #{from.status}
to #{to.status}\n\n#{application.healthUrl}"



4.3.2.
Pagerduty notifications
To enable pagerduty notifications you just have to add a generic service to your pagerduty-account and set
spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.service-key
 to
the service-key you received.

Table 6. Pagerduty notifications configuration options

Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.enabled

Enable mail notifications

true


spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.ignore-changes

Comma-delimited list of status changes to be ignored. Format: "<from-status>:<to-status>". Wildcards allowed.

"UNKNOWN:UP"


spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.service-key

Service-key to use for Pagerduty

spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.url

The Pagerduty-rest-api url

"https://events.pagerduty.com/generic/2010-04-15/create_event.json"


spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.description

Description to use in the event. SpEL-expressions are supported

"#{application.name}/#{application.id} is #{to.status}"


spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.client

Client-name to use in the event

spring.boot.admin.notify.pagerduty.client-url

Client-url to use in the event


4.3.3.
Hipchat notifications
To enable Hipchat notifications you need to create an API token from you Hipchat account and set the appropriate configuration properties.

Table 7. Hipchat notifications configuration options

Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.enabled

Enable Hipchat notifications

true


spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.ignore-changes

Comma-delimited list of status changes to be ignored. Format: "<from-status>:<to-status>". Wildcards allowed.

"UNKNOWN:UP"


spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.url

The HipChat REST API (V2) URL

spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.auth-token

The API token with access to the notification room

spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.room-id

The ID or url-encoded name of the room to send notifications to

spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.notify

Whether the message should trigger a user notification

false


spring.boot.admin.notify.hipchat.description

Description to use in the event. SpEL-expressions are supported

"#{application.name}/#{application.id}
is #{to.status}"



4.3.4.
Slack notifications
To enable Slack notifications you need to add a incoming Webhook under custom integrations on your Slack account and configure it appropriately.

Table 8. Slack notifications configuration options
Property name
Description
Default value
spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.enabled

Enable Slack notifications

true


spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.ignore-changes

Comma-delimited list of status changes to be ignored. Format: "<from-status>:<to-status>". Wildcards allowed.

"UNKNOWN:UP"


spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.webhook-url

The Slack Webhook URL to send notifications

spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.channel

Optional channel name (without # at the beginning). If different than channel in Slack Webhooks settings

spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.icon

Optional icon name (without surrounding colons). If different than icon in Slack Webhooks settings

spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.username

Optional username to send notification if different than in Slack Webhooks settings

Spring Boot Admin


spring.boot.admin.notify.slack.message

Message to use in the event. SpEL-expressions and Slack markups are supported

"*#{application.name}* (#{application.id}) is *#{to.status}*"



4.3.5.
Reminder notifications
To get reminders for down/offline applications you can add a 
RemindingNotifier
 to
your 
ApplicationContext
. The
RemindingNotifier
 uses
another 
Notifier
 as delegate to send the
reminders.

How to configure reminders

@Configuration
@EnableScheduling
public class ReminderConfiguration {
@Autowired
private Notifier notifier;

@Bean
@Primary
public RemindingNotifier remindingNotifier() {
RemindingNotifier remindingNotifier = new RemindingNotifier(notifier);
remindingNotifier.setReminderPeriod(TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(5));
return remindingNotifier;
}

@Scheduled(fixedRate = 6000L)
public void remind() {
remindingNotifier().sendReminders();
}
}


The reminders will be sent every 5 minutes.
Schedules sending of due reminders every 60 seconds.

5.
FAQs
Can I include spring-boot-admin into my business application?

tl;dr You can, but you shouldn’t.

You can set 
spring.boot.admin.context-path
 to
alter the path where the UI and REST-API is served, but depending on the complexity of your application you might get in trouble. On the other hand in my opinion it makes no sense for an application to monitor itself. In case your application goes down your
monitoring tool also does.

How do I customize the UI?

You can only customize the UI by copying and modifying the source of 
spring-boot-admin-ui
 and
adding your own module to your classpath.