If you're a Java developer, you’ve probably built powerful backend applications using Spring Boot. But once your app is ready, how do you deploy it to a scalable cloud environment with minimal hassle? Enter AWS Elastic Beanstalk — a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that simplifies deployment and management of applications in the AWS cloud.

In this blog, we’ll walk through the step-by-step process of deploying a Spring Boot application on AWS Elastic Beanstalk, so you can focus more on coding and less on infrastructure.

What is AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Elastic Beanstalk is a fully managed service from AWS that handles capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring. It supports several platforms including Java, Node.js, Python, and Docker, allowing you to deploy applications quickly without managing the underlying infrastructure.

Why Use Elastic Beanstalk for Spring Boot?

Easy deployment: Upload your .jar or .war and let Elastic Beanstalk handle the rest.
Managed environment: Automatic scaling and load balancing out of the box.
Integration with AWS services: Easily add RDS, S3, CloudWatch, and more.
Zero infrastructure management: Focus on writing your application code.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

An AWS account.
AWS CLI installed and configured with your credentials.
Java Development Kit (JDK) installed (Java 8+ recommended).
Maven or Gradle for building your Spring Boot app.
A simple Spring Boot application ready to deploy (we’ll assume a standalone executable .jar).

Step 1: Build Your Spring Boot Application

If you don’t have an app ready, here’s a quick example.

Create a Spring Boot project with the following dependencies:

Spring Web

Use Maven or Gradle to build your project:

mvn clean package

This will generate an executable .jar file in the target directory, for example:

target/my-spring-boot-app-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Step 2: Install and Configure the AWS Elastic Beanstalk CLI

The Elastic Beanstalk Command Line Interface (EB CLI) makes deploying easy.

Install it using pip:

pip install awsebcli --upgrade --user

Add it to your system PATH if needed.

Verify installation:

eb --version

Step 3: Initialize Your Elastic Beanstalk Application

Navigate to your project root folder and initialize your EB app:

eb init

You’ll be prompted to:

Select your AWS region.
Choose a platform (select Java).
Enter your application name or create a new one.
Set up SSH for your instances if desired (recommended for troubleshooting).

Step 4: Create an Elastic Beanstalk Environment

Create a new environment to host your app:

eb create my-spring-env

This command provisions an EC2 instance, load balancer, and all required resources.
You can specify options like instance size, scaling, etc. with additional parameters.

Wait for the environment to be ready.

Step 5: Deploy Your Application

Now deploy your .jar file to the environment:

eb deploy

The EB CLI will:

Provide a URL for your live app.
Upload your app package.
Restart the environment with the new version.

Step 6: Access Your Running Application

Once deployment is complete, get your environment URL by running:

eb open

You can also find the URL in the AWS Management Console under Elastic Beanstalk environments.

Visit the URL in your browser to see your Spring Boot app live on AWS!

Optional: Customize Your Environment

Environment variables: Set them using

  eb setenv SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=prod DB_URL=jdbc:mysql://...

Configure scaling and instance types in the Elastic Beanstalk console or via configuration files.
Add an RDS database for persistent storage.
Use .ebextensions to customize environment setup.

Troubleshooting Tips

Check logs with:
```
  eb logs
```
Make sure your Spring Boot app listens on the port provided by Elastic Beanstalk (PORT environment variable).
Ensure your application.properties or application.yml uses dynamic port configuration:
```
  server.port=${PORT:8080}
```
Conclusion

Deploying Spring Boot applications on AWS Elastic Beanstalk is straightforward and powerful. It lets you leverage AWS infrastructure benefits without worrying about the heavy lifting of server management.

With this setup, you get automatic scaling, load balancing, and easy deployment — freeing you to build better apps faster.

Happy coding and deploying!

Deploying Spring Boot Applications on AWS Elastic Beanstalk