Distributed Configuration with Zookeeper

Zookeeper provides a hierarchical namespace that lets clients store arbitrary data, such as configuration data. Spring Cloud Zookeeper Config is an alternative to the Config Server and Client. Configuration is loaded into the Spring Environment during the special “bootstrap” phase. Configuration is stored in the /config namespace by default. Multiple PropertySource instances are created, based on the application’s name and the active profiles, to mimic the Spring Cloud Config order of resolving properties. For example, an application with a name of testApp and with the dev profile has the following property sources created for it:

  • config/testApp,dev

  • config/testApp

  • config/application,dev

  • config/application

The most specific property source is at the top, with the least specific at the bottom. Properties in the config/application namespace apply to all applications that use zookeeper for configuration. Properties in the config/testApp namespace are available only to the instances of the service named testApp.

Configuration is currently read on startup of the application. Sending a HTTP POST request to /refresh causes the configuration to be reloaded. Watching the configuration namespace (which Zookeeper supports) is not currently implemented.