This guide is intended to walk you through deploying a Grails app to Cloud Foundry. If you experience a problem following the steps below, refer to the Known Issues or Troubleshooting Application Deployment and Health topics for more information.
Sample App Step
If you want to go through this tutorial using the sample app, run git clone https://github.com/cloudfoundry-samples/pong_matcher_grails.git to clone the pong_matcher_grails app from GitHub, and follow the instructions in the Sample App Step sections.
Note: Ensure that your Grails app runs locally before continuing with this procedure.
This section describes how to deploy a Grails application to Cloud Foundry.
Note: You can develop Grails applications in Groovy, Java 7 or 8, or any JVM language. The Cloud Foundry Java buildpack uses JDK 1.8, but you can modify the buildpack and the manifest for your app to compile to JDK 1.7 as described in Step 8: Configure the Deployment Manifest of this topic.
Declare all the dependency tasks for your app in the build script of your chosen build tool. The table lists build script information for Gradle, Grails, and Maven, and provides documentation links for each build tool.
| Build Tool | Build Script | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Gradle | build.gradle |
Gradle User Guide |
| Grails | BuildConfig.groovy |
Grails: Configuration - Reference Documentation |
| Maven | pom.xml |
Apache Maven Project Documentation |
Sample App Step
You can skip this step. The pong_matcher_grails/app/grails-app/conf/BuildConfig.groovy file contains the dependencies for the pong_matcher_grails sample app, as the example below shows.
dependencies {
// specify dependencies here under either 'build', 'compile', 'runtime', 'test' or 'provided' scopes e.g.
// runtime 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:5.1.29'
// runtime 'org.postgresql:postgresql:9.3-1101-jdbc41'
test "org.grails:grails-datastore-test-support:1.0-grails-2.4"
runtime 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:5.1.33'
}
Run the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI) cf push -m command to specify the amount of memory that should be allocated to the application. Memory allocated this way is done in preset amounts of 64M, 128M, 256M, 512M, 1G, or 2G. For example:
$ cf push -m 128M
When your app is running, you can use the cf app APP-NAME command to see memory utilization.
Sample App Step
You can skip this step. In the manifest.yml of the pong_matcher_grails sample app, the memory sub-block of the applications block allocates 1 GB to the app.
The Java buildpack does not bundle a JDBC driver with your application. If your application accesses a SQL RDBMS, you must do the following:
Sample App Step
You can skip this step. The pong_matcher_grails sample app declares a MySQL JDBC driver in the pong_matcher_grails/app/grails-app/conf/DataSource.groovy file because the app uses ClearDB, which is a database-as-service for MySQL-powered apps. The example below shows this declaration.
dataSource {
pooled = true
jmxExport = true
driverClassName = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5InnoDBDialect
uri = new URI(System.env.DATABASE_URL ?: "mysql://foo:bar@localhost")
username = uri.userInfo ? uri.userInfo.split(":")[0] : ""
password = uri.userInfo ? uri.userInfo.split(":")[1] : ""
url = "jdbc:mysql://" + uri.host + uri.path
properties {
dbProperties {
autoReconnect = true
}
}
}
Use a Procfile to declare required runtime processes for your web app and to specify your web server. For more information, see the Configuring a Production Server topic.
Sample App Step
You can skip this step. The pong_matcher_grails app does not require a Procfile.
This section describes using the cf CLI to configure a ClearDB managed service instance for an app. You can use either the CLI or Apps Manager to perform this task. For more information about using Apps Manager, see About Apps Manager.
Cloud Foundry supports two types of service instances:
For more information about creating and using service instances, refer to the Services Overview topic.
View managed and user-provided services and plans available to you by running:
cf marketplace
The example shows two of the available managed database-as-a-service providers and their offered plans: cleardb database-as-a-service for MySQL-powered apps and postgresql-10-odb PostgreSQL as a Service.
$ cf marketplace Getting services from marketplace in org Cloud-Apps / space development as clouduser@example.com... OK service plans description cleardb spark, boost, amp Highly available MySQL for your apps postgresql-10-odb standalone, standalone-replica, general PostgreSQL as a Service
Create a service instance for your app by running:
cf create-service SERVICE PLAN SERVICE-INSTANCE
Where:
SERVICE and PLAN are chosen from the output of the previous step.SERVICE-INSTANCE is a unique name you provide for the service instance.cf create-service cleardb spark mysql. This creates a service instance named
mysql that uses the
cleardb service and the
spark plan, as the example below shows.
$ cf create-service cleardb spark mysql Creating service mysql in org Cloud-Apps / space development as clouduser@example.com.... OK
When you bind an app to a service instance, Cloud Foundry writes information about the service instance to the VCAP_SERVICES app environment variable. The app can use this information to integrate with the service instance.
Most services support bindable service instances. Refer to your service provider’s documentation to confirm if they support this functionality.
You can bind a service to an application with the command cf bind-service APPLICATION SERVICE-INSTANCE.
Alternately, you can configure the deployment manifest file by adding a services sub-block to the applications block and specifying the service instance. For more information and an example on service binding using a manifest, see the Sample App step.
You can also bind a service using Apps Manager. For more information about using Apps Manager, see Adding and Binding services using Apps Manager.
manifest.yml file in a text editor to view the bound service instance information. Locate the file in the app root directory and search for the
services sub-block in the
applications block, as the example below shows.
---
applications:
...
services:
- mysql
You can specify deployment options in the manifest.yml that the cf push command uses when deploying your app.
Refer to the Deploying with Application Manifests topic for more information.
Sample App Step
You can skip this step. The manifest.yml file for the pong_matcher_grails sample app does not require any additional configuration to deploy the app.
Enter your login credentials, and select a space and org.
cf login -a API-ENDPOINT
Where API-ENDPOINT is the URL of the Cloud Controller in your TAS for VMs instance.
Sample App Step
You must do this step to run the sample app.
Note: You must use the cf CLI to deploy apps.
From the root directory of your application, run the following command to deploy your application:
cf push APP-NAME -p PATH-TO-FILE.war
Note: You must deploy the .war artifact for a Grails app, and you must include the path to the .war file in the cf push command using the -p option if you do not declare the path in the applications block of the manifest file. For more information, refer to the Grails section in the Tips for Java Developers topic.
The cf push command creates a URL route to your application in the form HOST.DOMAIN, where HOST is your APP-NAME and DOMAIN is specified by your administrator. Your DOMAIN isshared-domain.example.com.
For example, cf push my-app creates the URL my-app.shared-domain.example.com.
The URL for your app must be unique from other apps that Cloud Foundry hosts or the push will fail. Use the following options to help create a unique URL:
-n to assign a different HOST name for the app--random-route to create a URL that includes the app name and random wordscf help push to view other options for this commandIf you want to view log activity while the app deploys, launch a new terminal window and run cf logs APP-NAME.
Once your app deploys, browse to your app URL. Search for the urls field in the App started block in the output of the cf push command. Use the URL to access your app online.
Sample App Step
1. Change to the appdirectory, and run ./grailsw war to build the app.
2. Run cf push pong_matcher_grails -n HOST-NAME to push the app.
Example: cf push pong_matcher_grails -n my-grails-app
Note: You do not have to include the -p flag when you deploy the sample app. The sample app manifest declares the path to the archive that cf push uses to upload the app files.
The example below shows the terminal output of deploying the pong_matcher_grails app. cf push uses the instructions in the manifest file to create the app, create and bind the route, and upload the app. It then binds the app to the mysql service and follows the instructions in the manifest to start two instances of the app, allocating 1 GB of memory between the instances. After the instances start, the output displays their health and status.
$ cf push pong_matcher_grails -n my-grails-app
Using manifest file /Users/example/workspace/pong_matcher_grails/app/manifest.yml
Creating app pong_matcher_grails in org Cloud-Apps / space development as clouduser@example.com...
OK
Creating route my-grails-app.cfapps.io...
OK
Binding my-grails-app.cfapps.io to pong_matcher_grails...
OK
Uploading pong_matcher_grails...
Uploading app files from: /Users/example/workspace/pong_matcher_grails/app/target/pong_matcher_grails-0.1.war
Uploading 4.8M, 704 files
OK
Binding service mysql to app pong_matcher_grails in org Cloud-Apps / space development as clouduser@example.com...
OK
Starting app pong_matcher_grails in org Cloud-Apps / space development as clouduser@example.com...
OK
-----> Downloaded app package (38M)
-----> Java Buildpack Version: v2.5 | https://github.com/cloudfoundry/java-buildpack.git#840500e
-----> Downloading Open Jdk JRE 1.8.0_25 from https://download.run.pivotal.io/openjdk/lucid/x86_64/openjdk-1.8.0_25.tar.gz (1.5s)
Expanding Open Jdk JRE to .java-buildpack/open_jdk_jre (1.1s)
-----> Downloading Spring Auto Reconfiguration 1.5.0_RELEASE from https://download.run.pivotal.io/auto-reconfiguration/auto-reconfiguration-1.5.0_RELEASE.jar (0.0s)
Modifying /WEB-INF/web.xml for Auto Reconfiguration
-----> Downloading Tomcat Instance 8.0.14 from https://download.run.pivotal.io/tomcat/tomcat-8.0.14.tar.gz (0.4s)
Expanding Tomcat to .java-buildpack/tomcat (0.1s)
-----> Downloading Tomcat Lifecycle Support 2.4.0_RELEASE from https://download.run.pivotal.io/tomcat-lifecycle-support/tomcat-lifecycle-support-2.4.0_RELEASE.jar (0.0s)
-----> Downloading Tomcat Logging Support 2.4.0_RELEASE from https://download.run.pivotal.io/tomcat-logging-support/tomcat-logging-support-2.4.0_RELEASE.jar (0.0s)
-----> Downloading Tomcat Access Logging Support 2.4.0_RELEASE from https://download.run.pivotal.io/tomcat-access-logging-support/tomcat-access-logging-support-2.4.0_RELEASE.jar (0.0s)
-----> Uploading droplet (83M)
0 of 2 instances running, 2 starting
0 of 2 instances running, 2 starting
0 of 2 instances running, 2 starting
2 of 2 instances running
App started
Showing health and status for app pong_matcher_grails in org Cloud-Apps / space development as clouduser@example.com...
OK
requested state: started
instances: 2/2
usage: 1G x 2 instances
urls: my-grails-app.cfapps.io
state since cpu memory disk
#0 running 2014-11-10 05:07:33 PM 0.0% 686.4M of 1G 153.6M of 1G
#1 running 2014-11-10 05:07:36 PM 0.0% 677.2M of 1G 153.6M of 1G
You’ve deployed an app to Cloud Foundry!
Use the cf CLI or About Apps Manager to review information and administer your app and your Cloud Foundry account. For example, you can edit the manifest.yml to increase the number of app instances from 1 to 3, and redeploy the app with a new app name and host name.
See the Manage Your Application with the cf CLI section for more information. For more information about using Apps Manager, see Using Apps Manager.
Sample App Step
To test the sample app, do the following:
1. To export the test host, run export HOST=SAMPLE-APP-URL, substituting the URL for your app for SAMPLE-APP-URL.
2. To clear the database from any previous tests, run:
curl -v -X DELETE $HOST/all
You should get a response of 200.
3. To request a match as "andrew", run:
curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT $HOST/match_requests/firstrequest -d '{"player": "andrew"}'
You should again get a response of 200.
4. To request a match as a different player, run:
curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT $HOST/match_requests/secondrequest -d '{"player": "navratilova"}'
5. To check the status of the first match request, run:
curl -v -X GET $HOST/match_requests/firstrequest
The last line of the output shows the match_id.
6. Replace MATCH_ID with the match_id value from the previous step in the following command:
curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST $HOST/results -d ' { "match_id":"MATCH_ID", "winner":"andrew", "loser":"navratilova" }'
You should receive a 201 Created response.
Run cf help to view a complete list of commands, grouped by task categories, and run cf help COMMAND for detailed information about a specific command. For more information about using the cf CLI, refer to the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI) topics, especially the Getting Started with cf CLI topic.
Note: You cannot perform certain tasks in the CLI or About Apps Manager because these are commands that only an administrator can run. If you are not an administrator, the following message displays for these types of commands: error code: 10003, message: You are not authorized to perform the requested action For more information about specific Admin commands you can perform with Apps Manager, depending on your user role, see Getting Started with Apps Manager.
If your application fails to start, verify that the application starts in your local environment. Refer to the Troubleshooting Application Deployment and Health topic to learn more about troubleshooting.
Even when the deploy fails, the app might exist on Cloud Foundry. Run cf apps to review the apps in the currently targeted org and space. You might be able to correct the issue using the CLI or About Apps Manager, or you might have to delete the app and redeploy it.
Cloud Foundry requires that each app that you deploy have a unique URL. Otherwise, the new app URL collides with an existing app URL and Cloud Foundry cannot successfully deploy the app. You can fix this issue by running cf push with either of the following flags to create a unique URL:
-n to assign a different HOST name for the app.--random-route to create a URL that includes the app name and random words. Using this option might create a long URL, depending on the number of words that the app name includes.