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Zero-Downtime Deployments of Spring Boot on AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Master the art of deploying Spring Boot applications with zero downtime using AWS Elastic Beanstalk

📅 November 19, 2025•⏱️ 30 min read•✍️ DevMetrix Team

Introduction

Zero-downtime deployment is a crucial goal for production-grade web applications. It ensures your users experience no interruptions or errors during app updates. In today's competitive landscape, even a few seconds of downtime can result in lost revenue, damaged reputation, and frustrated users.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk (EB) combined with Spring Boot offers powerful methods to achieve this by using techniques such as blue/green deployments, health checks, and automation pipelines.

💡 Key Takeaway: This guide provides actionable insights with detailed code samples, security best practices, and lessons learned from industry leaders.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Overview

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering that simplifies the deployment and scaling of web applications. It abstracts away infrastructure complexity while giving developers full control when needed.

✨ Key Features

  • • Auto-scaling & Load Balancing
  • • Health Monitoring
  • • CloudWatch Integration
  • • Multiple Deployment Strategies

🚀 Spring Boot Support

  • • Native Java Runtime
  • • Easy JAR Deployment
  • • Environment Variables
  • • Custom Configuration

For Spring Boot applications, EB seamlessly integrates with RDS for databases, S3 for artifact storage, and CodePipeline for continuous delivery—allowing you to focus on building features rather than managing servers.

Zero-Downtime Deployment Concepts

Setting Up Blue/Green Deployments

Follow these steps to configure blue/green deployments in AWS Elastic Beanstalk:

1
Create two EB environments with identical configurations
2
Deploy new app versions to the inactive environment
3
Perform health checks using EB status and CloudWatch
4
Swap CNAMEs to redirect traffic once verified healthy
bash
# Create blue environment
eb create springboot-blue --envvars SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=blue

# Create green environment
eb create springboot-green --envvars SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=green

# Deploy new version to green (inactive)
eb use springboot-green
eb deploy

# Check health
eb health springboot-green

# Swap CNAME to switch traffic
aws elasticbeanstalk swap-environment-cnames \
  --source-environment-name springboot-blue \
  --destination-environment-name springboot-green

Automation & CI/CD

Use AWS CodePipeline and CodeBuild to automate builds, tests, and deployments. This reduces manual steps and ensures consistency across all releases.

buildspec.yml
version: 0.2

phases:
  install:
    commands:
      - echo Installing JDK 17
      - amazon-linux-extras enable corretto17
      - yum install -y java-17-amazon-corretto-devel
  build:
    commands:
      - echo Build started on `date`
      - ./mvnw clean package -DskipTests
      - echo Build completed on `date`
artifacts:
  files:
    - target/*.jar
  discard-paths: yes

💡 Pro Tip: Integrate your CodePipeline to automatically deploy artifacts to EB environments and trigger CNAME swaps after successful tests.

Security Best Practices

Security is paramount in any deployment. Here are key recommendations for safe, zero-downtime deployments:

🔒 Least Privilege IAM Roles

Attach minimal permissions to EB instances and pipelines

🔒 Encrypt Environment Variables

Use AWS Secrets Manager or Parameter Store

🔒 Health Checks & Rollbacks

Automate rollback on unhealthy deployments

🔒 Network Security

Use private subnets and security groups

🔒 Audit Logs

Enable CloudTrail for tracking changes and access

⚠️ Real-World Example: A fintech startup implemented blue/green deployments with automated rollback and strict IAM policies, preventing exposure of sensitive data and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Real-World Examples

Industry leaders like Netflix and Airbnb use blue/green deployments to push millions of updates without downtime. Learn from open-source examples:

AWS Blue/Green Sample Repository

Official AWS sample demonstrating blue/green deployment patterns

→ View on GitHub

Spring PetClinic on EB

Popular Spring Boot reference application with EB deployment examples

→ View on GitHub

✅ Deployment Checklist

Track your progress as you implement zero-downtime deployments:

Progress: 0 of 9 completed

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Conclusion

Zero-downtime deployments require a combination of sound architecture, automation, and security measures. AWS Elastic Beanstalk simplifies infrastructure management while enabling best practices like blue/green deployments.

With the right setup, you can continuously deliver features without impacting your users—a capability proven repeatedly in both enterprise and startup environments. Start with small deployments, automate incrementally, and secure every stage.

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