How to Load Configuration from AWS Parameter Store in a Spring Boot Application

In this guide, we will walk through the steps to load configuration values from AWS Parameter Store into your Spring Boot application’s application.yml file. This is particularly useful for managing sensitive configuration data in a centralized and secure manner.

Step 1: Add Necessary Dependencies

First, you need to add the Spring Cloud AWS dependencies to your pom.xml (for Maven) or build.gradle (for Gradle) file.

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.awspring.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-aws-parameter-store-config</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.1</version>
</dependency>

Gradle

dependencies {
    implementation 'io.awspring.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-aws-parameter-store-config:2.3.1'
}

Step 2: Configure AWS Credentials

Ensure that your AWS credentials are configured correctly. You can set up your credentials in several ways, including using a ~/.aws/credentials file, environment variables, or configuring IAM roles if you are running your application on AWS services.

Step 3: Configure `bootstrap.yml`

Create a bootstrap.yml file in the src/main/resources directory and add the configuration for AWS Parameter Store.

spring:
  application:
    name: my-app
  cloud:
    aws:
      region:
        static: your-aws-region # e.g., us-west-2
      stack:
        auto: false
    config:
      import: aws-parameterstore:

Step 4: Use Parameters in `application.yml`

In your application.yml file, reference the properties as usual.

mongodb:
  database: ${database.name}
  uri: ${spring.data.mongodb.uri}

Step 5: Store Parameters in AWS Parameter Store

Ensure that the parameters are stored in AWS Parameter Store. For example:

/config/my-app/database.name with the value of your database name.
/config/my-app/spring.data.mongodb.uri with your MongoDB URI.

Step 6: Load Parameters at Startup

With the above configurations, Spring Cloud AWS Parameter Store will automatically load the parameters from AWS Parameter Store when your application starts.

Full Example

`bootstrap.yml`

spring:
  application:
    name: my-app
  cloud:
    aws:
      region:
        static: your-aws-region # e.g., us-west-2
      stack:
        auto: false
    config:
      import: aws-parameterstore:

`application.yml`

mongodb:
  database: ${database.name}
  uri: ${spring.data.mongodb.uri}

Important Notes

AWS IAM Permissions: Ensure that the EC2 instance or application accessing Parameter Store has the necessary IAM permissions to read the parameters. You can attach an IAM policy similar to this:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ssm:GetParameter",
        "ssm:GetParameters",
        "ssm:GetParametersByPath"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:ssm:your-region:your-account-id:parameter/config/my-app/*"
    }
  ]
}

Region Configuration: Ensure that you specify the correct AWS region in bootstrap.yml.

By following these steps, your Spring Boot application will be able to load configuration values from AWS Parameter Store seamlessly.

This guide should help you integrate AWS Parameter Store with your Spring Boot application effectively.