Service Registration and Discovery in Spring Boot using Eureka : Microservices essentials

In a microservices architecture, services must locate each other without hardcoded URLs. Service Discovery solves this by registering each service with a centralized registry. One of the most popular tools for this in the Spring ecosystem is Netflix Eureka.

In this tutorial, you will:

• Set up a Eureka Server
• Create a microservice that registers itself
• Verify dynamic discovery

Let’s build it step-by-step.

📦 Project Setup

We’ll create two Spring Boot projects:

1. eureka-server – service registry
2. user-service – client microservice that registers itself

Both projects use Spring Boot 3+ and Java 17+

1️⃣ Create Eureka Server

Step 1: Initialize Spring Boot Project

Use Spring Initializr with:

• Project Name: eureka-server
• Dependencies: Spring Web, Eureka Server

Step 2: Add Dependencies

In pom.xml:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-netflix-eureka-server</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
            <version>2022.0.4</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

Step 3: Enable Eureka Server

In EurekaServerApplication.java:

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableEurekaServer
public class EurekaServerApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(EurekaServerApplication.class, args);
    }
}

Step 4: Configure application.properties

Create this file at:
📁 src/main/resources/application.properties

server.port=8761

spring.application.name=eureka-server

eureka.client.register-with-eureka=false
eureka.client.fetch-registry=false

Step 5: Run the Server

Start the application and visit:
📍 http://localhost:876
You’ll see the Eureka dashboard.

2️⃣ Create a Client Microservice (user-service)

Step 1: Initialize Spring Boot Project

Use Spring Initializr with:

• Project Name: user-service
• Dependencies: Spring Web, Eureka Discovery Client

Step 2: Add Dependencies

In pom.xml:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-netflix-eureka-client</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
            <version>2022.0.4</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

Step 3: Enable Eureka Client

In UserServiceApplication.java:

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableEurekaClient.    // @EnableEurekaClient ❌ NOT needed in Spring Cloud 2022+
public class UserServiceApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(UserServiceApplication.class, args);
    }
}

As of Spring Cloud 2022+, @EnableEurekaClient is no longer required because Spring Boot auto-configures Eureka clients if the right dependencies and config are present.

Spring Boot auto-discovers the presence of Eureka via the spring-cloud-starter-netflix-eureka-client dependency and applies the needed configuration automatically.

Create UserController.java:

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/users")
public class UserController {
    @GetMapping
    public List<String> getUsers() {
        return List.of("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie");
    }
}

Step 6: Run the Client Microservice

Run UserServiceApplication.
Now check http://localhost:8761 again — user-service should be registered!

✅ Final Test

Open your browser or use Postman:

Call user-service directly:

GET http://localhost:8081/users

Check Eureka UI:
http://localhost:8761 should show user-service as a registered application.

📌 Conclusion

You’ve now successfully set up:

• A fully working Eureka Server
• A Spring Boot microservice that registers itself

This is the first foundational step for building microservices with Spring Boot.

Commands:
mvn clean
mvn install
mvn spring-boot:run

Git code at : https://github.com/infotechseo/microservices-eureka-server