Deploying a Spring Boot Application with Docker Using IntelliJ IDEA

IDEA is a powerful Java development tool, Spring Boot is the most popular micro‑service framework in the Java ecosystem, and Docker is the leading container technology; this guide shows how to combine them to quickly deploy a Java web application.

1. Docker installation – Follow the official Docker documentation (https://docs.docker.com/install/). Then edit the Docker service file to enable remote TCP access: vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service Append -H tcp://0.0.0.0:2375 to the ExecStart line, reload the daemon and start Docker:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start docker

Open the port permanently:

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=2375/tcp --permanent

2. Create a Spring Boot project – Use IDEA to generate a Spring Boot project. The pom.xml should contain the Spring Boot parent and the Docker Maven plugin:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>docker-demo</groupId>
    <artifactId>com.demo</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.2.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>
    ...
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>com.spotify</groupId>
                <artifactId>docker-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.0.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <dockerDirectory>src/main/docker</dockerDirectory>
                    <resources>
                        <resource>
                            <targetPath>/</targetPath>
                            <directory>${project.build.directory}</directory>
                            <include>${project.build.finalName}.jar</include>
                        </resource>
                    </resources>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

3. Add Docker support – Create src/main/docker/Dockerfile:

FROM openjdk:8-jdk-alpine
ADD *.jar app.jar
ENTRYPOINT ["java","-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom","-jar","/app.jar"]

Configure src/main/resources/application.properties for logging and port:

logging.config=classpath:logback.xml
logging.path=/home/developer/app/logs/
server.port=8990

4. Write the application code – Main class:

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

Simple controller:

@RestController
public class DockerController {
    static Log log = LogFactory.getLog(DockerController.class);
    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String index() {
        log.info("Hello Docker!");
        return "Hello Docker!";
    }
}

5. Build and run – Package the project with Maven, then let the Docker Maven plugin build the image (e.g., docker-demo:1.1) and start a container exposing port 8990. Verify the service by opening http://<host>:8990 in a browser and checking the logs inside the mounted directory.

By following these steps, a Spring Boot Java web application can be containerized and deployed with Docker directly from IntelliJ IDEA, demonstrating a streamlined workflow for modern backend development.