How to Quickly Set Up Nacos for Service Discovery and Configuration

1. Environment Setup

There are two ways to set up Nacos: manual compilation and startup, or using a Docker container.

1.1 Manual Compilation and Startup

Two steps are required: compile Nacos and then start it.

Step 1 – Compile Nacos

You can either compile from source or download the official binary.

Method 1 – Source Compilation

Clone the Nacos project from GitHub and build it with Maven. git clone https://github.com/alibaba/nacos.git After downloading the source, navigate to the directory and run:

mvn -Prelease-nacos -Dmaven.test.skip=true clean install -U

The first compilation may take a long time because it downloads many dependencies.

When finished, the compiled files are located at:

distribution/target/nacos-server-$version/nacos

Tip: If GitHub download is slow, consider using Gitee (a Chinese mirror) for faster access.

Method 2 – Download Official Binary

The official pre‑compiled package can be downloaded directly from the GitHub Releases page.

On the Nacos project homepage, click the Releases section on the right and download the zip file.

Step 2 – Startup

Run the following command in the compiled Nacos directory: sh bin/startup.sh -m standalone The -m standalone flag starts Nacos in single‑node mode, which is the simplest way for practice.

On Windows, you can execute startup.cmd instead.

1.2 Docker Container

The official Nacos Docker image can be used directly.

# Clone the Nacos Docker project
git clone https://github.com/nacos-group/nacos-docker.git
# Start in standalone mode
cd nacos-docker
docker-compose -f example/standalone-derby.yaml up

This launches three containers:

prometheus – collects Nacos metrics for monitoring

grafana – visualizes the collected metrics

nacos-standalone – the Nacos server itself

The Nacos container exposes port 8848; access the console at http://localhost:8848/nacos.

Default username and password are both nacos.

2. Experience Nacos API

The following four core APIs are demonstrated: register instance, heartbeat, query service list, and deregister instance.

2.1 Register Instance

Send a POST request:

curl -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:8848/nacos/v1/ns/instance?serviceName=service-a&ip=192.168.1.1&port=8080'

The service appears in the console, even though the service name does not exist yet; Nacos treats any registered instance as alive as long as it continues sending heartbeats.

2.2 Instance Heartbeat

Send a PUT request:

curl -X PUT 'http://127.0.0.1:8848/nacos/v1/ns/instance/beat?serviceName=service-a&beat=%7B%22ip%22:%22192.168.31.1%22,%22port%22:8080%7D'

The beat parameter is a JSON string that must be URL‑encoded.

2.3 Query Service Instance List

Send a GET request:

curl -X GET 'http://127.0.0.1:8848/nacos/v1/ns/instance/list?serviceName=service-a'

The response returns a JSON object containing the registered instance details.

{
    "metadata":{},
    "dom":"service-a",
    "cacheMillis":3000,
    "useSpecifiedURL":false,
    "hosts":[
        {
            "valid":true,
            "marked":false,
            "metadata":null,
            "instanceId":"192.168.31.1#8080#DEFAULT#DEFAULT_GROUP@@service-a",
            "port":8080,
            "healthy":true,
            "ip":"192.168.31.1",
            "clusterName":"DEFAULT",
            "weight":0,
            "ephemeral":true,
            "serviceName":"service-a",
            "enabled":true
        }
    ],
    "name":"DEFAULT_GROUP@@service-a",
    "checksum":"2be56e35d79c2cf9982e0b5e19b2bd29",
    "lastRefTime":1604222416258,
    "env":"",
    "clusters":""
}

2.4 Deregister Instance

Send a DELETE request:

curl -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:8848/nacos/v1/ns/instance?serviceName=service-a&ip=192.168.31.1&port=8080'

After deregistration, the console shows an empty service list.