Implementing Custom Health Checks in Spring Boot with @HealthEndpoint
Introduction
Spring Boot has emerged as a dominant force in the Java ecosystem, solidifying its reputation as a go-to framework for crafting microservices. One of the reasons behind its popularity is the ease with which developers can build production-ready applications. One such feature that helps in production readiness is the actuator module which provides several built-in services such as metrics, health checks, and more. In this post, we’ll dive deep into the health check part of the actuator and see how you can extend the default health check capabilities by implementing custom health checks using the @HealthEndpoint annotation.
Introduction to Health Checks in Spring Boot
In the world of microservices and distributed systems, the ability to monitor and quickly diagnose issues in your applications has become paramount. Health checks have long been a pillar in this monitoring strategy, providing immediate feedback on the operational status of an application.
What are Health Checks?
At their core, health checks are diagnostic operations that an application performs on itself to ensure its various components are functioning as expected. This can include checking:
