“Spring Boot Deployment on AWS EC2 Using Docker 2025 | Complete Guide”

Step-by-Step: Spring Boot + Docker + AWS EC2 Deployment

In the last video, we saw manual upload of a Spring Boot JAR to AWS EC2. The main disadvantage was that the EC2 instance had to mirror local setup — Java, Maven, etc., had to be installed manually.

Today, we’ll deploy Spring Boot using Docker → Docker Hub → EC2.
This method removes the need to install Java/Maven on EC2 and ensures consistent deployment.

Step 1: Create Spring Boot Application (Local)

Create a simple Spring Boot REST API:

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api")
public class HelloController {

@GetMapping("/hello")
public String hello() {
return "Spring Boot Application Deployed via Docker Successfully";
}
}


Test locally:
http://localhost:8080/api/hello

✅ Application works locally.

Step 2: Install Docker on Local Machine

Install Docker Desktop (Windows/Mac) or Docker Engine (Linux).

Verify installation:

docker --version


Example output:

Docker version 28.3.3, build 980b856

Step 3: Create Dockerfile for Spring Boot

In your project root, create a Dockerfile with:

Use official OpenJDK 21 image
FROM openjdk:21-jdk
If not available, use eclipse-temurin:21-jdk
WORKDIR /app
COPY target/AwsEc2Manul-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar app.jar
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["java","-jar","app.jar"]


This converts your JAR into a Docker image.

Step 4: Build Docker Image (Local)

From project root:

docker build -t springboot-ec2-demo .


Note: If OpenJDK image is unavailable, switch to eclipse-temurin:21-jdk.

Verify the image:

docker images


Example output:

REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
springboot-ec2-demo latest b702f4540015 About a minute 712MB

✅ JAR converted to Docker image (containerized).

Step 5: Create Docker Hub Account (if not already)

Docker Hub is an online registry to store images.

From EC2, we can pull images directly.

Other clouds: GCP → Artifact Registry, AWS → ECR.

Example username: prabhakaranskg

Step 6: Tag Docker Image for Docker Hub
docker tag springboot-ec2-demo prabhakaranskg/springboot-ec2-demo:latest


Format: (dockerhub-username)/(image-name):(tag)

Step 7: Push Docker Image to Docker Hub

Login:

docker login


Push image:

docker push prabhakaranskg/springboot-ec2-demo:latest


✅ Image is now on Docker Hub.

Step 8: Prepare EC2 Instance

Launch EC2 (Ubuntu 22.04, t3.micro)

Security group:

Protocol Port Source
SSH 22 My IP
HTTP 80 0.0.0.0/0
Custom TCP 8080 0.0.0.0/0

Download key pair (aws-ec2-docker.pem)

Connect via SSH:

ssh -i "D:\Youtube\AWS\aws-ec2-docker.pem" [email protected]


Windows PEM permission fix (PowerShell):

icacls "D:\Youtube\AWS\aws-ec2-docker.pem" /reset
icacls "D:\Youtube\AWS\aws-ec2-docker.pem" /inheritance:r
icacls "D:\Youtube\AWS\aws-ec2-docker.pem" /grant:r "$($env:USERNAME):R"
icacls "D:\Youtube\AWS\aws-ec2-docker.pem" /remove "Authenticated Users" "Users" "Administrators" "SYSTEM"


✅ Successfully connected to EC2.

Step 9: Install Docker on EC2
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker.io -y
sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu
docker --version


Example output:

Docker version 28.2.2, build 28.2.2-0ubuntu1~24.04.1

Step 10: Pull Docker Image on EC2
docker pull prabhakaranskg/springboot-ec2-demo:latest


✅ Image downloaded from Docker Hub.

Step 11: Run Docker Container on EC2
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 prabhakaranskg/springboot-ec2-demo:latest


Flags explanation:

-d → Detached mode (background)

-p 8080:8080 → Map EC2 port 8080 to container port 8080

Optional: name container

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name springboot-app prabhakaranskg/springboot-ec2-demo:latest


Stop or remove old containers if needed:

docker stop (container_id)
docker rm (container_id)
docker pull prabhakaranskg/springboot-ec2-demo:latest

Step 12: Test the Application

Open browser or Postman:

http://(EC2_PUBLIC_IP):8080/api/hello
http://18.60.157.146:8080/hello


Response:

Spring Boot Application Deployed in EC2 Successfully Using Docker


✅ Application running successfully on EC2.

Step 13: Verify Docker on EC2
docker ps # shows running containers
docker logs (container_id) # check logs

Step 14: Optional: Stop/Remove Container
docker stop (container_id)
docker rm (container_id)

✅ Summary / Workflow

Local machine:

Build Spring Boot JAR

Create Dockerfile

Build Docker image

Tag and push to Docker Hub

EC2 machine:

Install Docker

Pull image from Docker Hub

Run container

Your Spring Boot application is now accessible via EC2 public IP.

Thanks for watching!
Next, we’ll see a simple CI/CD pipeline to automate deployment of Spring Boot Docker applications on AWS EC2.