Replacing the Spring Cloud Config Server

As we have seen in the previous chapter, ConfigMaps and Secrets can be used to hold configuration information for our microservices. The Spring Cloud Config Server adds features such as keeping all configurations in one place, optional version control using Git, and the ability to encrypt sensitive information on the disk. But it also consumes a non-negligible amount of memory (as with any Java and Spring-based application) and adds significant overhead during startup.

For example, when running automated integration tests such as the test script we are using in this book, test-em-all.bash, all microservices are started up at the same time, including the configuration server. Since the other microservices must get their configuration from the configuration server, they all have to wait for the configuration server to be up and running before they can start up themselves. This leads to a significant delay when running integration tests. If...