Spring Boot : Spring Batch job does not launch automatically

Question

TL;DR

Spring boot batch job does not get launched as an uber jar on windows or in Spring Cloud Data Flow; however, the same code works just fine when launched in Eclipse.

---

I created a simple Spring batch job using Spring Boot. I wanted to run this job on Kubernetes. I followed the steps mentioned in this guide on how to launch a Spring batch job in SCDF (Spring Cloud Data Flow). When I register this app and create a task as mentioned in the guide, a new pod is created in Kubernetes and the application runs fine; however, the batch job never gets launched. What could be the reason for this?

My Spring Boot batch application code :

Main Class

@SpringBootApplication
public class BatchApplication {

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

Job configuration

@Configuration
@EnableTask
@EnableBatchProcessing
@Profile("master")
public class BatchJob {

    @Autowired
    private JobBuilderFactory jobBuilderFactory;

    @Autowired
    private StepBuilderFactory stepBuilderFactory;

    public static final String JOB_NAME = "myJob";
    
    private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(BatchJob .class);

    @Bean(name = JOB_NAME )
    public Job job() {
        LOGGER.info("Creating job bean...");
        return jobBuilderFactory.get(JOB_NAME).incrementer(new RunIdIncrementer())
                .start(helloWorldStep()).build();
    }

    @Bean
    public Step helloWorldStep() {
        LOGGER.info("Creating Step bean...");
        return stepBuilderFactory.get("helloWorldStep").tasklet(helloWorldTasklet()).build();
    }

    @Bean
    public HelloWorldTasklet helloWorldTasklet() {
        LOGGER.info("Creating tasklet...");
        return new HelloWorldTasklet();
    }
}

HelloWorldTasklet

public class HelloWorldTasklet implements Tasklet {

    private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(HelloWorldTasklet.class);

    @Override
    public RepeatStatus execute(StepContribution contribution, ChunkContext chunkContext) throws Exception {

        LOGGER.info("Hello World");
        System.out.println("Hello World Again");
        return RepeatStatus.FINISHED;

    }

}

application.properties

spring.application.name=my-batch-app
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:dataflow
spring.datasource.driverClassName=org.h2.Driver
spring.datasource.username=sa
spring.datasource.password=
spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect
spring.cloud.task.closecontext_enabled=true

pom.xml dependencies

<?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 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <artifactId>my-project-parent</artifactId>
        <groupId>com.myapp</groupId>
        <version>MAR21_1.0</version>
    </parent>

    <groupId>com.myapp</groupId>
    <artifactId>my-batch-app</artifactId>

    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-batch</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.11.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.11.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.11.RELEASE</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.junit.vintage</groupId>
                    <artifactId>junit-vintage-engine</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
         <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.17-cloudera1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.199</version>
            <!--<scope>runtime</scope>-->
        </dependency>
        
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.1.0.RELEASE</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>repackage</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

Where my-project-parent is the parent module for all my projects containing only defintions for jar versions. However, I am not really using any of these versions defined in this pom in my-batch-app as of now.

<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>com.myapp</groupId>
    <artifactId>my-project-parent</artifactId>
    <version>MAR21_1.0</version>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>
    <name>my-project-parent</name>

    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>            
        <spring.kafka.version>2.5.5.RELEASE</spring.kafka.version>          <spring.cloud.starter.task.version>2.2.4.RELEASE</spring.cloud.starter.task.version>            <spring.boot.starter.data.jpa.version>2.2.1.RELEASE</spring.boot.starter.data.jpa.version>
        <database.h2.version>1.4.199</database.h2.version>          <spring.cloud.dataflow.rest.client.version>2.7.1</spring.cloud.dataflow.rest.client.version>
        <jackson-datatype-jsr310.version>2.10.0</jackson-datatype-jsr310.version>
        <spring.batch.version>4.2.4.RELEASE</spring.batch.version>
        <log4jversion>1.2.17-cloudera1</log4jversion>
    </properties>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <!-- Maven Compiler Plugin -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <source>${java.version}</source>
                    <target>${java.version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>


</project>

I registered the docker image for the above application, created a task and launched the task from the SCDF UI. I don't see the Spring Batch step or job logs in my pod logs. Infact, I don't see the System.out.println or all the log statements statements that I have added all around the code in the logs.

The pod seems to be running BatchApplication class but does not seem to be launching the job at all. What am I missing? The same problem is observed even if I run the jar on windows as a spring boot uber jar

Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Djdk.tls.maxCertificateChainLength=20

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::        (v2.2.5.RELEASE)

2021-06-07 16:23:58.021  INFO 1 --- [           main] .r.c.b.w.b.c.o.BatchApplication : Starting BatchApplication  on batch-controller-test-5wg6eryzpj with PID 1 (/tmp/my-batch-app.jar started by ? in /tmp)
2021-06-07 16:23:58.026  INFO 1 --- [           main] .r.c.b.w.b.c.o.BatchApplication  : The following profiles are active: master
2021-06-07 16:24:03.031  INFO 1 --- [           main] .s.d.r.c.RepositoryConfigurationDelegate : Bootstrapping Spring Data JPA repositories in DEFAULT mode.
2021-06-07 16:24:03.316  INFO 1 --- [           main] .s.d.r.c.RepositoryConfigurationDelegate : Finished Spring Data repository scanning in 185ms. Found 0 JPA repository interfaces.
2021-06-07 16:24:04.917  INFO 1 --- [           main] faultConfiguringBeanFactoryPostProcessor : No bean named 'errorChannel' has been explicitly defined. Therefore, a default PublishSubscribeChannel will be created.
2021-06-07 16:24:04.935  INFO 1 --- [           main] faultConfiguringBeanFactoryPostProcessor : No bean named 'taskScheduler' has been explicitly defined. Therefore, a default ThreadPoolTaskScheduler will be created.
2021-06-07 16:24:04.949  INFO 1 --- [           main] faultConfiguringBeanFactoryPostProcessor : No bean named 'integrationHeaderChannelRegistry' has been explicitly defined. Therefore, a default DefaultHeaderChannelRegistry will be created.
2021-06-07 16:24:06.814  INFO 1 --- [           main] trationDelegate$BeanPostProcessorChecker : Bean 'org.springframework.integration.config.IntegrationManagementConfiguration' of type [org.springframework.integration.config.IntegrationManagementConfiguration] is not eligible for getting processed by all BeanPostProcessors (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying)
2021-06-07 16:24:07.047  INFO 1 --- [           main] trationDelegate$BeanPostProcessorChecker : Bean 'integrationChannelResolver' of type [org.springframework.integration.support.channel.BeanFactoryChannelResolver] is not eligible for getting processed by all BeanPostProcessors (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying)
2021-06-07 16:24:07.113  INFO 1 --- [           main] trationDelegate$BeanPostProcessorChecker : Bean 'integrationDisposableAutoCreatedBeans' of type [org.springframework.integration.config.annotation.Disposables] is not eligible for getting processed by all BeanPostProcessors (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying)
2021-06-07 16:24:09.125  INFO 1 --- [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Starting...
2021-06-07 16:24:09.822  INFO 1 --- [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Start completed.
2021-06-07 16:24:10.512  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.hibernate.jpa.internal.util.LogHelper  : HHH000204: Processing PersistenceUnitInfo [name: default]
2021-06-07 16:24:11.220  INFO 1 --- [           main] org.hibernate.Version                    : HHH000412: Hibernate Core {5.4.8.Final}
2021-06-07 16:24:12.724  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.hibernate.annotations.common.Version   : HCANN000001: Hibernate Commons Annotations {5.1.0.Final}
2021-06-07 16:24:14.019  INFO 1 --- [           main] org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect            : HHH000400: Using dialect: org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect
2021-06-07 16:24:16.335  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.h.e.t.j.p.i.JtaPlatformInitiator       : HHH000490: Using JtaPlatform implementation: [org.hibernate.engine.transaction.jta.platform.internal.NoJtaPlatform]
2021-06-07 16:24:16.429  INFO 1 --- [           main] j.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean : Initialized JPA EntityManagerFactory for persistence unit 'default'
2021-06-07 16:24:19.814  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.s.s.c.ThreadPoolTaskScheduler          : Initializing ExecutorService 'taskScheduler'
2021-06-07 16:24:21.721  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.s.i.endpoint.EventDrivenConsumer       : Adding {logging-channel-adapter:_org.springframework.integration.errorLogger} as a subscriber to the 'errorChannel' channel
2021-06-07 16:24:21.721  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.s.i.channel.PublishSubscribeChannel    : Channel 'application.errorChannel' has 1 subscriber(s).
2021-06-07 16:24:21.722  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.s.i.endpoint.EventDrivenConsumer       : started bean '_org.springframework.integration.errorLogger'
2021-06-07 16:24:21.818  INFO 1 --- [           main] .r.c.b.w.b.c.o.BatchApplication  : Started BatchApplication  in 27.903 seconds (JVM running for 31.116)
2021-06-07 16:24:21.828  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] o.s.i.endpoint.EventDrivenConsumer       : Removing {logging-channel-adapter:_org.springframework.integration.errorLogger} as a subscriber to the 'errorChannel' channel
2021-06-07 16:24:21.830  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] o.s.i.channel.PublishSubscribeChannel    : Channel 'application.errorChannel' has 0 subscriber(s).
2021-06-07 16:24:21.830  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] o.s.i.endpoint.EventDrivenConsumer       : stopped bean '_org.springframework.integration.errorLogger'
2021-06-07 16:24:21.832  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] o.s.s.c.ThreadPoolTaskScheduler          : Shutting down ExecutorService 'taskScheduler'
2021-06-07 16:24:21.916  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] j.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean : Closing JPA EntityManagerFactory for persistence unit 'default'
2021-06-07 16:24:21.917  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] .SchemaDropperImpl$DelayedDropActionImpl : HHH000477: Starting delayed evictData of schema as part of SessionFactory shut-down'
2021-06-07 16:24:21.920  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Shutdown initiated...
2021-06-07 16:24:22.014  INFO 1 --- [extShutdownHook] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Shutdown completed.

JAR contents

Just to make things more clear, this is the list of folders that I see in the JAR. It looks like spring boot maven plugin was used to create the jar? Why then does the batch job not launch outside of Eclipse :

--my-batch-app.jar
 - BOOT-INF
   - classes
   - lib
 - META-INF
 - org

Note : As you can see, the logs also show that the master profile was indeed picked because I passed --spring.profiles.active=master as the input argument when launching the task.

Answer 1

Few follow up questions-

Are you running this app as Scheduled or at Startup?

Do you have this starter dependency added?

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-batch</artifactId>
</dependency>

Based on your answers, I might need to dig into your code, if you feel comfortable sharing it.

Answer 2

I tested your application and your problem is that your BatchJob class is not marked as a Spring configuration class. You should update it as follows:

// Your current imports
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@EnableTask
@EnableBatchProcessing
@Profile("master")
@Configuration // This is missing in your current config
public class BatchJob {
   ...
}

With that, I am able to see your log statements and the job is started correctly on application startup.