quarkusio/quarkus · critical · RuntimeException

Unable to obtain configuration from Spring Cloud Config…

Error message

Unable to obtain configuration from Spring Cloud Config Server at ${config.url()}

What it means

SpringCloudConfigClientConfigSourceFactory.getConfigSources() contacts the Spring Cloud Config Server during static init to fetch configuration. If any step (DNS, connect, HTTP, parsing) fails, it either throws a RuntimeException wrapping the cause when quarkus.spring-cloud-config.fail-fast=true, or logs the error and returns an empty source list. The message includes the configured server URL for diagnosis.

Solutions

1. Verify the Config Server is reachable at the configured URL (curl it from the same network)
2. Set quarkus.spring-cloud-config.fail-fast=false if config should be optional and the app can start without it
3. Add credentials/proxy settings if the server requires them; fix DNS or connection-wait using quarkus.http or startup ordering (e.g. wait-for services)

Example fix

// before
quarkus.spring-cloud-config.fail-fast=true
quarkus.spring-cloud-config.url=http://wrong-host:8888

// after
quarkus.spring-cloud-config.fail-fast=true
quarkus.spring-cloud-config.url=http://config-server:8888

// preflight check before startup (script/CI)
curl -fsS "$CONFIG_URL/<app>/<profile>" > /dev/null || echo "Config Server unreachable"

try {
    quarkus.run();
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Unable to obtain configuration from Spring Cloud Config Server")) {
        log.error("Config Server unreachable; check url/network/credentials", e);
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Config Server unreachable (wrong host/port, network down, DNS failure), server returning non-200 (e.g. 401/404), TLS errors, or response parsing problems while loading config at application startup with fail-fast enabled.

Common situations: Container started before the Config Server was ready; wrong quarkus.spring-cloud-config.url; missing credentials when the server requires auth; corporate proxy blocking the request.

Related errors

• Got empty HTTP response body
• Got unexpected HTTP response code
• CDI container is not available, cannot initialize HTTP…
• Could not initialize mapped class
• Error starting Liquibase

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/413647715b3deaf9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at extensions/spring-cloud-config-client/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/spring/cloud/config/client/runtime/SpringCloudConfigClientConfigSourceFactory.java:84

            Collections.reverse(propertySources);

            for (int i = 0, propertySourcesSize = propertySources.size(); i < propertySourcesSize; i++) {
                int ordinal = config.ordinal() + i;
                PropertySource propertySource = propertySources.get(i);
                if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                    log.debug("Adding PropertySource named '" + propertySource.getName() + "', with and ordinal of '" + ordinal
                            + "' that contains the following keys: " + join(",", propertySource.getSource().keySet()));
                }
                sources.add(new MapBackedConfigSource(propertySource.getName(), propertySource.getSource(), ordinal) {
                });
            }

            return sources;

        } catch (Exception e) {
            final String errorMessage = "Unable to obtain configuration from Spring Cloud Config Server at " + config.url();
            if (config.failFast()) {
                throw new RuntimeException(errorMessage, e);
            } else {
                log.error(errorMessage, e);
                return emptyList();
            }
        } finally {
            client.close();
        }
    }

    private static String determineProfiles(ConfigSourceContext context, SpringCloudConfigClientConfig config) {
        if (config.profiles().isPresent()) {
            return join(",", config.profiles().get());
        }
        // The profile list starts with the profile overrides, but setting the property is done backwards
        List<String> profiles = new ArrayList<>(context.getProfiles());
        Collections.reverse(profiles);
        return join(",", profiles);
    }

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