diff --git a/docs/src/main/asciidoc/spring-cloud-netflix.adoc b/docs/src/main/asciidoc/spring-cloud-netflix.adoc
index 9598b898..27d35034 100644
--- a/docs/src/main/asciidoc/spring-cloud-netflix.adoc
+++ b/docs/src/main/asciidoc/spring-cloud-netflix.adoc
@@ -235,6 +235,9 @@ By default every Eureka server is also a Eureka client and requires
 the service will run and work, but it will shower your logs with a lot
 of noise about not being able to register with the peer.
 
+See also <<spring-cloud-ribbon,below for details of Ribbon
+support>> on the client side for Zones and Regions.
+
 === Standalone Mode
 
 The combination of the two caches (client and server) and the
@@ -495,11 +498,22 @@ This replaces the `NoOpPing` with `PingUrl`.
 
 === Using the Ribbon with Eureka
 
-When Eureka is used in conjunction with Ribbon the `ribbonServerList` is
-overridden with an extension of `DiscoveryEnabledNIWSServerList` which
-populates the list of servers from Eureka.  It also replaces the `IPing`
-interface with `NIWSDiscoveryPing` which delegates to Eureka to determine if
-a server is up.
+When Eureka is used in conjunction with Ribbon the `ribbonServerList`
+is overridden with an extension of `DiscoveryEnabledNIWSServerList`
+which populates the list of servers from Eureka.  It also replaces the
+`IPing` interface with `NIWSDiscoveryPing` which delegates to Eureka
+to determine if a server is up. The `ServerList` that is installed by
+default is a `DomainExtractingServerList` and the purpose of this is
+to make physical metadata available to the load balancer without using
+AWS AMI metadata (which is what Netflix relies on). By default the
+server list will be constructed with "zone" information as provided in
+the instance metadata (so on the client set
+`eureka.instance.metadataMap.zone`), and if that is missing it can use
+the domain name from the server hostname as a proxy for zone (if the
+flag `approximateZoneFromDomain` is set). Once the zone information is
+available it can be used in a `ServerListFilter` (by default it will
+be used to locate a server in the same zone as the client because the
+default is a `ZonePreferenceServerListFilter`).
 
 [[spring-cloud-ribbon-without-eureka]]
 === Example: How to Use Ribbon Without Eureka
diff --git a/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerList.java b/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerList.java
index 30d7dcf8..202c2855 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerList.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerList.java
@@ -51,13 +51,15 @@ public class DomainExtractingServerList implements ServerList<DiscoveryEnabledSe
 
 	@Override
 	public List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> getInitialListOfServers() {
-		List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> servers = setZones(this.list.getInitialListOfServers());
+		List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> servers = setZones(this.list
+				.getInitialListOfServers());
 		return servers;
 	}
 
 	@Override
 	public List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> getUpdatedListOfServers() {
-		List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> servers = setZones(this.list.getUpdatedListOfServers());
+		List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> servers = setZones(this.list
+				.getUpdatedListOfServers());
 		return servers;
 	}
 
@@ -68,8 +70,8 @@ public class DomainExtractingServerList implements ServerList<DiscoveryEnabledSe
 		boolean shouldUseIpAddr = this.clientConfig.getPropertyAsBoolean(
 				CommonClientConfigKey.UseIPAddrForServer, Boolean.FALSE);
 		for (DiscoveryEnabledServer server : servers) {
-			result.add(new DomainExtractingServer(server,
-					isSecure, shouldUseIpAddr, this.approximateZoneFromHostname));
+			result.add(new DomainExtractingServer(server, isSecure, shouldUseIpAddr,
+					this.approximateZoneFromHostname));
 		}
 		return result;
 	}
@@ -86,7 +88,10 @@ class DomainExtractingServer extends DiscoveryEnabledServer {
 			boolean useIpAddr, boolean approximateZoneFromHostname) {
 		// host and port are set in super()
 		super(server.getInstanceInfo(), useSecurePort, useIpAddr);
-		if (approximateZoneFromHostname) {
+		if (server.getInstanceInfo().getMetadata().containsKey("zone")) {
+			setZone(server.getInstanceInfo().getMetadata().get("zone"));
+		}
+		else if (approximateZoneFromHostname) {
 			setZone(extractApproximateZone(server));
 		}
 		else {
diff --git a/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerListTests.java b/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerListTests.java
index 2bc545aa..d2f9b2f1 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerListTests.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-netflix-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/netflix/ribbon/eureka/DomainExtractingServerListTests.java
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@ package org.springframework.cloud.netflix.ribbon.eureka;
 
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
 
 import org.junit.Test;
 
@@ -50,6 +52,9 @@ public class DomainExtractingServerListTests {
 
 	static final String INSTANCE_ID = "myInstanceId";
 
+	private Map<String, String> metadata = Collections.<String, String> singletonMap(
+			"instanceId", INSTANCE_ID);
+
 	@Test
 	public void testDomainExtractingServer() {
 		DomainExtractingServerList serverList = getDomainExtractingServerList(
@@ -61,6 +66,20 @@ public class DomainExtractingServerListTests {
 		assertEquals("hostPort was wrong", HOST_NAME + ":" + PORT, des.getHostPort());
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testZoneInMetaData() {
+		this.metadata = new HashMap<String, String>();
+		this.metadata.put("zone", "us-west-1");
+		this.metadata.put("instanceId", INSTANCE_ID);
+		DomainExtractingServerList serverList = getDomainExtractingServerList(
+				new DefaultClientConfigImpl(), false);
+		List<DiscoveryEnabledServer> servers = serverList.getInitialListOfServers();
+		assertNotNull("servers was null", servers);
+		assertEquals("servers was not size 1", 1, servers.size());
+		DomainExtractingServer des = assertDomainExtractingServer(servers, "us-west-1");
+		assertEquals("Zone was wrong", "us-west-1", des.getZone());
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void testDomainExtractingServerDontApproximateZone() {
 		DomainExtractingServerList serverList = getDomainExtractingServerList(
@@ -104,8 +123,7 @@ public class DomainExtractingServerListTests {
 		InstanceInfo instanceInfo = mock(InstanceInfo.class);
 		given(server.getInstanceInfo()).willReturn(instanceInfo);
 		given(server.getHost()).willReturn(HOST_NAME);
-		given(instanceInfo.getMetadata()).willReturn(
-				Collections.<String, String> singletonMap("instanceId", INSTANCE_ID));
+		given(instanceInfo.getMetadata()).willReturn(this.metadata);
 		given(instanceInfo.getHostName()).willReturn(HOST_NAME);
 		given(instanceInfo.getIPAddr()).willReturn(IP_ADDR);
 		given(instanceInfo.getPort()).willReturn(PORT);