Book Image

Docker for Serverless Applications

By : Chanwit Kaewkasi
Book Image

Docker for Serverless Applications

By: Chanwit Kaewkasi

Overview of this book

Serverless applications have gained a lot of popularity among developers and are currently the buzzwords in the tech market. Docker and serverless are two terms that go hand-in-hand. This book will start by explaining serverless and Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) concepts, and why they are important. Then, it will introduce the concepts of containerization and how Docker fits into the Serverless ideology. It will explore the architectures and components of three major Docker-based FaaS platforms, how to deploy and how to use their CLI. Then, this book will discuss how to set up and operate a production-grade Docker cluster. We will cover all concepts of FaaS frameworks with practical use cases, followed by deploying and orchestrating these serverless systems using Docker. Finally, we will also explore advanced topics and prototypes for FaaS architectures in the last chapter. By the end of this book, you will be in a position to build and deploy your own FaaS platform using Docker.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Title Page
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Summary


This chapter discussed the Fn Project, its components, and architecture. We started using Fn with its command line, the Fn CLI.

We then discussed the structure of an Fn function, such as how it interacts with STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR. We learned how to build and deploy Fn functions, both with Java and Go runtimes.

Then we formed an Fn cluster on Docker Swarm and linked the Fn Server instances to an external DB store, MySQL. We load balanced the Fn instances using Fn LB, a load balancer specifically implemented by the same team.

With the Fn UI, we learned how to use it to monitor invocations for Fn. With MyAdmin, we used it to browse calls and error logs directly in MySQL. A simple tool like MyAdmin could be used to achieve the same analytical result without preparing a complex toolchain.

The next chapter will introduce OpenWhisk, another serverless stack from the Apache project, and those used by IBM to offer serverless services in their cloud.