hhy5277 / faas

Functions as a Service (on Docker Swarm)

Functions As A Service (faas)

FaaS is a platform for building serverless functions on Docker Swarm Mode with first class metrics. Any UNIX process can be packaged as a function in FaaS enabling you to consume a range of web events without repetitive boiler-plate coding.

Concept

• Each container has a watchdog process that hosts a web server allowing a JSON post request to be forwarded to a desired process via STDIN. The response is sent to the caller via STDOUT.
• A gateway provides a view to the containers/functions to the public Internet and collects metrics for Prometheus and will manage replicas and auto-scale as throughput increases.

Read the story of FaaS on my blog or find out more about the project below.

Minimum requirements:

• Docker 1.13 (to support attachable overlay networks)
• At least a single host in Swarm Mode. (run docker swarm init)

TestDrive

You can test-drive FaaS with a set of sample functions as defined in docker-compose.yml on play-with-docker.com for free, or on your own laptop.

Highlights:

• Ease of use through UI portal

• Setup a working environment with one script

• Portable - runs on any hardware

• Baked-in Prometheus metrics

• Any container can be a function

• Auto-scales as demand increases

Begin the TestDrive

Here is a screenshot of the API gateway portal - designed for ease of use.

Ongoing development/screenshots:

FaaS is still expanding and growing, check out the developments around:

• Auto-scaling through Prometheus alerts
• Prometheus alert example
• Invoke functions through UI
• Create new functions through UI
• Various sample functions
• ARM / Raspberry Pi support

Develop your own functions

• Package your function

Roadmap and contributing

• Read the Roadmap

Additional content

Would you prefer a video overview?

See how to deploy FaaS onto play-with-docker.com and Docker Swarm in 1-2 minutes. See the sample functions in action and watch the graphs in Prometheus as we ramp up the amount of requests.

• Deep Dive into Functions as a Service (FaaS) on Docker

Prometheus metrics are built-in

Prometheus is built into FaaS and the sample stack, so you can check throughput for each function individually with a rate function in the UI at port 9090 on your Swarm manager.

If you are new to Prometheus, you can start learning about metrics and monitoring on my blog:

Monitor your applications with Prometheus