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Serverless in java Lessons learnt | PDF
Serverless in Java
Lessons learnt
Krzysztof Pawlowski
krzysztof.pawlowski@merapar.com
JEE Conf, 27.04.2019 Kyiv
About me
• Helping clients create value with innovative cloud
solutions @ Merapar
• Teaching students good programming practices @ Polish-
Japanese Academy of IT
• 10+ years of experience with Java
• 2 years of experience with AWS
• Certified AWS Solutions Architect and AWS Developer
Agenda
• What is serverless?
• Why did we choose serverless and Java?
• What did we learn when using Java for serverless solution?
• Best practices

–Techopedia
“Serverless computing is a type of cloud computing
where the customer does not have to provision
servers for the back-end code to run on, but (…)
cloud provider starts and stops a container
platform as a service as requests come (…).”
How does serverless work?
Function A
Function A
code / jars storage
Serverless Computing Platform
Execution
Environment
Server
Execution
Environment
Server
Execution
Environment
Server
Execution
Environment
Server
Client
Function A
1. Execute Function A
2. Retrieve Function A
5. Return result
3. Deploy Function A 4. Run Function A
How does serverless work?
EC2 instance (server)
Execution environment
JVM
Request Handler
Our use-case: migration project
• Migration of several million users and devices to a new platform
• Users decide when they want to migrate
• Users and data are migrated to a new backoffice
• Firmware is upgraded
• How to orchestrate the migration process?

Our use-case: migration project
Why serverless?
• No servers to manage
• Simplified deployment and packaging (AWS Cloudformation)
• Automatic continuous scaling
• No idle / cold servers = no costs when not used
• Pay per request
• Availability and fault tolerance build in 

Why Java?
• Competencies in a team
• Well tested libraries
• Strongly typed language
• AWS SDK for Java
• Tooling: IntelliJ IDEA, Maven etc.
Lesson 1: What
should be the project
structure?
Project structure
or
One big Maven project Maven project per AWS Lambda
Project structure


One big maven project



Pros:
• easier building process
• code re-usage

Cons:
• longer time needed to 

download/unpack package 

before invocation


Maven project per lambda
Pros:
• single functionality deployment
• lambda code separation / loose
coupling
• shorter time needed to download/
unpack package before invocation
Cons:
• code duplication
Lesson 2: Where has
the complexity
moved to?
Endpoint definition in Spring Boot
  @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)

@ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.CREATED)

@ResponseBody

@Path(“/foo”)

public Long create(@RequestBody Foo resource) {

      return service.create(resource);

  }
Endpoint definition in AWS
AWS IAM
AWS API Gateway AWS Lambda
• complexity moved from
one codebase to multiple
services
• initial bootstrapping is
more work

Endpoint definition in AWS
1. implement AWS Lambda handler
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.Context
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.RequestHandler;
public class Hello implements RequestHandler<Foo, Long> {

public Long myHandler(Foo resource, Context context) {

return service.create(resource);

}

}
Endpoint definition in AWS
2. create API Gateway endpoint definition
• a long json definition including:
• OpenAPI definition (aka Swagger) of the endpoint
• all responses mappings
• all errors mappings
Endpoint definition in AWS
3. create IAM role for API Gateway to call AWS Lambda
"LambdaPermission": {

"Type": "AWS::Lambda::Permission",

"Properties": {

"Action": "lambda:invokeFunction",

"FunctionName": “arn:aws:lambda:<region>

:<account-id>:function:hello”,

"Principal": "apigateway.amazonaws.com",

“SourceArn”:”arn:aws:execute-api:<region>

:<account_id>:HelloApi"

}

}
Developer now needs to
know more about
infrastructure/platform
Lesson 3: How to
debug/troubleshoot?
Debugging
image: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/migrating-from-eclipse-to-intellij-idea.html
?
No remote debugging
Running your code locally
• AWS SAM (Serverless Application
Model) Local
• simulates AWS cloud on your
machine
• Eclipse/IntelliJ plugin - possible
to debug locally
• not all the services are
implemented
IntelliJ AWS toolkit
source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-toolkit-for-intellij-now-generally-available/
IntelliJ AWS toolkit
source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-toolkit-for-intellij-now-generally-available/
IntelliJ AWS toolkit
source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-toolkit-for-intellij-now-generally-available/
Metrics and logs
• Metrics and monitoring
• CloudWatch
• X-Ray
Metrics and logs
• Logs
• CloudWatch

Logs Insights
• ElasticSearch /
Kibana
• All managed by AWS
Lesson 4: What is
the performance?
Java performance in AWS
• AWS Lambda performance test based simple application exposing GET
endpoint returning “Hello world” response written in:
• Java
• Node.JS
• C# (.net core sdk 2.0)
• F#
• Go
• Python
• Run in with 1024MB MEM
• Cold start not taken into account
Java performance in AWS
Java code had average performance
Java performance in AWS
Java code had consistent performance
Java performance in AWS
Java endpoint had similar performance to other languages
Java performance in AWS
Java endpoint had a consistent performance
Performance tuning
AWS Lambda
• you pay per 100 ms
• price depends on amount of memory
• cpu depends on amount of memory
Performance tuning
Performance tuning
Lesson 5: Cold start
might be an issue
Cold start
Downloading the
code
Starting the
execution
environment
Bootstrapping the
runtime
Running the code
AWS optimisation User optimisation
Cold start
Total execution time
Warm start
Cold start
1st call
Cold start
Running
the code
Running
the code
Running
the code
Running
the code
2nd call 3rd call 4th call
First execution of lambda function
Cold start
Cold start
Running
the code
Cold start
Running
the code
> 20..45mins
Big interval between lambdas invocation
Cold start
Cold start
Running
the code
Running
the code
Running
the code
Running
the code
Cold start
Running
the code
Running
the code
Cold start
Running
the code
Running
the code
Running
the code
Concurrent lambda invocations (can be limited in lambda definition)
- new execution environment created
Cold start
• In case of Java cold start might take couple of seconds
• Less harmful in dynamically typed languages (Python, Node.JS)
• Bigger jar file increases cold start
Decreasing cold start time
• Increase memory/cpu for lambda function
• might increase the cost
• Separate jar file for each lambda function
• Go for dynamically typed language
Eliminating cold start time
• Pre-warm lambda
• call lambda every ~20 min to keep it warm (cronjob)
• cost assuming 3GB mem lambda running for 1s every 20 min is
about $1 per year
• for n concurrent lambda executions - run at once n concurrent
lambdas with the same interval
Cold start
• Other option how to handle cold start:
• do nothing!
• it might not be an issue in your case
Lesson 6:
Understand and use
AWS best practices
–Best Practices for Working with AWS Lambda Functions
(https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/best-practices.html)
“Take advantage of Execution Context reuse to
improve the performance of your function.”
Reusing execution context
• Execution context is created during bootstrapping the
environment (part of cold start)
• use static initialisation/constructor, global/static variables and
singletons
• reuse connections: database, http, etc.
• do not create long-initialised objects in the handleRequest
method
–Best Practices for Working with AWS Lambda Functions
(https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/best-practices.html)
“Use AWS Lambda Environment Variables to pass
operational parameters to your function.”
AWS Lambda Environment Variables
–Best Practices for Working with AWS Lambda Functions
(https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/best-practices.html)
“Be familiar with AWS Lambda Limits.”
AWS Lambda limits
• Concurrent executions: 1000
• Function timeout: 900 seconds
• Function memory allocation: 128MB to 3008 MB
• Function environment variables: 4KB
• /tmp directory storage: 512MB
Conclusion
• Is Java good for serverless?
• Definitely yes!
• Is Java always good for serverless?
• Definitely not!
Conclusion
• When to use serverless?
• Unpredictable load of your app
• Low load of the app -> low cost
• No long running processes
• When to use Java in serverless?
• Cold start is not an issue
• Java is a language of preference for the team
Thank you!

Q & A
Krzysztof Pawlowski
krzychpawlowski
krzysztof.pawlowski@merapar.com

Serverless in java Lessons learnt

  • 1.
    Serverless in Java Lessonslearnt Krzysztof Pawlowski krzysztof.pawlowski@merapar.com JEE Conf, 27.04.2019 Kyiv
  • 2.
    About me • Helpingclients create value with innovative cloud solutions @ Merapar • Teaching students good programming practices @ Polish- Japanese Academy of IT • 10+ years of experience with Java • 2 years of experience with AWS • Certified AWS Solutions Architect and AWS Developer
  • 3.
    Agenda • What isserverless? • Why did we choose serverless and Java? • What did we learn when using Java for serverless solution? • Best practices

  • 4.
    –Techopedia “Serverless computing isa type of cloud computing where the customer does not have to provision servers for the back-end code to run on, but (…) cloud provider starts and stops a container platform as a service as requests come (…).”
  • 5.
    How does serverlesswork? Function A Function A code / jars storage Serverless Computing Platform Execution Environment Server Execution Environment Server Execution Environment Server Execution Environment Server Client Function A 1. Execute Function A 2. Retrieve Function A 5. Return result 3. Deploy Function A 4. Run Function A
  • 6.
    How does serverlesswork? EC2 instance (server) Execution environment JVM Request Handler
  • 7.
    Our use-case: migrationproject • Migration of several million users and devices to a new platform • Users decide when they want to migrate • Users and data are migrated to a new backoffice • Firmware is upgraded • How to orchestrate the migration process?

  • 8.
  • 9.
    Why serverless? • Noservers to manage • Simplified deployment and packaging (AWS Cloudformation) • Automatic continuous scaling • No idle / cold servers = no costs when not used • Pay per request • Availability and fault tolerance build in 

  • 10.
    Why Java? • Competenciesin a team • Well tested libraries • Strongly typed language • AWS SDK for Java • Tooling: IntelliJ IDEA, Maven etc.
  • 11.
    Lesson 1: What shouldbe the project structure?
  • 12.
    Project structure or One bigMaven project Maven project per AWS Lambda
  • 13.
    Project structure 
 One bigmaven project
 
 Pros: • easier building process • code re-usage
 Cons: • longer time needed to 
 download/unpack package 
 before invocation 
 Maven project per lambda Pros: • single functionality deployment • lambda code separation / loose coupling • shorter time needed to download/ unpack package before invocation Cons: • code duplication
  • 14.
    Lesson 2: Wherehas the complexity moved to?
  • 15.
    Endpoint definition inSpring Boot   @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
 @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.CREATED)
 @ResponseBody
 @Path(“/foo”)
 public Long create(@RequestBody Foo resource) {
       return service.create(resource);
   }
  • 16.
    Endpoint definition inAWS AWS IAM AWS API Gateway AWS Lambda • complexity moved from one codebase to multiple services • initial bootstrapping is more work

  • 17.
    Endpoint definition inAWS 1. implement AWS Lambda handler import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.Context import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.RequestHandler; public class Hello implements RequestHandler<Foo, Long> {
 public Long myHandler(Foo resource, Context context) {
 return service.create(resource);
 }
 }
  • 18.
    Endpoint definition inAWS 2. create API Gateway endpoint definition • a long json definition including: • OpenAPI definition (aka Swagger) of the endpoint • all responses mappings • all errors mappings
  • 19.
    Endpoint definition inAWS 3. create IAM role for API Gateway to call AWS Lambda "LambdaPermission": {
 "Type": "AWS::Lambda::Permission",
 "Properties": {
 "Action": "lambda:invokeFunction",
 "FunctionName": “arn:aws:lambda:<region>
 :<account-id>:function:hello”,
 "Principal": "apigateway.amazonaws.com",
 “SourceArn”:”arn:aws:execute-api:<region>
 :<account_id>:HelloApi"
 }
 }
  • 20.
    Developer now needsto know more about infrastructure/platform
  • 21.
    Lesson 3: Howto debug/troubleshoot?
  • 22.
  • 23.
    Running your codelocally • AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model) Local • simulates AWS cloud on your machine • Eclipse/IntelliJ plugin - possible to debug locally • not all the services are implemented
  • 24.
    IntelliJ AWS toolkit source:https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-toolkit-for-intellij-now-generally-available/
  • 25.
    IntelliJ AWS toolkit source:https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-toolkit-for-intellij-now-generally-available/
  • 26.
    IntelliJ AWS toolkit source:https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-toolkit-for-intellij-now-generally-available/
  • 27.
    Metrics and logs •Metrics and monitoring • CloudWatch • X-Ray
  • 28.
    Metrics and logs •Logs • CloudWatch
 Logs Insights • ElasticSearch / Kibana • All managed by AWS
  • 29.
    Lesson 4: Whatis the performance?
  • 30.
    Java performance inAWS • AWS Lambda performance test based simple application exposing GET endpoint returning “Hello world” response written in: • Java • Node.JS • C# (.net core sdk 2.0) • F# • Go • Python • Run in with 1024MB MEM • Cold start not taken into account
  • 31.
    Java performance inAWS Java code had average performance
  • 32.
    Java performance inAWS Java code had consistent performance
  • 33.
    Java performance inAWS Java endpoint had similar performance to other languages
  • 34.
    Java performance inAWS Java endpoint had a consistent performance
  • 35.
    Performance tuning AWS Lambda •you pay per 100 ms • price depends on amount of memory • cpu depends on amount of memory
  • 36.
  • 37.
  • 38.
    Lesson 5: Coldstart might be an issue
  • 39.
    Cold start Downloading the code Startingthe execution environment Bootstrapping the runtime Running the code AWS optimisation User optimisation Cold start Total execution time Warm start
  • 40.
    Cold start 1st call Coldstart Running the code Running the code Running the code Running the code 2nd call 3rd call 4th call First execution of lambda function
  • 41.
    Cold start Cold start Running thecode Cold start Running the code > 20..45mins Big interval between lambdas invocation
  • 42.
    Cold start Cold start Running thecode Running the code Running the code Running the code Cold start Running the code Running the code Cold start Running the code Running the code Running the code Concurrent lambda invocations (can be limited in lambda definition) - new execution environment created
  • 43.
    Cold start • Incase of Java cold start might take couple of seconds • Less harmful in dynamically typed languages (Python, Node.JS) • Bigger jar file increases cold start
  • 44.
    Decreasing cold starttime • Increase memory/cpu for lambda function • might increase the cost • Separate jar file for each lambda function • Go for dynamically typed language
  • 45.
    Eliminating cold starttime • Pre-warm lambda • call lambda every ~20 min to keep it warm (cronjob) • cost assuming 3GB mem lambda running for 1s every 20 min is about $1 per year • for n concurrent lambda executions - run at once n concurrent lambdas with the same interval
  • 46.
    Cold start • Otheroption how to handle cold start: • do nothing! • it might not be an issue in your case
  • 47.
    Lesson 6: Understand anduse AWS best practices
  • 48.
    –Best Practices forWorking with AWS Lambda Functions (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/best-practices.html) “Take advantage of Execution Context reuse to improve the performance of your function.”
  • 49.
    Reusing execution context •Execution context is created during bootstrapping the environment (part of cold start) • use static initialisation/constructor, global/static variables and singletons • reuse connections: database, http, etc. • do not create long-initialised objects in the handleRequest method
  • 50.
    –Best Practices forWorking with AWS Lambda Functions (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/best-practices.html) “Use AWS Lambda Environment Variables to pass operational parameters to your function.”
  • 51.
  • 52.
    –Best Practices forWorking with AWS Lambda Functions (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/best-practices.html) “Be familiar with AWS Lambda Limits.”
  • 53.
    AWS Lambda limits •Concurrent executions: 1000 • Function timeout: 900 seconds • Function memory allocation: 128MB to 3008 MB • Function environment variables: 4KB • /tmp directory storage: 512MB
  • 54.
    Conclusion • Is Javagood for serverless? • Definitely yes! • Is Java always good for serverless? • Definitely not!
  • 55.
    Conclusion • When touse serverless? • Unpredictable load of your app • Low load of the app -> low cost • No long running processes • When to use Java in serverless? • Cold start is not an issue • Java is a language of preference for the team
  • 56.
    Thank you!
 Q &A Krzysztof Pawlowski krzychpawlowski krzysztof.pawlowski@merapar.com