Function Orchestration in the World of Serverless

This is a presentation I did in a meetup in Istanbul. It is about Azure Durable Functions and Azure Logic Apps being used to orchestrate functions.

Transcript

1. Function Orchestration in the World of Serverless Daron Yöndem http://daron.me @daronyondem
2. Two ways • Azure Logic Apps: For those who like user interfaces and workflow definition files. • Azure Durable Functions: For those who like codifying workflows, and more.
3. Durable Functions! • Stateful functions • Managed state, checkpoints, and restarts when needed. • Define stateful workflows in orchestrator functions. .
4. Workflows you said? • Define workflows in code. No JSON schemas or designers are needed. • They can call other functions synchronously and asynchronously. Output from called functions can be saved to local variables. • They automatically checkpoint their progress whenever the function awaits. Local state is never lost if the process recycles.
5. Problem 1 : Function Chaining • No visualization to show relationship between functions and queues. • Middle queues are an implementation detail – conceptual overhead. • Error handling adds a lot more complexity.
6. Problem 2 : Fan-out/Fan-in • Fanning-out is easy, but fanning-in is more complicated. • Functions offers no help with this scenario today • All the same problems of the previous pattern
7. Fan-Out and abuse Azure Computer Vision APIs :) DEMO
8. Problem 3 : Eternal Processes • Long running processes • Built-in state management • orchestrationClient or built-in webhooks can be used.
9. Why Logic Apps? • Saving time by designing complex processes using easy to understand design tools • Implementing patterns and workflows seamlessly, that would otherwise be difficult to implement in code • Rich Managed Connectors
10. Orchestrating functions from Azure Logic Apps DEMO
12. Links worth sharing Workflow Definition Language schema for Azure Logic Apps https://goo.gl/r3fx4T Durable Task Framework • https://goo.gl/q4yjUc Durable Functions Nuget Package • https://goo.gl/p1ma8T
13. Thanks http://daron.me | @daronyondem Download slides here; http://daron.me/decks