Introduction To Serverless Computing Using Azure Function

Loading

Introduction To Serverless Computing Using Azure Function

Serverless Computing

Serverless Computing is driven by performing some action as a response to a specific event or trigger.
While building serverless apps you don’t need to provision server or infrastructure.
Billing is based on resources consumed or actual time code is running.
No need to build the app to run the code, no need to set up infrastructure, no need to set up deployment infrastructure. Just focus on code.

Azure Function

Azure Function is a small piece of code that gets executed when some event occurs.
Just focus on code without worrying about the application and infrastructure to run it.
This is also called “function-as-a-service”
You can choose your favorite language to write Azure Function, such as C#, F#, Node.js, Java, or PHP.
Azure function helps you to build fully serverless applications

When to Use Azure Functions

Azure Functions can be a great solution while building small microservices or building simple APIs.
This can be helpful in scenarios like order processing, image processing, logging, file processing, etc.
You can also perform scheduling or batch processing tasks using Azure Functions.

Azure Function Trigger Templates

Azure Functions provide templates for key scenarios.

HTTPTrigger – Triggers some code when HTTP request received.
TimerTrigger – Performs a scheduled task like resource clean-up activities.
GitHub Webhook – Performs an action when something happened to the GitHub repository.
Generic Webhook – Processes HTTP requests from services that support webhooks.
CosmosDBTrigger – Processes Cosmos DB documents when they get added or updated.
BlobTrigger – Processes Azure Blobs when they get added to containers.
QueueTrigger – Responds messages when they get added to Storage Queue
EventHubTrigger – Responds to Event Hub events
ServiceBusQueueTrigger – Responds to message when get added in Azure Service bus queue
ServiceBusTopicTrigger – Subscribes to Service Bus topics and respond to topical events.

Azure Function Apps

Function apps are containers of Azure Function.
All Functions serving the same business value can be grouped together under a single Function App.

Create Your First Azure Function App

Login to Azure Portal and click "New".
In the search text box, write "Function App".

Give a unique name to the Function app, select Subscription, Resource Group, and OS.
Select Hosting Plan
- Consumption Plan – When the function runs, Azure sets up all necessary resources for you and you pay for the time that your code runs.
- App Service Plan - Run Azure Function as a part of already existing App Service with no additional cost.
Once the app gets created, you can view the newly created app under Function apps.

Creating First Azure Function

Click on the Functions tab available under Function App.
Click on "New Function".
Select HTTP Trigger Template.
Select language as C# and give some name to the Function and click "Create".

Test Function Using Portal

You can test the newly created function using Azure Portal.
Click on the "Test" tab available on the right-hand side of the portal.
Click on "Run".
Observe the "Output".

Test Function using Postman

You can test the Azure function using Postman.

On Azure Portal, click on the ‘Get function URL’ option.
Copy the URL.
Open Postman tool.
Paste the URL and set the HTTP method as POST.
Click the "Body" tab and select the raw option.
Select "Body Type" as application/JSON.
Add the following body.
1. {
2. "name":"Mangesh"
3. }

Click on "Send".

Observe the output.