# 🇬🇧 OpenFaas is also a PaaS - Part 1

And it's amazing. But, what does it mean in reality? I wasn't aware of that (because I didn't read all the documentation (1), and I'm so sorry for that, Alex). But you can deploy your micro services or web applications on OpenFaaS like on any other (good) PaaS. If I developed a micro service, and I'm able to deploy it on Clever Cloud (2) or Heroku or any PaaS 12 factors compliant without any change (3).

1: OpenFaaS blog post reference: https://www.openfaas.com/blog/stateless-microservices/ (opens new window)

2: try it, you will love it https://www.clever-cloud.com/en/ (opens new window)

3: except deployment files configuration

But, let's see how to do that. The easiest way is to Dockerize your application.

# First: create an ExpressJS web application

The Part 2 (next blog post) will be about how to deploy Vert-x micro service from GitLab CI to OpenFaaS.

First, create a hello-world directory with 2 files:

index.js
package.json

index.js

const express = require('express')

const app = express()
const port = process.env.PORT || 8080

app.use(express.json())

app.get('/', (req, res, next) => {
  res.send("<h1>👋 Hello World 🌍</h1>")
})

app.get('/spock', (req, res, next) => {
  res.send({
    message:"🖖Live long and prosper!"
  })
})

app.listen(port, () => console.log(`🌍 listening on port ${port}`))

Your web application must listen on the 8080 http port

package.json

{
  "name": "hello-world",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node ./index.js"
  },
  "license": "MIT",
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.16.4"
  }
}

# Then, we will prepare our service for deployment on OpenFaaS

For that you need 2 files:

Dockerfile we are going to "dockerize" the web application
config.deploy.yml the file needed by the OpenFaaS CLI to deploy the web application (and you can name it with another name if you want)

Dockerfile

FROM node:12.7.0-alpine

COPY . .
RUN npm install

CMD ["npm", "start"]

Best practice: your service should write a lock file to /tmp/.lock. It allows to write health check for OpenFaaS. You can do that with the Dockerfile or in you source code int the http start-up.

for example: RUN touch /tmp/.lock

better explained here: https://docs.openfaas.com/reference/workloads/#stateless-microservices (opens new window)

config.deploy.yml

version: 1.0
provider:
  name: openfaas
  gateway: ${OPENFAAS_URL}
functions:
  hello-world:
    lang: dockerfile
    handler: ./
    image: ${DOCKER_HANDLE}/hello-world:latest

lang: dockerfile we'll use de Docker template

# Now, it's time to deploy

It's pretty simple, here are the commands to deploy:

export OPENFAAS_URL="http://openfaas.test:8080" # this is my OpenFaas instance
export OPENFASS_TOKEN="put here the OpenFaaS token"
export DOCKER_PASSWORD="your Docker hub password"
export DOCKER_HANDLE="your Docker hub handle"

echo -n ${DOCKER_PASSWORD} | docker login --username ${DOCKER_HANDLE} --password-stdin
echo -n ${OPENFASS_TOKEN} |faas-cli login --username=admin --password-stdin

faas-cli build -f config.deploy.yml
faas-cli push -f config.deploy.yml
faas-cli deploy -f config.deploy.yml

# or you can do it with only one command:
# faas-cli up -f config.deploy.yml

And now you can access to:

your "web page": http://openfaas.test:8080/function/hello-world (opens new window)
your service: http://openfaas.test:8080/function/hello-world/spock (opens new window)

😃 Now you have your own PaaS. See you soon for the next part.

# 🇬🇧 OpenFaas is also a PaaS - Part 1

# First: create an ExpressJS web application

# Then, we will prepare our service for deployment on OpenFaaS

# Now, it's time to deploy

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