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Function Compute:Create a custom container function

Last Updated:Jul 11, 2023

This topic describes how to create a custom container function by using the Function Compute console or Serverless Devs.

Before you start

Create a function in the Function Compute console

This topic describes how to create a function by running commands in the /tmp directory. In this example, the region of Function Compute is China (Shenzhen) and the name of the image repository is nodejs-express.

Step 1: Push the image to the default image repository

  1. Run the following command to go to the /tmp directory:

    cd /tmp
  2. Run the following command in the /tmp directory to clone the sample project:

    git clone https://github.com/awesome-fc/custom-container-docs.git
  3. Run the following command to go to the project directory:

    cd custom-container-docs/nodejs-express
  4. Run the following command to specify the image repository:

    export IMAGE_NAME="registry.cn-shenzhen.aliyuncs.com/fc-demo/nodejs-express:v0.2" 
  5. Run the following command to package the image:

    sudo docker build -t $IMAGE_NAME .
    Note

    You must specify the image compilation platform as Linux AMD64 to implement cross-platform compilation if you use a device running the ARM architecture, such as a Mac computer equipped with Apple chips, when you build images. Sample code: docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t $IMAGE_NAME.

  6. Run the following command to push the image:

    sudo docker push $IMAGE_NAME

Step 2: Create a service and configure permissions for the service

  1. Create a function in the Function Compute console.

    For more information, see Create Services.

  2. Attach the AliyunContainerRegistryReadOnlyAccess or AliyunContainerRegistryFullAccess policy to the service.

    For more information, see Grant Function Compute permissions to access other Alibaba Cloud services. The preceding policies allow Function Compute to obtain the temporary account for the default instance in Container Registry. Then, Function Compute uses the temporary account to push the image from your private image repository.

Step 3: Create a function

  1. Log on to the Function Compute console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Services & Functions.
  2. In the top navigation bar, select a region. On the Services page, click the desired service.
  3. On the Functions page, click Create Function.
  4. On the Create Function page, select Use Container Image, configure the following parameters based on your business requirements, and then click Create.

    • Basic Settings: Configure basic information about the function, including the function name, web server mode, and the handler type.

      Parameter

      Description

      Function Name

      Enter a name for the function. Function Compute automatically creates a name for your function if you leave this parameter empty.

      Web Server Mode

      Yes: enables the web server mode. Take note of the following items:

      • Yes: enables the web server mode. You need to implement a web server in your container image to listen on ports and process requests.

      • No: disables the web server mode. In this case, you set Handler Type only to Event Handler. You must actively exit the process after a request is processed and set ExitCode to 0. In addition, the requested event parameters are passed to the function in the form of environment variables.

      Handler Type

      Specify the type of requests that are processed by the function. The requests can be event requests or HTTP requests. Take note of the following items:

      • Event Handler: Triggers the execution of the function by using a timer, calling API operations, using SDKs, or using triggers integrated with other Alibaba Cloud services.

      • HTTP Requests: Processes HTTP requests or WebSocket requests. For a web scenario, we recommend that you select Use Custom Runtime when you create the function.

    • Image Configurations: Configure the image that is used to create the function.

      Parameter

      Description

      Image Selection Mode

      Select Use Sample Images or select your own image to create a function.

      • Use Sample Image: Select a built-in sample image of Function Compute.

      • Use Container Registry Images: Click Select a Container Registry image below Container Image. In the Select Container Image panel that appears, configure Container Image Instance and Container Registry Repository. Among the images that appear, find the desired image and click Select in the Actions column.

        Note

        For Container Registry Enterprise Edition, Function Compute uses the tags of the image you select here to create a function instance.

        • If you use an image of Container Registry Enterprise Edition (Advanced Edition or Standard Edition), we recommend that you turn on Immutable for Image Version. Otherwise, the image tag may be updated elsewhere and Function Compute pulls the updated image data to start the instance. For more information, see Configure a repository to be immutable.

        • If you are using an image of Container Registry Enterprise Edition (Basic Edition) or Container Registry Personal Edition, you must update the function with the image information in the Function Compute console after you update the image tag with the same name in the image repository. After that, Function Compute starts instances with the new image.

      Startup Command

      Specify the startup command of the container. If you do not configure this parameter, the Entrypoint or CMD command in the image is used.

      Listener Port

      Specify the port on which the HTTP server in the container image listens. The default port is 9000. If you do not specify this parameter, the container image runs in non-interactive mode.

    • Advanced Settings: Configure the instance information, execution timeout period, and handler of the function.

      Parameter

      Description

      GPU Acceleration

      Select whether to use GPU-accelerated instances based on your business requirements. By default, elastic instances are used and GPU-accelerated instances are not used. For more information, see Instance types and instance modes. For more information about the billing of each instance type, see Billing overview.

      • Enable GPU

      • Disable GPU

      Specifications

      • Enable GPU:

        Configure GPU Memory Size based on your business requirements. Function Compute automatically configures vCPU and Memory based on the GPU specifications that you select. Flexible vCPU-to-memory ratios are not supported.

      • Disable GPU:

        Configure vCPU Specification and Memory Capacity based on your business requirements.

      For more information about the billing of resources, see Billing overview.

      Note
      • The ratio of vCPU to memory capacity (in GB) must be set from 1:1 to 1:4.

      • If original resource plans are used to offset the current resource usage, Function Compute supports offset of vCPU and memory usage at a ratio of 2:3 (1 GB-second = 0.66 vCPU-seconds + 1 GB-seconds). Starting from November 3, 2022, Function Compute supports flexible vCPU-to-memory ratios. However, the value of vCPU must be increased at increments of 0.05. The value of 0.66 vCPU-seconds in the original conversion ratio is no longer supported. You can select 0.60 vCPU-seconds or 0.65 vCPU-seconds.

      Disk Size

      Select the disk size based on your business requirements. Function Compute provides you with a free disk capacity of up to 512 MB. For more information, see Billing overview.

      Instance Concurrency

      If you set Web Server Mode to No, you do not need to set this parameter. Specify the concurrency of function instances. For more information, see Configure instance concurrency.

      Execution Timeout Period

      Configure the timeout period for the execution of the function. The default value is 60 seconds. The maximum value is 86,400 seconds. We recommend that you set this parameter to 600 seconds.

      Note

      If the execution time of the function exceeds the specified timeout period, the function fails to be executed. If you want to apply a longer timeout limit, join the DingTalk group 11721331 to contact the technical support.

      Time Zone

      Select the time zone of the function. After you configure the time zone of the function, the environment variable TZ is automatically added to the function. The value is the time zone that you configure.

    • Environment Variables: Configure the environment variables in the runtime environment of the function. For more information, see Environment variables.

    • Trigger Configurations: Configure a trigger for the function. You can use the trigger to trigger the execution of the function. For more information, see Manage triggers.

    After the function is created, you can view and update the function in the function list of the service.

Note

When you update a function, you can only change the specified listening port. You cannot delete or add extra listening ports. If a listening port is configured when you create the function, the listening port is retained when you update the function if you do not specify the listening port.

Use Serverless Devs to create a function

You can use Serverless Devs to build and push container images and deploy functions with a few clicks.

  1. Run the following command to initialize a project:

    sudo s init start-fc-custom-container-event-nodejs14

    The following output is returned:

     Serverless Awesome: https://github.com/Serverless-Devs/package-awesome
    
     Please input your project name (init dir) start-fc-custom-container-event-nodejs14
     file decompression completed
    
         ____  _     _ ___  _ _     _        _____ ____
        /  _ \/ \   / \\  \/// \ /\/ \  /|  /    //   _\
        | / \|| |   | | \  / | | ||| |\ ||  |  __\|  /
        | |-||| |_/\| | / /  | \_/|| | \||  | |   |  \__
        \_/ \|\____/\_//_/   \____/\_/  \|  \_/   \____/
     please select credential alias default
    
        Welcome to the Aliyun FC start application
         This application requires to open these services:
             FC : https://fc.console.aliyun.com/
             ACR: https://cr.console.aliyun.com/
    
         * Note: Actions are declared in the s.yaml file:
            Run before deployment: sudo s build --use-docker --dockerfile ./code/Dockerfile.
           If you do not need to build the project, you can use annotations to skip the preceding command. 
           > Before the deployment, replace the value of the image parameter in the s.yaml file with the address of your image in Container Registry. 
         * The project is initialized. You can go to the project directory and run the s deploy command to deploy the project. 
    
     Thanks for using Serverless-Devs
     You could [cd /test/test1/start-fc-custom-container-event-nodejs14] and enjoy your serverless journey!
     If you need help for this example, you can use [s -h] after you enter folder.
     Document Star: https://github.com/Serverless-Devs/Serverless-Devs
     Do you want to deploy the project immediately? No
  2. Run the following command to go to the project directory:

    cd start-fc-custom-container-event-nodejs14
  3. Edit the s.yaml file.

    Replace the value of the image parameter with the address of your image in Container Registry.

  4. Run the following command to deploy the project:

    sudo s deploy

    The following output is returned:

    [2021-12-15 07:54:30] [INFO] [S-CLI] - Start ...
    [2021-12-15 07:54:30] [INFO] [S-CLI] - Start the pre-action
    [2021-12-15 07:54:30] [INFO] [S-CLI] - Action: s build --use-docker --dockerfile ./code/Dockerfile
    [2021-12-15 07:54:31] [INFO] [S-CLI] - Start ...
    [2021-12-15 07:54:32] [INFO] [FC-BUILD] - Build artifact start...
    [2021-12-15 07:54:32] [INFO] [FC-BUILD] - Use docker for building.
    [2021-12-15 07:54:32] [INFO] [FC-BUILD] - Building image...
    Sending build context to Docker daemon   5.12kB
    Step 1/7 : FROM node:14.5.0-alpine3.11
     ---> 5d97b3d11dc1
    ......
    Step 7/7 : ENTRYPOINT [ "node", "server.js" ]
     ---> Using cache
     ---> a5ef1c015e7e
    Successfully built a5ef1c015e7e
    Successfully tagged registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/fc-example/test:nginx
    SECURITY WARNING: You are building a Docker image from Windows against a non-Windows Docker host. All files and directories added to build context will have '-rwxr-xr-x' permissions. It is recommended to double check and reset permissions for sensitive files and directories.
    Build image(registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/fc-example/test:nginx) successfully
    [2021-12-15 07:54:33] [INFO] [FC-BUILD] - Build artifact successfully.
    
    Tips for next step
    ======================
    * Invoke Event Function: s local invoke
    * Invoke Http Function: s local start
    * Deploy Resources: s deploy
    End of method: build
    [2021-12-15 07:54:33] [INFO] [S-CLI] - End the pre-action
    [2021-12-15 07:54:34] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Using region: cn-hangzhou
    [2021-12-15 07:54:34] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Using access alias: default
    [2021-12-15 07:54:34] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Using accessKeyID: LTAI4G4cwJkK4Rza6xd9****
    [2021-12-15 07:54:34] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Using accessKeySecret: eCc0GxSpzfq1DVspnqqd6nmYNN****
    [2021-12-15 07:54:34] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Checking Service hello-world-service exists
    [2021-12-15 07:54:35] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Setting role: AliyunFCDefaultRole
    [2021-12-15 07:54:35] [INFO] [RAM] - Checking Role AliyunFCDefaultRole exists
    [2021-12-15 07:54:35] [INFO] [RAM] - Updating role: AliyunFCDefaultRole
    [2021-12-15 07:54:35] [INFO] [RAM] - Checking Plicy AliyunFCDefaultRolePolicy exists
    [2021-12-15 07:54:35] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Checking Function nodejs14-event-function exists
    [2021-12-15 07:54:36] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Using image registry: registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com
    [2021-12-15 07:54:36] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Try to use a temporary token for docker login
    Login to registry: registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com with user: cr_temp_user
    Pushing docker image: registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/fc-example/test:nginx...
    The push refers to repository [registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/fc-example/test]
    cdf38e7753b7: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           43128f71725b: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           0fb36a16ab83: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           dd966b9fd474: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           a1915d7a1111: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           c4491b3ee709: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           9fb10d900487: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           3e207b409db3: Layer already exists                                                                                                                                                           nginx: digest: sha256:02b69157def85ceb72f32cb1c5845d00e1d8df19caf6eaf720a9bc77bb57db76 size: 1991
    √ Make service hello-world-service success.
    √ Make function hello-world-service/nodejs14-event-function success.
    [2021-12-15 07:54:39] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Checking Service hello-world-service exists
    [2021-12-15 07:54:39] [INFO] [FC-DEPLOY] - Checking Function nodejs14-event-function exists
    
    There is auto config in the service: hello-world-service
    
    Tips for next step
    ======================
    * Display information of the deployed resource: s info
    * Display metrics: s metrics
    * Display logs: s logs
    * Invoke remote function: s invoke
    * Remove Service: s remove service
    * Remove Function: s remove function
    * Remove Trigger: s remove trigger
    * Remove CustomDomain: s remove domain
    
    
    
    helloworld:
      region:   cn-hangzhou
      service:
        name: hello-world-service
      function:
        name:       nodejs14-event-function
        runtime:    custom-container
        handler:    not-used
        memorySize: 256
        timeout:    60
  5. Run the following command to debug the function:

    sudo s invoke -e "{\"key\":\"val\"}"

    Sample command output:

    [2021-12-15 08:00:17] [INFO] [S-CLI] - Start ...
    ========= FC invoke Logs begin =========
    FC Invoke Start RequestId: 768945c8-f92d-428e-89c2-ecd50883****
    {"key":"val"}
    FC Invoke End RequestId: 768945c8-f92d-428e-89c2-ecd50883****
    
    Duration: 3.05 ms, Billed Duration: 4 ms, Memory Size: 256 MB, Max Memory Used: 10.77 MB
    ========= FC invoke Logs end =========
    
    FC Invoke Result:
    OK
    
    
    End of method: invoke