My Quick Start with Oracle Functions in Fresh OCI Tenancy

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This article is fairly rough log of the steps I went through to get going on Oracle Cloud Serverless Functions. It is mainly intended to provide a note to myself, for future reference. However, my description could prove useful to you – the reader.

My steps to get going are based on https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionscreatingfirst.htm. Another very useful resource with step by step descriptions: https://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/infographics/oci_faas_gettingstarted_quickview/functions_quickview_top/functions_quickview/index.html.

Using a fresh OCI Cloud Tenancy and a local VM: Ubuntu 18.04 with Docker 19.03.5. In this VM, I run a Docker Container that contains the OCI CLI (as described in this article: https://technology.amis.nl/2018/10/14/get-going-quickly-with-command-line-interface-for-oracle-cloud-infrastructure-using-docker-container/) . A small configuration file lives outside the container and is mounted into the container contains tenancy details and the private key. This same file is used in the FN context that I use when deploying and invoking functions.

After deploying a function to the designated compartment in my OCI tenant, I will have the function’s container image in the Oracle Container Image Registry and the Function itself in the Application in the compartment.

Steps:

Prepare the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Command Line Interface for the designated OCI tenancy – https://technology.amis.nl/2018/10/14/get-going-quickly-with-command-line-interface-for-oracle-cloud-infrastructure-using-docker-container/ This article lists the following steps:

create new OCI user functions-admin in group Admins – note down user and tenancy OCID, Region,
prepare directory for OCI config file
run OCI CLI Docker container image; this generates the oci config file and a private/public key-pair (outside the container)
update OCI user in OCI browser console with public key
create shortcut command for running OCI CLI on Docker host (in the .profile)

Create OCI Compartment – functions-compartment
Run OCI Networking Quickstart wizard – to create VCN, subnets, internet gateway, NAT gateway, service gateway
Further Prepare Tenancy for Function Development – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionsconfiguringtenancies.htm; we make use of a script that leverages the OCI CLI to prepare the tenancy: https://github.com/lucasjellema/oci-scripts/tree/master/functions. The script performs these steps for us:

create group
create policies
create Application
run the script with tenancy OCID as command line parameter
This is what the script should deliver

Install/Configure oci-curl: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionscreatinglocalocicurl.htm
Install Project Fn CLI on the Linux Host – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionsinstallfncli.htm
Configure Project Fn context – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionscreatefncontext.htm

fn create context lab-fn-context –provider oracle
fn use context lab-fn-context
fn update context oracle.compartment-id <compartment-ocid>
fn update context api-url https://functions.us-ashburn-1.oci.oraclecloud.com
fn update context registry iad.ocir.io/idtxxxxanz/cloudlab-repo

Set the Context for the Fn Project CLI Using the oracle.profile Parameter – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionssetoracleprofile.htm

fn update context oracle.profile FN

Generate an Auth Token to Enable Login to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionsgenerateauthtokens.htm
Login to Docker

docker login <region-code>.ocir.io (in my case docker login iad.ocir.io)
username: tenancy-namespace/user (where <tenancy-namespace> is the auto-generated Object Storage namespace string of the tenancy in which to create repositories (as shown on the Tenancy Information page) and password is the generated Auth Token.

Verify configuration – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionsverifyingconfig.htm
Create a new Hello World Function on the command line and deploy it – Steps 5 through 10 in https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionscreatingfirst.htm

fn init –runtime node hello
cd hello
fn -v deploy –app lab-app

Check the Oracle Cloud Container Registry:

Invoke the new Function in one of several ways: (see https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/Functions/Tasks/functionsinvokingfunctions.htm)

fn invoke lab-app hello
oci fn function invoke –function-id ocid1.fnfunc.oc1.iad.aa4q –file “-” –body ‘{“param1”: “value1”}’
through API Gateway
from application program using OCI Client SDK
oci raw-request –http-method POST –target-uri https://se3z5wq.us-ashburn-1.functions.oci.oraclecloud.com/20181201/functions/ocid1.fnfunc.oc1.iad.aaaaaa4q/actions/invoke –request-body “”
oci-url

fn inspect function lab-app hello => this returns the function endpoint

source ~/oci-curl/oci-curl.sh

oci-curl “se3lwq.us-ashburn-1.functions.oci.oraclecloud.com” post payload.json “/20181201/functions/ocid1.fnfunc.oc1.iad.aaq/actions/invoke”

Here end the first steps: the first function is running and can be invoked. Next steps include creating more exciting functions, exposing functions through the API Gateway, calling functions from Oracle Integration Cloud integrations and scheduling function execution (for now using either OKE CronJob or with IFTTT and API Gateway.

Resources

Oracle Functions – Quick Start Guide: https://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/infographics/oci_faas_gettingstarted_quickview/functions_quickview_top/functions_quickview/index.html

Running OCI CLI in Docker Container (to keep the development environment ‘clean’): https://technology.amis.nl/2018/10/14/get-going-quickly-with-command-line-interface-for-oracle-cloud-infrastructure-using-docker-container/

About Post Author

Lucas Jellema

Lucas Jellema, active in IT (and with Oracle) since 1994. Oracle ACE Director and Oracle Developer Champion. Solution architect and developer on diverse areas including SQL, JavaScript, Kubernetes & Docker, Machine Learning, Java, SOA and microservices, events in various shapes and forms and many other things. Author of the Oracle Press book Oracle SOA Suite 12c Handbook. Frequent presenter on user groups and community events and conferences such as JavaOne, Oracle Code, CodeOne, NLJUG JFall and Oracle OpenWorld.

lucas.jellema@amis.nl

https://www.amis.nl/