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Looks neat, but what exactly makes it "serverless"? It's literally an application that you have to run on your server. Edit: turns out (thankfully) that it's o

by paxys 2y ago

Looks neat, but what exactly makes it "serverless"? It's literally an application that you have to run on your server. Edit: turns out (thankfully) that it's only the author of the article using that term. The project site (https://dokku.com/ https://dokku.com/) is very descriptive.

efilife 2y ago
Same question > Dokku is an open-source Platform as a Service (PaaS) that runs on a single server of your choice This is the first paragraph in the article
stavros 2y ago
What makes anything "serverless", when it has to run on a server?
- SushiHippie 2y ago
  I always understood "serverless" as, your main application isn't running all the time, but once you make a request to it, another process starts your main application and then your request gets forwarded to the "main" application. But I never really got it, so I may be completely wrong.
  - stavros 2y ago
    Practically, it's always running, as otherwise you'll get a cold start delay, but that's close enough. It doesn't mean there's no server, so the "lol how is it serverless if you have a server" meme is tiring.
  - paxys 2y ago
    Kinda, but you are describing an implementation detail. More broadly, here's how it works: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - you rent a VM with a publicly accessible IP address. Everything else – patching/updating the OS, deploying your application code or binaries, process lifecycle management, logs, TLS certs, load balancing multiple servers and more – is your responsibility. Example: EC2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) - the provider also manages the OS for your VM, including deploying and running your code on it, restarts, a logging pipeline, providing a HTTPS URL, scaling to multiple servers and more. All you have to do is write your application code to start a web server and listen for web requests on a particular port. Example: Heroku. Functions as a Service (FaaS) - this goes one step further, and the concepts of web servers, ports and HTTP requests/responses are also abstracted out from your application code (hence "serverless"). You write a function with a set of inputs and outputs, and it's up to the platform to execute this function whenever demanded. The request can be sent via HTTP or a message queue or something else entirely. Your code itself doesn't have to care. Example: AWS Lambda
- IshKebab 2y ago
  It means it doesn't run on specific servers that you manage.
  - efilife 2y ago
    So every website I do not own is serverless?
    - IshKebab 2y ago
      Yeah something like GitHub pages is serverless.
  - Lockal 2y ago
    But the article starts with "I run a Dokku server on a $7/month VPS", so author meant something else (probably just wrong usage). Maybe Dokku has 2 modes, where you can launch it on classic server (fixed price per month) or deploy on pay-as-you-use platform (https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/serverless/what-is-serverless/ https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/serverless/what-is-serve...). Calling something serverless without trying it first is deceiving.

by paxys 2y ago

efilife 2y ago

Same question > Dokku is an open-source Platform as a Service (PaaS) that runs on a single server of your choice This is the first paragraph in the article

stavros 2y ago

What makes anything "serverless", when it has to run on a server?

SushiHippie 2y ago
I always understood "serverless" as, your main application isn't running all the time, but once you make a request to it, another process starts your main application and then your request gets forwarded to the "main" application. But I never really got it, so I may be completely wrong.
- stavros 2y ago
  Practically, it's always running, as otherwise you'll get a cold start delay, but that's close enough. It doesn't mean there's no server, so the "lol how is it serverless if you have a server" meme is tiring.
- paxys 2y ago
  Kinda, but you are describing an implementation detail. More broadly, here's how it works: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - you rent a VM with a publicly accessible IP address. Everything else – patching/updating the OS, deploying your application code or binaries, process lifecycle management, logs, TLS certs, load balancing multiple servers and more – is your responsibility. Example: EC2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) - the provider also manages the OS for your VM, including deploying and running your code on it, restarts, a logging pipeline, providing a HTTPS URL, scaling to multiple servers and more. All you have to do is write your application code to start a web server and listen for web requests on a particular port. Example: Heroku. Functions as a Service (FaaS) - this goes one step further, and the concepts of web servers, ports and HTTP requests/responses are also abstracted out from your application code (hence "serverless"). You write a function with a set of inputs and outputs, and it's up to the platform to execute this function whenever demanded. The request can be sent via HTTP or a message queue or something else entirely. Your code itself doesn't have to care. Example: AWS Lambda
IshKebab 2y ago
It means it doesn't run on specific servers that you manage.
- efilife 2y ago
  So every website I do not own is serverless?
  - IshKebab 2y ago
    Yeah something like GitHub pages is serverless.
- Lockal 2y ago
  But the article starts with "I run a Dokku server on a $7/month VPS", so author meant something else (probably just wrong usage). Maybe Dokku has 2 modes, where you can launch it on classic server (fixed price per month) or deploy on pay-as-you-use platform (https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/serverless/what-is-serverless/ https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/serverless/what-is-serve...). Calling something serverless without trying it first is deceiving.