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Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

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11–20 of 21 posts

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#11

This truly opens up a world of possibilities. My only itch in the wound is the lock into Amazon linux compatible executables. If they can run exe's compiled on a Ubuntu box, that would be awesome!

Linux userland binary compatibility in general is surprisingly fragmented, thanks to the introduction of so symbol versions about a decade ago.

http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/dynamic-linking/versioned-...

https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/LSB_3.1.0/LSB-Core-gene...

I don't believe Amazon Linux is any worse than other Linux distributions in this regard. If you build a binary on an older Linux distribution (like CentOS 5), then there's a good chance it will run on most new distributions. The opposite is unfortunately not true.

Also, some libraries, like libcurl, don't seem to have consistent symbol versions across distributions. If your application links against libcurl, chances are you won't be able to create a single binary that runs on very many distributions.

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#12

This truly opens up a world of possibilities. My only itch in the wound is the lock into Amazon linux compatible executables. If they can run exe's compiled on a Ubuntu box, that would be awesome!

I compiled a Golang static executable on Ubuntu uploaded it to AWS Lambda (which is Amazon Linux) and it works.

Didn't tried with C/C++.

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#15
post #14

@RossM: We will definitely be supporting additional languages. Happy to take input on the order... @vegasje: VPC tunneling is a frequent customer ask and is on the roadmap.

Hi Tim,

1. What about support for cron-like periodic events? Maybe something like cron.yaml in Elastic Beanstalk, but serverless.

2. Does Java support means, that it will be possible to write lambdas in any JVM hosted language, like for example Clojure?

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#17
post #14

@RossM: We will definitely be supporting additional languages. Happy to take input on the order... @vegasje: VPC tunneling is a frequent customer ask and is on the roadmap.

Python (must have). And then Ruby, Lua, R, Go, and C# in no particular order (just suggestions).

R would be huge for statistical computing, which Lambda holds a lot of potential for -- research would never be the same. Lua would be fitting/appealing just because of its speed and small runtime. The others seem to hold relatively happy spots on TIOBE and in Stack Overflow tags and would fit the Lambda model well.

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#18
post #16

How will Java support work? I can only assume it will start a JVM for each lambda event.

Tldr: Only if your events are extremely infrequent. With an inter-event arrival rate of seconds to few minutes, your jvm processes get frozen and thawed out the vast majority of the time to avoid the initialization/load overhead that would otherwise result.

See https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/container-reuse-in-lamb... for a more complete description.

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#19
post #14

@RossM: We will definitely be supporting additional languages. Happy to take input on the order... @vegasje: VPC tunneling is a frequent customer ask and is on the roadmap.

Hi Tim, 1. What about support for cron-like periodic events? Maybe something like cron.yaml in Elastic Beanstalk, but serverless. 2. Does Java support means, that it will be possible to write lambdas in any JVM hosted language, like for example Clojure?

1. Working on it :). I'd appreciate feedback on the scope of an mvp feature here: e.g., daily/hourly/5 minute-ly periodicity? Scheduled day/time in the future for a one-off? Or is anything short of full cron not enough?

2. Yep. Initially, you'll have to include the Clojure runtime as a library in your ZIP file, so it will look to Lambda like a Java function. Then assuming there's interest, we'll promote it to a first-class experience in the console and API as a language of its own at a later date.

Re: Running Arbitrary Executables in AWS Lambda

#20
post #14

@RossM: We will definitely be supporting additional languages. Happy to take input on the order... @vegasje: VPC tunneling is a frequent customer ask and is on the roadmap.

Python (must have). And then Ruby, Lua, R, Go, and C# in no particular order (just suggestions). R would be huge for statistical computing, which Lambda holds a lot of potential for -- research would never be the same. Lua would be fitting/appealing just because of its speed and small runtime. The others seem to hold relatively happy spots on TIOBE and in Stack Overflow tags and would fit the Lambda model well.

Thanks (and love the suggestion of R, though we probably want a repl as well for that).
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