faas-netes

faas-netes is an OpenFaaS provider which enables Kubernetes for OpenFaaS. The existing REST API, CLI and UI are fully compatible.

OpenFaaS also runs well on managed Kubernetes services like AKS, DOKS, EKS and GKE. See our list of tutorials in the documentation site for more.

OpenFaaS (Functions as a Service) is a framework for building serverless functions with Docker and Kubernetes which has first class support for metrics. Any process can be packaged as a function enabling you to consume a range of web events without repetitive boiler-plate coding.

In this README you'll find a technical overview and instructions for deploying to a Kubernetes cluster.

• Platform for deploying serverless-style workloads - microservices and functions
• Native Kubernetes integrations (API and ecosystem)
• Built-in UI portal
• YAML templates & helm chart
• Over 19k GitHub stars
• Independent open-source project with over 240 contributors
• Operator available to use Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) openfaas-operator
• OAuth2 / OIDC authz available

Get started

• Tutorial: Deploy to Kubernetes with helm or YAML
• Read the blog at openfaas.com
• Join the Slack community

OpenFaaS can form a complete stack for Cloud Native application development called PLONK including: Prometheus, Linux/Linkerd, OpenFaaS, NATS/Nginx and Kubernetes. Introducing PLONK.

Reference guide

There are two modes available for faas-netes:

• Classic - mode REST API, but without CRD (default)
• Operator - mode REST API, with a "Function" CRD

The single faas-netes image and binary contains both modes, switch between one or the other using the helm chart or the flag -operator=true/false.

Configuration via Environmental variables

faas-netes can be configured with environment variables, but for a full set of options see the helm chart.

Option	Usage
httpProbe	Boolean - use http probe type for function readiness and liveness. Default: false
write_timeout	HTTP timeout for writing a response body from your function (in seconds). Default: 60s
read_timeout	HTTP timeout for reading the payload from the client caller (in seconds). Default: 60s
image_pull_policy	Image pull policy for deployed functions (Always, IfNotPresent, Never). Default: Always
gateway.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 120Mi, cpu: 50m)
faasnetes.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 120Mi, cpu: 50m)
operator.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 120Mi, cpu: 50m)
queueWorker.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 120Mi, cpu: 50m)
prometheus.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 512Mi)
alertmanager.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 25Mi)
nats.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 120Mi)
faasIdler.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 64Mi)
basicAuthPlugin.resources	CPU/Memory resources requests/limits (memory: 50Mi, cpu: 20m)

Readiness checking

The readiness checking for functions assumes you are using our function watchdog which writes a .lock file in the default "tempdir" within a container. To see this in action you can delete the .lock file in a running Pod with kubectl exec and the function will be re-scheduled.

Namespaces

By default all OpenFaaS functions and services are deployed to the openfaas and openfaas-fn namespaces. To alter the namespace use the helm chart.

Ingress

To configure ingress see the helm chart. By default NodePorts are used. These are listed in the deployment guide.

Image pull policy

By default, deployed functions will use an imagePullPolicy of Always, which ensures functions using static image tags are refreshed during an update. If this is not desired behavior, set the image_pull_policy environment variable to an alternative. IfNotPresent is particularly useful when developing locally with minikube. In this case, you can set your local environment to use minikube's docker so faas-cli build builds directly into minikube's image store. faas-cli push is unnecessary in this workflow - use faas-cli build then faas-cli deploy.

Note: When set to Never, only local (or pulled) images will work. When set to IfNotPresent, function deployments may not be updated when using static image tags.

Kubernetes Versions

faas-netes maintainers strive to support as many Kubernetes versions as possible and it is currently compatible with Kubernetes 1.11 and higher. Instructions for OpenShift are also available in the documentation.

Contributing

You can quickly create a standard development environment using

make start-kind

this will use KinD to create a single node cluster and install the latest version of OpenFaaS via the Helm chart.

Check the contributor guide in CONTRIBUTING.md for more details on the workflow, processes, and additional tips.