Slides from a presentation to Rust Dublin Meetup group where I discussed why you should look at rust for backend services. Which Rust HTTP framework to use and how to deploy that onto OpenShift knative.

1. HTTP Services in Rust*
1Think 2018 / DOC ID / Month XX, 2018 / © 2018 IBM Corporation
@dhigit9
Anton Whalley – Cloud Technical Professional
*Focusing on Containers

2. 2
Running Order
• Benefits of Rust for HTTP Services
• Select a Rust HTTP Framework
• Align software development process
@dhigit9

3. A standard way to package an application and
all its dependencies so that it can be moved
between environments and run without
changes.
Containers work by isolating the differences
between applications inside the container so
that everything outside the container can be
standardized.
The “Goldilocks of Virtualization”
Containers
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service | ©2018 IBM Corporation

4. What are containers? VMs vs Containers
Containers are isolated, but share OS and, where
appropriate, bins/libraries …faster, less overhead
Host OS
Server
Guest
OS
Bins/
Libs
VM
Hypervisor (Type 2)
App
A
AppA’
Host OS
Server
Bins/Libs
AppA
Bins/Libs
AppA’
AppB’
AppB’
Container
App
A`
Guest
OS
Bins/
Libs
App
A`
Guest
OS
Bins/
Libs
App
B
Guest
OS
Bins/
Libs
App
B`
Guest
OS
Bins/
Libs

5. What industries do you work in using Rust Full time?
https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/04/17/Rust-survey-2019.html
Rust Largest Use Case - Backend Web Applications
@dhigit9

6. 6© 2020 IBM Corporation
Container Adoption Continues to Grow
@dhigit9

7. The Hidden Truth - Runtimes in Containers
@dhigit9

8. 8
Runtime Mem CPU Processes/CPU
Java Spring Boot ~87Mb ~20m 50
Node.JS Express ~47Mb ~10m 100
Rust Tide ~1Mb ~1m 1000
Cold Service Resource Utilisation
https://venshare.com/blog/runtime-overhead-on-openshift/ @dhigit9

9. 9
Deployment Density Solutions For Runtimes
isolated-vm Piscina
Java Node.js
@dhigit9

10. 10
The Trade Off for New Runtimes
New Software Development LifeCycle
• Code Refactoring
• New Tools
New Operational Constraints
• Runtime Characteristics
• Debugging
Security Implications
Still uses GCed Runtime (Java/Node.js/Go)
@dhigit9

11. The Truth about GC
https://blog.discord.com/why-discord-is-switching-from-go-to-rust-a190bbca2b1f
@dhigit9

12. Rust Compared to GCed Runtime (Go)
https://blog.discord.com/why-discord-is-switching-from-go-to-rust-a190bbca2b1f
@dhigit9

13. 13
• Benefits of Rust for HTTP Services ✅
• Select a HTTP Framework
• Align software development process
@dhigit9

14. 14Think 2018 / DOC ID / Month XX, 2018 / © 2018 IBM Corporation
Select a HTTP
Framework?
Rocket
WARP
Tide

15. 15Think 2018 / DOC ID / Month XX, 2018 / © 2018 IBM Corporation
https://www.lpalmieri.com/posts/2020-07-04-choosing-a-rust-web-framework-2020-edition/
Framework Total Downloads Daily Download
Acitx-web ~1250k ~3000
Rocket ~525k ~1000
Warp ~435k ~3000
Tide ~47k ~300
Adoption

16. 16Think 2018 / DOC ID / Month XX, 2018 / © 2018 IBM Corporation
https://www.lpalmieri.com/posts/2020-07-04-choosing-a-rust-web-framework-2020-edition/
Runtime Total Downloads Daily Download
tokio ~9600k ~30k
async-std ~600k ~4k
Async Support
Framework Runtime
actix-web tokio
rocket (0.5.x) tokio
tide async-std
warp tokio

17. 17Think 2018 / DOC ID / Month XX, 2018 / © 2018 IBM Corporation
https://www.lpalmieri.com/posts/2020-07-04-choosing-a-rust-web-framework-2020-edition/
Community Crates
Framework # results
rocket 178
actix-web 113
warp 57
tide 20

18. Actix-web Rocket
Tide Warp
Contributor Ratio
Contributor Ratio – Github commit log

19. 19
Picking a Framework Conclusion
Align your values with the framework!
Tide
Fast and friendly HTTP server framework
Collaboration focus
Active Discord
Architecture similar to Node.js middleware
@dhigit9

20. 20
• Benefits of Rust for HTTP Services ✅
• Select a HTTP Framework ✅
• Align software development process
@dhigit9

21. Problems with Kubernetes
21© 2020 IBM Corporation
I want to deploy my container-based
workloads easily, quickly and securely
to a platform that:
… dynamically scales my containers
according to load.
... has monitoring, logging and a service
mesh “built in”.
… gives me the a seemless developer
experience.
… does not “lock me in” and is built on
open-source projects.
@dhigit9https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNa3xK2GFKY

22. 22Source: https://thenewstack.io/ux-is-kubernetes-biggest-short-term-challenge/
Knative addresses 4 of the top 5 pain points of Kubernetes
*Top areas the Core Kubernetes Project Needs to Address in 2020, Thenewstack
@dhigit9

23. Introducing Knative
Knative is a serverless 2.0 environment that extends Kubernetes
Middleware components
Modern, source-centric, and container-based applications
Can run anywhere:
on premises, in the cloud, or even in a third-party data center.
@dhigit9

24. • Knative vs Serverless Platforms
User defined resource management with sensible defaults
Container approach gives wider language support
No Execution Timeout
More portability options
@dhigit9

25. Knative overview
25

26. Knative overview (cont.)
26

27. © 2019 IBM Corporation
Appsody – Knative Software Development
Jane: Lead
Enterprise
Developer
Champ: Solution
Architect
Champ provides pre-configured application stacks
Jane selects a stack she and her team want to work with and get to work right away
Kubernetes native
CI/CD pipeline
Knative in any hybrid multicloud environment
twitter: @dhigit9

28. Appsody – Serverless Workflow twitter: @dhigit9

29. Demo
29

30. ● Rust with Appsody Tutorial
https://appsody.dev/tutorials/ServerlessRust/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asywye-eDfg
● Appsody
https://appsody.dev/
● Create your own Appsody stack tutorial
https://developer.ibm.com/technologies/containers/tutorials/create-appsody-stack/
● CNCF Serverless
https://github.com/cncf/wg-serverless/blob/master/whitepapers/serverless-
overview/cncf_serverless_whitepaper_v1.0.pdf
● IBM Cloud OpenShift
https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/openshift?topic=openshift-openshift_tutorial
● Install Knative on OpenShift
https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.3/serverless/installing_serverless/installing-
knative-serving.html
Follow Up Links
30
twitter: @dhigit9