Vert.x is a toolkit for building reactive applications on the JVM using an event-driven and non-blocking architecture. It allows building microservices that are small, independently deployable units with single responsibilities. The presenter discusses their experience using Vert.x over 3 years to build scalable e-learning applications at Malmberg, highlighting benefits like polyglot support, lightweight communication between microservices, and challenges around blocking calls and upgrades. Examples of Vert.x applications and deployment tools are provided.

1. @bjschrijver
Building microservices with Vert.x
Bert Jan Schrijver
bertjan@jpoint.nl

2. Let’s meet
Bert Jan Schrijver
@bjschrijver

3. - Introduction
- Why Vert.x?
- Basic demo
- Deep dive
- Advanced demo
- Microservices with Vert.x
- Vert.x in practice
Outline

4. - Introduction
- Why Vert.x?
- Deep dive
- Demo
- Microservices with Vert.x
Introduction
Malmberg is an educational
publisher in the Netherlands.
Malmberg is building modern,
rich and scalable e-learning
applications using Java 8, Vert.x,
AngularJS and MongoDB,
running on Amazon
cloud services.

5. Vert.x basics
@bjschrijver

6. - Toolkit for building reactive applications on the JVM
- General purpose application framework
- Swiss army knife for building modern and scalable
web apps
- Event-driven, non-blocking
- Polyglot
- Lightweight and fast
- Fun to work with!
Vert.x: the basics

7. - We love open source
- Powerful module system
- Reactive characteristics
Why did we choose Vert.x?

8. Vert.x is reactive

9. Demo
@bjschrijver

10. Vert.x in depth
@bjschrijver

11. - Verticle, application, instance, JVM:
Vert.x in depth
Host
JVM
Vert.x instance
Verticle Verticle
Verticle Verticle
Event Bus
JVM
Vert.x instance
Verticle Verticle
Verticle Verticle

12. - Verticle, application, instance, JVM:
Host
Vert.x in depth
Host
JVM
Vert.x instance
Verticle Verticle
Verticle Verticle
Event Bus
JVM
Vert.x instance
Verticle Verticle
Verticle Verticle

13. - Event driven and non blocking event loop
- Multi-reactor pattern
- Actor-like concurrency
- Distributed event bus
- Management and monitoring built-in
Vert.x in depth

14. - Both request/response and publish/
subscribe
- Messages are received by Handlers
- All Vert.x instances have access to the
event bus
- Verticles interact using messages
Vert.x event bus

15. - Never ever ever block the event loop
- Need to to blocking stuff? Use a worker
Vert.x’s golden rule

16. Source: http://www.slideshare.net/clement.escoffier/vertx-31-be-reactive-on-the-jvm-but-not-only-in-java
Vert.x in one slide

17. Demo
@bjschrijver

18. Vert.x & microservices
@bjschrijver

19. - Small in size, single responsibility
- Runs in its own process
- Has its own data store
- Distributed by default
- Independently develop, deploy, upgrade, scale
- Potentially heterogeneous/polyglot
- Light-weight communication
Anatomy of a microservice

20. microserviceAnatomy of a Vert.x module
- Small in size, single responsibility
- Runs in its own process
- Has its own data store
- Distributed by default
- Independently develop, deploy, upgrade, scale
- Potentially heterogeneous/polyglot
- Light-weight communication

21. Vert.x in practice
@bjschrijver

22. - Organisation structure:
- Core platform team (infrastructure)
- Core modules team (Vert.x modules)
- Product teams
- Deployment model: AWS, Nginx, MongoDB
- Multiple lightweight artifacts
3 years of Vert.x: situation

23. 3 years of Vert.x: deployments
- Rolled our own deployment tooling and
open sourced it
(https://github.com/msoute/vertx-deploy-tools)
- Controlled from Jenkins
- Zero-downtime deployments
- Microservice deployments

24. - Very suitable for test driven development
- Integration tests with embedded MongoDB
- Good cooperation from the Vert.x team
3 years of Vert.x: experiences

25. - Callback hell
- Java 8 helped a LOT
- Rx fixes the remaining issues
- Blocking the event loop
- Scaling / JVM overhead
- Debugging
- Static code analysis
- Upgrade from Vert.x 2 to Vert.x 3
3 years of Vert.x: challenges

26. Almost there ;-)
@bjschrijver

27. - Vert.x: toolkit for reactive applications on
the JVM
- Polyglot, event-driven
- Very suitable for building microservices
Summary

28. - https://github.com/bertjan/vertx3-examples
- http://vertx.io
- http://vertx.io/blog/my-first-vert-x-3-
application
- https://github.com/vert-x3/vertx-examples
- http://github.com/msoute/vertx-deploy-tools
Resources
Don’t worry, I’ll tweet a link to the slide deck ;-)

29. Q & A
@bjschrijver

30. Thanks!
@bjschrijver
bertjan@jpoint.nl
All pictures belong
to their respective authors