Follow a nodejs application through Kubernetes, Nomad, Docker, and Pkg. Maybe learn a thing about how to think about systems along the way!

1. Hi, I’m Michael Lange.
I work at HashiCorp.
he/him

3. 😡🧊🌧

5. You may know me
from the Nomad UI.

6. I write JavaScript for the browser
▪ A high-level language
▪ The loosest types with judicious coercion
▪ No memory management
▪ No filesystem
▪ Computers are an implementation detail

7. Copyright © 2021 HashiCorp
I just want to ship
my code.
Waypoint, Nomad, and other things.

8. Netlify Vercel
Just push your code and receive a website. A+ dev experience

9. Black box
What happens inside?
None of our business.

10. Black box
▪ Data plane (customer sites)
▪ Control plane
▪ Some sorta scheduler
▪ Lotsa DNS for static files
▪ CDN, file propagation
▪ Cgi-bin? Lol?
▪ A bunch of engineers of all
varieties

11. That’s just business.

12. What happens when you have
your own internal platform?

13. An extreme example
✨externalities✨

14. Consider the whole system

15. Ops
Friendly

16. It’s possible to go too far the
other way.

17. Enter Waypoint
Consistent, dev-friendly workflows decoupled
from platforms.

18. With Waypoint, you get a single config file
CODE EDITOR
project = "example-nodejs"
app "example-nodejs" {
labels = {
"service" = "example-nodejs",
"env" = "dev"
}
build {
use "pack" {}
registry {
use "docker" {
image = "example-nodejs"
tag = "1"
local = true
}
}
}
deploy {
use "kubernetes" {
probe_path = "/"
}
}
release {
use "kubernetes" {
}
}
}

19. Demo One
NodeJS + Kubernetes

20. What you didn’t see is what’s interesting
1. No Dockerfile or docker-compose.yml
2. No ReplicaSet
3. No Deployment
4. No Service
5. No kubectl
6. No YAML

21. The Power of Abstractions 💪
Build Registry Deploy Release
package.json
*.js
*.ejs
*.png
Source Code
Buildpacks Container Image
Hub/ECR/GCR ReplicaSet
Service
kubectl apply
Deployment

22. Let’s Re-platform!
Nomad
Kubernetes

23. Before…
Build Registry Deploy Release
package.json
*.js
*.ejs
*.png

24. …After
Build Registry Deploy Release
package.json
*.js
*.ejs
*.png
HCL
Built in to
service jobs

25. And the Waypoint File
CODE EDITOR
project = "example-nodejs"
app "example-nodejs" {
build {
use "pack" {}
registry {
use "docker" {
image = "nodejs-example"
tag = "1"
local = true
}
}
}
deploy {
use "nomad" {
datacenter = "dc1"
}
}
}

26. And the Waypoint File
CODE EDITOR
project = "example-nodejs"
app "example-nodejs" {
build {
use "pack" {}
registry {
use "docker" {
image = "nodejs-example"
tag = "1"
local = true
}
}
}
deploy {
use "nomad" {
datacenter = "dc1"
}
}
}
project = "example-nodejs"
app "example-nodejs" {
labels = {
"service" = "example-nodejs",
"env" = "dev"
}
build {
use "pack" {}
registry {
use "docker" {
image = "example-nodejs"
tag = "1"
local = true
}
}
}
deploy {
use "kubernetes" {
probe_path = "/"
}
}
release {
use "kubernetes" {
}
}
}

27. Demo Two
NodeJS + Nomad

28. Takeaways
From the perspective of a product engineer
1. No workflow change!!!
1. waypoint init && waypoint up
2. Very little code change
3. Minor conceptual changes to output
4. Both Kubernetes and Nomad are built for common abstractions

29. Bigger Picture
Abstractions
All
The
Way
Down

30. Deprecated? How could this be???

31. Anatomy of Docker
From https://docs.docker.com/get-started/overview/

32. The Power of Abstractions!!
From https://docs.docker.com/get-started/overview/
Container
Runtime
Interface

33. Want to go deeper?
From https://containerd.io/
:)

34. Wait a second…
From https://containerd.io/
>:(

35. Copyright © 2021 HashiCorp
I just want to ship
my code.
Waypoint, Nomad, and other things.

36. What
else can be removed?
Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss

37. What
will it take?
Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss

38. First, why containers?
Workflows, not technologies
1. Immutability
2. Portability
3. Isolation
4. Resource limits

39. A look at Nomad’s
Task Driver Model
A loosely abstracted,
unopinionated, pluggable
runtime model
Ranging from raw processes to
VMs to containers.
Many are builtin, many are
community owned.

40. The Nomad exec driver
1. Builds a chroot
2. And a cgroup
3. Configurable resource limits
4. All on demand

41. Immutability
Portability
Isolation
Resource limits

42. Immutability
Portability
Isolation
Resource limits

43. How do we get immutability?

44. How do we get immutability?
We make a binary!
https://github.com/vercel/pkg

45. But what
about non-
executable
files?
Annotate your
package.json file to bake
files into your binary.
CODE EDITOR
{
"name": "node-js-getting-started",
"version": "0.3.0",
"description": "A sample Node.js app using Express 4",
"engines": {
"node": "12.x"
},
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "node index.js",
"test": "node test.js"
},
"dependencies": {
"directory-tree": "^2.2.5",
"ejs": "^2.5.6",
"express": "^4.15.2"
},
"devDependencies": {
"got": "^11.3.0",
"tape": "^4.7.0"
},
"keywords": [
"node",
"express"
],
"license": "MIT",
"bin": "index.js",
"pkg": {
"assets": [
"views/**/*",
"public/**/*"
]
}
}

46. Immutability
Portability
Isolation
Resource limits

47. File Servers are
tried and true.

48. Immutability
Portability
Isolation
Resource limits

49. Putting it all together
▪ Buildpacks (Dockerfile)
▪ Container Registry
▪ docker driver
pkg (binary)
File server (probably S3)
exec Driver

50. Demo Three
NodeJS + Pkg + Nomad

51. Nomad with Docker
Build Registry Deploy Release
package.json
*.js
*.ejs
*.png
HCL
Built in to
service jobs

52. The Power of ABSTRACTIONS!!! 💪
Build Registry Deploy Release
package.json
*.js
*.ejs
*.png
HCL
Built in to
service jobs
pkg BIN
:)

53. No workflow
change.

54. Docker Pkg
Let’s review some stats
Build Time 55.50s
Artifact Size 1075MB
Build Time 4.67s
Artifact Size 46MB

55. Safety NOT
Guaranteed
▪ Not ready for
production
▪ Check out the code
though!
https://github.com/dingoeatingfuzz/waypoint-plugin-pkg

56. The moral of the story
1. Consider the whole system
2. Well defined interfaces help us all
3. Abstractions are all around us
4. Challenge those abstractions from time to time
Make time and space for this R&D