Chapter 7. Compute Options on Bluemix

Compute capability provides Bluemix users with infrastructure resources with which they can deploy and run their applications. There are different flavors of compute supported on Bluemix. At the time of writing, the different compute options available are:

• Cloud Foundry applications (also referred to as instant runtimes)

• Containers (based on Docker)

• Virtual servers (based on Open Stack APIs)

• OpenWhisk (for event-based applications)

Note

At the time of writing, OpenWhisk is offered as experimental.

When you log in to Bluemix, and select the Compute option, you will see the different compute options available on Bluemix, as shown in the following screenshot:

In this chapter, we will learn more about these compute options. Let's start with Cloud Foundry applications.

Cloud Foundry applications

As explained in earlier chapters, Bluemix is a Cloud Foundry-based platform as a service offering, which means that its application infrastructure and automation is enabled by the Cloud Foundry project.

In earlier chapters, we have seen how to work with Cloud Foundry-based applications on Bluemix, we have also seen how we can work with cf cli or Bluemix UI to create Cloud Foundry-based apps and deploy them on Bluemix. In this chapter, we will look at yet another way to work with Cloud Foundry-based applications.

Working with the eclipse plugin for Bluemix

In this section, we will learn to use eclipse IDE for the development of apps and see how the Bluemix plugin for eclipse facilitates for a seamless and easy integration with your public Bluemix account.

Installing the eclipse plugin for Bluemix

The minimum version of eclipse required for the plugin is eclipse Luna (4.4.1) and above.

Tip

Refer to the plugin details at https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/ibm-eclipse...

Containers

You can run Docker containers on Bluemix by using the Containers compute option. Containers are a great option when you require resource isolation and the portability of your applications and application runtime environments. IBM Containers are based upon Docker container technology. With containers, you have the ability to move dockerized or containerized application environments quickly from development to test, pre-production or production. Additionally, with containers, you can also build highly available applications by using what is called container groups, which are clustered containers, having the same application environment or built from same container image. You can also enable auto recovery while creating a container group; by doing so, new container instances are automatically created if and when any of the already existing containers in the container group go down. A container group can be created even with a single instance of container.

Note

To get a detailed understanding...

Virtual servers

Virtual servers are a solution to spawn computing resources with specifications that suite your workload. IBM offers compute capability on Bluemix using virtual servers based on Open Stack. Virtual servers give users the flexibility to develop and host applications in an environment that is fully under their control, there are no restrictions in terms of operating system, supporting software, or other resources when using virtual servers.

Note

To learn more about how to create and use virtual servers, you can refer to https://ibm.biz/BdrxM4 .

From the Bluemix dashboard's Compute category, click Virtual Servers to go to the screen where you can get started with virtual servers. Click Get started now! to start creating the virtual server:

Note

At the time of writing this book, virtual servers on Bluemix are in beta. This beta support for new Bluemix users is closed, hence we will not be able to take you through the steps of creating the virtual server on Bluemix; however, to...

OpenWhisk

OpenWhisk is an event-driven compute platform. OpenWhisk allows application developers to write and host application logic agnostic of the infrastructure on which it will run. This application logic is then triggered through events that can come from Bluemix services or other applications or sources. Such application logic are also called as actions. The uniqueness of this compute platform is that it is triggered only when an event occurs, which means that the trigger caused by an event will result in the application on OpenWhisk to be deployed and executed; if no event occurs the application unit does not run and hence does not use any infrastructure resources:

Note

At the time of writing this book, OpenWhisk is in beta. To know the scope for use and support for experimental services, you can refer to http://ibm.co/2dMu4f7 .

You will see the editor, where you can write the application logic or actions. A sample Hello World action written in JavaScript is provided. You can make...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned about the different compute options offered on IBM Bluemix. You also learnt about the differences between them and when to use which compute option. You learnt how to work with the Eclipse Bluemix plugin to develop and deploy cloud foundry applications. Further we learnt about creating a single container on Bluemix using an existing image from IBM's private registry. Finally, you learnt about OpenWhisk compute platform for building event-driven applications. This chapter would have given you a good understanding on how to get started with the different compute options on Bluemix. For further examples and how-to(s) you can refer to the links given in each of the sections in this chapter.

In the next chapter, we will learn about the security services available on Bluemix and how to use one of the security services in your application deployed on Bluemix, to provide an authentication service for your application.