defmodule FLAME do
@moduledoc ~S"""
FLAME remotely executes your application code on ephemeral nodes.
FLAME allows you to scale your application operations on a granular
level **without rewriting your code**. For example, imagine the following function
in your application that transcodes a video, saves the result to video storage,
and updates the database:
def resize_video_quality(%Video{} = vid) do
path = "#{vid.id}_720p.mp4"
System.cmd("ffmpeg", ~w(-i #{vid.url} -s 720x480 -c:a copy #{path}))
VideoStore.put_file!("videos/#{path}", path)
{1, _} = Repo.update_all(from v in Video, where v.id == ^vid.id, set: [file_720p: path])
{:ok, path}
end
This works great locally and in production under no load, but video transcoding
is necessarily an expensive CPU bound operation. In production, only a
few concurrent users can saturate your CPU and cause your entire application,
web requests, etc, to come to crawl. This is where folks typically reach for
FaaS or external service solutions, but FLAME gives you a better way.
Simply wrap your your existing code in a FLAME function and it will be executed
on a newly spawned, ephemeral node. Using Elixir and Erlang's built in distribution
features, entire function closures, including any state they close over, can be sent
and executed on a remote node:
def resize_video_quality(%Video{} = video) do
FLAME.call(MyApp.FFMpegRunner, fn ->
path = "#{vid.id}_720p.mp4"
System.cmd("ffmpeg", ~w(-i #{vid.url} -s 720x480 -c:a copy #{path}))
VideoStore.put_file!("videos/#{path}", path)
{1, _} = Repo.update_all(from v in Video, where v.id == ^vid.id, set: [file_720p: path])
{:ok, path}
end)
end
That's it! The `%Video{}` struct in this example is captured inside the function
and everything executes on the remotely spawned node, returning the result back to the
parent node when it completes. Repo calls Just Work because the new node booted
your entire application, including the database Repo. As soon as the function is done
executing, the ephemeral node is terminated. This means you can elastically scale
your app as load increases, and only pay for the resources you need at the time.
To support your FLAME calls, you'll need to add a named `FLAME.Pool` to your
application's supervision tree, which we'll discuss next.
## Pools
A `FLAME.Pool` provides elastic runner scaling, allowing a minimum and
maximum number of runners to be configured, and idle'd down as load decreases.
Pools give you elastic scale that maximizes the newly spawned hardware.
At the same time, you also want to avoid spawning unbound resources. You also
want to keep spawned nodes alive for a period of time to avoid the overhead
of booting new ones before idling them down. The following pool configuration
takes care of all of this for you:
children = [
...,
{FLAME.Pool,
name: App.FFMpegRunner,
min: 0,
max: 10,
max_concurrency: 5,
idle_shutdown_after: 30_000},
]
Here we add a `FLAME.Pool` to our application supervision tree, configuring
a minimum of 0 and maximum of 10 runners. This acheives "scale to zero" behavior
while also allowing the pool to scale up to 10 runners when load increases.
Each runner in the case will be able to execute up to 5 concurrent functions.
The runners will shutdown after 30 seconds of inactivity.
Calling a pool is as simple as passing its name to the FLAME functions:
FLAME.call(App.FFMpegRunner, fn -> :operation1 end)
You'll also often want to enable or disable other application services based on whether
your application is being started as child FLAME runner or being run directly.
See the next `Deployment Considerations` section below for details.
## Deployment Considerations
FLAME nodes effectively clone and start your entire application. This is great
because all application services and dependencies are ready to go and be used to
support your FLAME calls; however, You'll also often want to enable or disable
services based on whether your node is running as a FLAME child or not.
For example, there's usually no need to serve your Phoenix endpoint within a FLAME.
You also likely only need a single or small number of database connections instead of
your existing pool size.
To accomplish these you can use `FLAME.Parent.get/0` to conditionally enable or
disable processes in you `application.ex` file:
def start(_type, _args) do
flame_parent = FLAME.Parent.get()
children = [
...,
{FLAME.Pool,
name: Thumbs.FFMpegRunner,
min: 0,
max: 10,
max_concurrency: 5,
idle_shutdown_after: 30_000},
!flame_parent && ThumbsWeb.Endpoint
]
|> Enum.filter(& &1)
opts = [strategy: :one_for_one, name: Thumbs.Supervisor]
Supervisor.start_link(children, opts)
end
Here we filter the Phoenix endpoint from being started when running as a FLAME
child because we have no need to handle web requests in this case.
Or you can use `FLAME.Parent.get/0` to configure your database pool size:
pool_size =
if FLAME.Parent.get() do
1
else
String.to_integer(System.get_env("POOL_SIZE") || "10")
end
config :thumbs, Thumbs.Repo,
...,
pool_size: pool_size
## Backends
The `FLAME.Backend` behavior defines an interface for spawning remote
application nodes and sending functions to them. By default, the
`FLAME.LocalBackend` is used, which is great for development and test
environments, as you can have your code simply execute locally in most cases
and worry about scaling the operation only in production.
For production, FLAME provides the `FLAME.FlyBackend`, which uses
[Fly.io](https://fly.io). Because Fly deploys a containerized machine of
your application, a single Fly API call can boot a machine running your
exact Docker deployment image, allowing closures to be executed across
distributed nodes.
Default backends can be configured in your `config/runtime.exs`:
if config_env() == :prod do
config :flame, :backend, FLAME.FlyBackend
config :flame, FLAME.FlyBackend, token: System.fetch_env!("FLY_API_TOKEN")
...
end
## Termination
FLAME runs a termination process to allow remotely spawned functions time to
complete before the node is terminated. This process is started automatically
with the library. The shutdown timeout by default is 30s, but can be configured
in your application configuration, such as `config/runtime.exs`:
config :flame, :terminator, shutdown_timeout: :timer.seconds(10)
"""
require Logger
@doc """
Calls a function in a remote runner for the given `FLAME.Pool`.
## Options
* `:timeout` - The timeout the caller is willing to wait for a response before an
exit with `:timeout`. Defaults to the configured timeout of the pool.
The executed function will also be terminated on the remote flame if
the timeout is reached.
## Examples
def my_expensive_thing(arg) do
FLAME.call(MyApp.Runner, fn ->
# I'm now doing expensive work inside a new node
# pubsub and repo access all just work
Phoenix.PubSub.broadcast(MyApp.PubSub, "topic", result)
# can return awaitable results back to caller
result
end)
When the caller exits, the remote runner will be terminated.
"""
def call(pool, func, opts) when is_atom(pool) and is_function(func, 0) and is_list(opts) do
FLAME.Pool.call(pool, func, opts)
end
def call(pool, func) when is_atom(pool) and is_function(func, 0) do
FLAME.Pool.call(pool, func, [])
end
@doc """
Casts a function to a remote runner for the given `FLAME.Pool`.
"""
def cast(pool, func) when is_atom(pool) and is_function(func, 0) do
FLAME.Pool.cast(pool, func)
end
@doc """
Places a child process on a remote runner for the given `FLAME.Pool`.
Any child process can be placed on the remote node and it will occupy a space
in the runner's `max_concurrency` allowance. This is useful for long running
workloads that you want to run asynchronously from the parent caller.
*Note*: The placed child process is linked to the caller and will only survive
as long as the caller does. This is to ensure that the child process is never
orphaned permanently on the remote node.
*Note*: The child spec will be rewritten to use a temporary restart strategy
to ensure that the child process is never restarted on the remote node when it
exits. If you want restart behavior, you need to monitor on the parent node and
replace the child yourself.
Accepts any child spec.
## Examples
{:ok, pid} = FLAME.place_child(MyRunner, {MyWorker, []})
"""
def place_child(pool, child_spec, opts \\ []) when is_atom(pool) and is_list(opts) do
FLAME.Pool.place_child(pool, child_spec, opts)
end
end
