A set of guidelines called The Twelve-Factor App are used to create cloud-native applications. An application that is adaptable to different environments, simple to update, and scalable enough to utilize the elastic features of the cloud will be referred to as cloud-native.
Best practices for managing configuration data, abstracting library dependencies and backing services, log streaming, and administration are all included in these twelve factors.
Many of these principles are already incorporated into modern frameworks and methods by design, and others are supported by running applications inside containers.
Spring Boot is a popular framework for building microservice applications. This article will examine the adjustments needed to ensure that a Spring Boot application complies with the twelve factors.
12 Factors App | MicroServices Architecture | Cloud Native Best Practices
Execute the application as one or more stateless processes. If an application’s instances can be created and destroyed at any time without affecting the functionality of the program as a whole, then it is said to adhere to this principle. Our application must store any type of data it generates in any persistent (stateful) datastore in order to achieve and fulfill this principle. But that doesn’t mean we can’t use our application’s in-memory processes. We can use it to store as temporary storage. Simply put, sticky sessions should never be used. Sticky sessions, to put it simply, are when a process captures the session data of a logged-in user in its local memory and then routes all ensuing requests from that user to that same process. Sticky sessions are problematic because they lead to uneven load balancing between the application instances.
Run admin/management tasks as one-off processes. Before the application’s actual flow begins, the majority of applications call for the completion of a few one-off tasks. Since we don’t need to perform these tasks frequently, we usually write a script for them and run it from another environment. On the other hand, the twelve-factor methodology mandates that we integrate these scripts into the actual codebase that is kept under version control. These tasks should also follow twelve-factor principles.
Keep development, staging, and production as similar as possible. Simply put, it means that the environment for both development and production must be as similar as possible. The infrastructure, technologies, and operational procedures must be uniform. This will benefit you in that any mistakes that could eventually occur will do so during the actual development stage rather than being unexpectedly discovered during production. This shortens the time and effort required for development while also assisting with the continuous deployment of our application.
Treat logs as event streams. Logs, which can be of various levels and are typically stored in a file named “logFile” in the storage, are extremely important for understanding how an application operates internally. Our twelve-factor application should ideally not be concerned about storing the logs. Every time a request is received by the system, corresponding logs are created, and they are viewed as a series of events that can be used to debug when a problem arises.
Strictly separate built and run stages. Build, release, and run are the three non-overlapping, independent phases that make up the deployment of your application. The code is compiled during the build phase to produce the artifact, such as a JAr or WAR file, at the end. The configurations for a specific environment are added to the artifact file created at the conclusion of the first phase during the release phase. Running the application instance is part of the final phase.
Q1: What does “program to interfaces, not implementations” mean?
Coding against an interface entails that a factory will always supply an Interface object to the client code.
Any instance that the factory returned would be of the Interface type, which all factory candidate classes had to implement. In this manner, the client program need not be concerned with implementation, as the interface signature specifies all possible operations.
This method can be used to alter a program’s behavior in real time. Additionally, from a maintenance perspective, it enables you to create much better programs.
Q2: What are the differences between continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment?
Instead of storing data with the application, it should always be logged to a separate location.
It is imperative to make your application failure tolerant. Your app should be able to shut down gracefully. If it crashes or restarts, the process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
A good developer will ensure that all services are of the highest quality and are self-sustaining and scalable. In this manner, the developer can easily scale the entire application if the load increases.
The environments for development and production should be as similar as possible. They should use the same backing services to minimize disparity.
An average team of developers used to have no trouble developing and deploying applications on one or a few servers. However, as cloud computing has grown in popularity, managing the application across numerous servers, allocating load, and attending to client needs have all become more challenging. The difficulty of creating apps and SaaS (Software as a Service) increased with the development of technology.
FAQ
What are three of the 12 Factor App principles?
- I. Codebase. One codebase tracked in revision control, many deploys.
- II. Dependencies. Explicitly declare and isolate dependencies. …
- III. Config. …
- IV. Backing Services. …
- V. Build, Release, Run. …
- VI. Processes. …
- VII. Port Binding. …
- VIII. Concurrency.
Is 12 Factor app still relevant?
Before containerization gained widespread adoption, the 12 Factors for designing applications were established. Although the way we build apps has changed due to the development of Kubernetes, containers, and cloud-native application frameworks, the 12 Factors are still relevant in the current environment.
What are the 12 factors of microservices?
- 4.1. Codebase. …
- 4.2. Dependencies. …
- 4.3. Configurations. …
- 4.4. Backing Services. …
- 4.5. Build, Release and Run. …
- 4.6. Processes. …
- 4.7. Port Binding. …
- 4.8. Concurrency.
Which of the following are considered as backing service in a 12 Factor app?
Any network service that the application uses regularly as part of its normal operation is a backing service. Examples include SMTP services for outbound email (such as Postfix), datastores (such as MySQL or CouchDB), messaging/queueing systems (such as RabbitMQ or Beanstalkd), and caching systems (such as Memcached).
