Application hosting overview - Serverless App Engine - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Serverless App Engine (SAE) allows you to deploy and host applications by using code packages or images without the need to maintain the underlying infrastructure. SAE helps you get started with containers with ease. You can focus on designing and building applications without the need to manage and maintain clusters and servers. SAE helps you manage the lifecycle of the applications and maximize resource utilization. SAE also provides monitoring and O&M capabilities. This topic describes the application hosting feature, and the application types and deployment methods that are supported by SAE.

Application deployment methods

The following table describes the mainstream applications and deployment methods that are supported by SAE.

Application	Deployment method	References
Native Spring Cloud application	WAR, JAR, and image	Host Spring Cloud applications to SAE
Native Dubbo application	WAR, JAR, and image	Host Dubbo applications to SAE
HSF	WAR, JAR, and image	Host an HSF application to SAE
Applications in programming languages other than Java, PHP, and Python	Image	Deploy applications in other languages by using images in the SAE console
PHP application	Image and ZIP	Deploy a PHP application by using an image in the SAE console Deploy a PHP application by using a ZIP package in the SAE console
Python application	Image and ZIP	Use an image to deploy a Python application in the SAE console Deploy a Python application by using a ZIP package in the SAE console

Applications that are developed by using Spring Cloud, Dubbo, and High-Speed Service Framework (HSF) frameworks can be deployed to SAE. Application runtime environments vary based on the deployment method that you select.
- If you deploy a Spring Cloud or Dubbo application by using a WAR package, select a runtime environment of an apache-tomcat version.
- If you deploy a Spring Cloud or Dubbo application by using a JAR package, select Standard Java Application Runtime Environment.
- If you deploy an HSF application by using a WAR or JAR package, select a runtime environment of an EDAS-Container version.
SAE allows you to host applications that are built by using multiple programming languages, such as Java, PHP, Python, Node.js, and Go.
SAE allows you to deploy applications in the SAE console and by calling API operations. SAE also allows you to use continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) tools, such as Jenkins and Terraform, and plug-ins, such as Maven, IntelliJ IDEA, and Eclipse, to automatically deploy applications after you submit code.

Important

The first time you deploy an application to SAE, you must create an application in the SAE console to push business code to the application.

Advanced settings for application deployment

SAE provides multiple advanced settings, such as the startup command, environment variables, host binding, health check, log collection, and persistent storage. You can configure advanced settings when or after you create an application based on your business requirements. If you configure advanced settings after you create the application, the application is restarted to enable the settings. To prevent unpredictable errors such as business interruptions, we recommend that you configure advanced settings during off-peak hours.

Java

Advanced setting	References
Startup Command Settings	Configure a startup command
Java Tomcat Settings	Configure Java Tomcat parameters Note You can configure Tomcat settings only if the Application Deployment Method parameter is set to Deployment with WAR Packages.
Environment Variable Settings	Configure environment variables
Service Registration and Discovery	Configure application access based on Kubernetes Service names Use the SAE built-in Nacos registry
Hosts Binding Settings	Configure hosts binding
Application Health Check	Configure application health checks
Application Outbound/Inbound Internet Access	Bind an EIP to a NAT gateway Enable Internet access for SAE instances based on EIPs
Application Lifecycle Management	Configure application lifecycle management
Log Collection Service	Configure log collection to Simple Log Service Configure log collection to ApsaraMQ for Kafka
Persistent Storage	Configure NAS storage
Configuration Management	Inject configurations
Graceful Start and Shutdown of Microservices	Configure graceful start of microservices Configure graceful shutdown of microservices Note If you set the Application Deployment Method parameter to Deployment with WAR Packages or Deployment with JAR Packages, and set the Application Runtime Environment to EDAS-Container-XXX, this section is not displayed.

PHP

Advanced setting	References
Modify php.ini Configuration File	Configure a configuration file for a PHP application
Startup Command Settings	Configure a startup command
Environment Variable Settings	Configure environment variables
Service Registration and Discovery	Configure application access based on Kubernetes Service names Use the SAE built-in Nacos registry
Hosts Binding Settings	Configure hosts binding
Application Health Check	Configure application health checks
Application Outbound/Inbound Internet Access	Bind an EIP to a NAT gateway Enable Internet access for SAE instances based on EIPs
Application Lifecycle Management	Configure application lifecycle management
Log Collection Service	Configure log collection to Simple Log Service Configure log collection to ApsaraMQ for Kafka
Persistent Storage	Configure NAS storage
Configuration Management	Inject configurations

Python

Advanced setting	References
Startup Command Settings	Configure a startup command
Environment Variable Settings	Configure environment variables
Application Monitoring	Enable or disable application monitoring for an application
Service Registration and Discovery	Configure application access based on Kubernetes Service names Use the SAE built-in Nacos registry
Hosts Binding Settings	Configure hosts binding
Application Health Check	Configure application health checks
Application Lifecycle Management	Configure application lifecycle management
Application Outbound/Inbound Internet Access	Bind an EIP to a NAT gateway Enable Internet access for SAE instances based on EIPs
Log Collection Service	Configure log collection to Simple Log Service Configure log collection to ApsaraMQ for Kafka
Persistent Storage	Configure NAS storage
Configuration Management	Inject configurations

Other programming languages, such as Node.js and Go

Advanced setting	References
Startup Command Settings	Configure a startup command
Environment Variable Settings	Configure environment variables
Application Monitoring	Enable or disable application monitoring for an application
Service Registration and Discovery	Configure application access based on Kubernetes Service names Use the SAE built-in Nacos registry
Hosts Binding Settings	Configure hosts binding
Application Health Check	Configure application health checks
Application Lifecycle Management	Configure application lifecycle management
Application Outbound/Inbound Internet Access	Configure a NAT gateway for an SAE application to enable Internet access Enable Internet access for SAE instances based on EIPs
Log Collection Service	Configure log collection to Simple Log Service Collect logs to ApsaraMQ for Kafka
Persistent Storage	Configure NAS storage
Configuration Management	Inject configurations

Features of application hosting

After you host an application to SAE, you can manage the lifecycle of the application in the SAE console with a few clicks. This simplifies the O&M process.

Feature	Description
Resource management	Namespaces are used to logically isolate applications and ConfigMaps are used to store application configurations. For more information, see Manage a namespace.
Application deployment	Application creation and deployment: After you develop an application, you can create and deploy the application in the SAE console, and configure advanced settings for the application based on your business requirements. For more information, see Create an application. Plug-in-based deployment: SAE allows you to deploy applications by using Maven, IntelliJ IDEA, and Eclipse plug-ins. For more information, see Use plug-ins to deploy applications. CI/CD tool-based deployment: CI and CD are required during the iteration of an application. SAE allows you to implement CI/CD by using Jenkins and Terraform. For more information, see Use CI/CD tools to deploy applications and Terraform overview. Upgrade and rollback: After you create an application, the application must be iterated and upgraded. If issues exist in an upgraded version, you must roll back the application to an earlier version. For more information, see Upgrade and roll back applications.
Application management	After you deploy an application to SAE, you can modify the instance type, security group, and vSwitch of the application based on your business requirements. For more information, see Manage applications.
Application access	After you deploy an application to SAE, the application needs to complete specific business tasks by accessing resources over the Internet or across virtual private clouds (VPCs). In this case, you can bind Server Load Balancer (SLB) instances, configure a NAT gateway and an elastic IP address (EIP), or associate application instances with EIPs. For more information, see Application access.
Application O&M	SAE provides the webshell feature to help you perform basic O&M tasks. For example, you can upload and download logs to perform routine checks on applications. If an instance fails to start, you can use the one-click debugging feature of SAE to identify and resolve the issue. For more information, see Application O&M.
One-click start and stop	SAE allows you to start and stop multiple applications that are developed in the development, testing, or staging environment in a namespace at a time. For more information, see Use the one-click start and stop feature to manage applications.
Scaling	You can change the number of application instances to adjust the compute capacity of an application based on the workloads of your application. If the workload of an application instance is higher than expected, you can use the manual scaling feature to add instances. If the application is idle, you can reduce the number of instances in the application to improve resource utilization and cost-effectiveness. Auto scaling: If you do not need to immediately scale your instances, we recommend that you use the auto scaling feature. For example, you can configure auto scaling policies to scale instances based on periodic traffic changes. For more information, see Configure an auto scaling policy. Manual scaling: If you need to immediately scale your instances, we recommend that you use the manual scaling feature. For example, you can scale out instances when unexpected traffic surges occur. For more information, see Manually scale instances.
Log management	You can use logs to identify issues when you perform O&M tasks on applications. For more information, see Log management.
Monitoring and alerting	SAE integrates with Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) to help you monitor key performance metrics for your applications that are deployed on SAE. For more information, see Monitoring.
Distributed configuration management	SAE allows you to manage application configurations in a centralized manner. You can extract a large number of parameters and variables that are generated during application development into configuration files and upload the files to SAE. For more information, see Configuration management overview.