No one will be surprised if you say that the cloud train has been going for a while and is becoming quicker by the day. As a result, you must be able to respond rapidly to changes in your environment in order to meet your client’s requests with the least amount of effort and time.
Being as cloud-native as you can is the preferred strategy for doing this. The building blocks that your cloud provider offers must therefore be your goal. AWS Serverless Application Model is one of the building pieces that the AWS cloud provides.
The AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) will be discussed in this article, along with some of its advantages.
What is Serverless And Why Should You Care?
As a side note, you might want to know why people are interested in serverless design. Let’s define serverless first.
A service like AWS Lambda is used to handle the loading and execution of the application code as well as the provisioning of adequate computing resources in a serverless architecture, according to the most basic definition. The application is made up of functions that are triggered by events.
The primary benefits of serverless architectures include:
1.) Developers’ ability to concentrate solely on the functionality and coding of the application.
2.) A straight line connecting an application’s cost of operation and its code efficiency.
3.) A system that only executes code when necessary.
4.) When using event-driven programs that just require quick, single-event transactions, there is a considerable advantage.
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What is the Serverless Application Model?
AWS Serverless application model (SAM) is a framework for developing serverless applications. SAM establishes development practices, keeping all code for a serverless application within an analogous repository structure. To facilitate serverless development, AWS SAM uses a combination of configuration files, pattern models, and command-line tools. Through a strong build and deployment system, developers can centralize their efforts, eliminating code duplication and complexity.
This framework accommodates 2 components:
- SAM template specification
- SAM command-line interface
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AWS SAM template specification
Serverless applications are defined using the SAM Template specification. It offers a simple syntax to describe the events, configurations, permissions, APIs, and functions that make up a serverless application. Your serverless application’s AWS SAM template file is a single, deployable, versioned entity.
1. Can combine other non-SAM CloudFormation resources, such as Amazon S3, Amazon Kinesis, and AWS Step Functions, within the same template.
2. Encourages the usage of outputs, mappings, parameters, etc.
3. Supports intrinsic functions, such as join, select, split, ref, sub, and join.
4. ImportValue can be used with YAML or JSON, with the exception of RestApiId, Policies, and StageName elements.
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AWS SAM Command Line Interface (CLI)
The SAM CLI is used to create serverless applications that are defined by AWS SAM templates.
- SAM CLI provides commands that verify and make sure that AWS SAM template files are written consistently with the specification.
- SAM CLI provides Lambda-like execution environments locally in order that you’ll invoke Lambda functions locally, and step-through debugs them.
- It provides the commands to package and deploy serverless applications to the AWS cloud, and so on.
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The following are the foremost used commands within the SAM CLI:
- sam init – For the first-time user, this command without any parameters creates a Hello World application. you’ll select the language (e.g., NodeJS or Python) during which you would like to get the code. The command generates a preconfigured AWS SAM template and example application code.
- sam local invoke and sam local start-api – These commands create Lambda-like execution environments in local to enable the local testing and debugging, before deploying it to the cloud.
- sam logs – As functions are part of an AWS CloudFormation stack, you can use this command to fetch logs generated by your AWS Lambda function based on the function’s logical id. This can help you with testing and debugging your application in the AWS cloud.
- sam package – This command is used to bundle your application code and dependencies into a zip or jar file also known as “deployment package”. The deployment package is required to upload your application to the S3 bucket to be used by the AWS Lambda function.
- sam deploy – This command is used to deploy a serverless application to the AWS cloud. It creates the AWS resources and sets permissions and other configurations that are defined in the AWS SAM template.
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Benefits of AWS SAM
AWS SAM not only creates Lambda resources but many other AWS resources through the template configuration. it’s several advantages over the essential CloudFormation templates:
- Single-Deployment Configuration
AWS SAM operates on a single CloudFormation stack and unifies all relevant resources and components. It is deployed as a single versioned entity that installs all connected resources at once and shares configuration (such as RAM and timeouts) with other resources. - Extension of AWS CloudFormation
In addition to AWS CloudFormation is AWS SAM. It can leverage all of the AWS cloud formations resources, intrinsic functions, and other template capabilities. Both AWS CloudFormation resources and AWS SAM resources can be found in the Resources section of AWS SAM templates. When compared to CloudFormation, it offers more concision and requires less configuration. - Local Debugging and Testing
Locally, the SAM CLI provides a Lambda-like execution environment. The SAM templates-defined serverless application is deployed to the current environment and may be tested and debugged locally. This allows for the local emulation of an AWS Lambda environment and verifies that the code will function correctly on the cloud. It lowers the usefulness of testing and debugging code in the cloud. AWS has provided the AWS Toolkit for a variety of IDEs, including Visual Studio and others. This shortens the feedback loop by allowing you to run and fix issues locally that you could encounter on the cloud. - Deep Integration with Development Tools
AWS SAM is often used with several other AWS tools for building serverless applications. to get new applications, you’ll attend the AWS Serverless Application Repository. The AWS Cloud9 IDE is often used for coding, testing, and debugging AWS SAM–based serverless applications. CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodePipeline are used for continuous integration and deployment.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much does AWS SAM cost to use?
Currently there is no additional charge to use AWS SAM. You only pay for the AWS resources created using SAM in the same manner as if you created them manually. You only pay for what you use, as you use it. There are no minimum fees and no required upfront commitments.
Is AWS SAM open-source?
AWS SAM and the SAM CLI are open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license. You can contribute new features and enhancements to AWS SAM on GitHub or the AWS SAM CLI on GitHub.
Which AWS regions support AWS SAM?
AWS SAM is available in all regions where AWS Lambda is available.
How do I install AWS SAM CLI?
You can install AWS SAM CLI on Linux, Mac, or Windows using pip. Check installation documentation.
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Related Links/References
- Overview of Amazon Web Services & Concepts
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Exam
- How to Create a free tier Account in AWS
- AWS Management Console Walkthrough
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