
Debugging Serverless Apps: from monitoring invocations to observing systems - n0debotanist
https://read.iopipe.com/debugging-serverless-apps-from-monitoring-invocations-to-observing-a-system-of-functions-578c2ef8b3de
======
jgrahamc
We've recently been publishing a lot of information about Cloudflare's
serverless platform (called Workers):
[https://blog.cloudflare.com/tag/serverless/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/tag/serverless/)

This blog on bootstrapping a Worker using Typescript shows how slick
development on the platform is: [https://blog.cloudflare.com/bootstrapping-a-
typescript-worke...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/bootstrapping-a-typescript-
worker/) and we'll be posting more in coming days about how to debug on the
platform.

------
Myztiq
Identifying cold-starts is a huge win here, using something to keep your
lambdas warm is important for user-facing functionality. That functionality
alone makes a compelling feature.

~~~
golangnews
I don't really understand this - if you need to 'keep your lambdas warm' why
not just run them as a process?

There seems to be a lot of book-keeping and ritual for something which is
supposed to just let you focus on the important bits of code, without worrying
about how it runs.

~~~
l_t
If you're already "serverless" (or want to be), it's not that easy to just
"add a process". Usually if you're running a process, you're maintaining one
or more virtual servers, which can be a lot more operational overhead than a
Lambda.

Having said that, I agree that there seems to be an inordinate amount of
effort/thought going into keeping Lambdas "warm" (i.e. always running).

I think the prevalence of these hijinks indicates that AWS Lambda should
consider adding a "keep running" option that ensure the particular function is
always "warm", but costs a bit more.

~~~
kthejoker2
Azure Functions offer an Always On option under a premium tier of Azure App
Service but I don't know be that'd I call that just "a bit more", especially
at scale.

Might as well containerize it and accept the overhead of some maintenance to
ensure the lowest cost guaranteed availability and performance.

------
cmjqol
They could at least have a decent pricing. 299$ / Month for this is insulting
knowing AWS X-Ray is built in Lambda and does it for Free.

Clearly I do not take any startups working in Serverless seriously if they
don't have a serverless pricing themselves.

Serverless is not just Lambda. It's an entire philosphy and pricing model that
goes with it . Here it's the exact opposite.

~~~
ewindisch
There's a free tier and we're happy to discussing pricing privately. Startups,
individuals, open source projects are dear to our hearts and we want to make
the product accessible to those that need it.

------
k__
At least they could also have serverless pricing.

