In the previous posts, we created a MapReduce application and successfully deployed it to CF using Iron Foundry. This time, we will try to push it to the original Cloud Foundry using a buildpack based on Mono, an open-source framework that helps to create cross-platform .NET applications.
Most customers prefer to validate a concept before investing into a production system. In our case, an ultimate solution should allow for long-running computations, have a web interface for setting tasks, and support MapReduce or other data processing methods. So, an ideal prototype would be a platform that provides a simple method for deploying, scaling, and monitoring apps. That is what Iron Foundry does.
In this post, I’ll describe how to create a prototype with Iron Foundry on Cloud Foundry. My test application will use MapReduce to find the most popular words in a text. The picture below demonstrates the data processing workflow.
As you can see, text is transferred from a client to a web component for processing. At this stage, the job is divided between available Mappers. Mappers send the results to a Reducer, which performs final computations and returns the output back to the client via a Notifier. Below, I will describe how to create each of the components, establish communication between them, and deploy an application with Iron Foundry.
PaaS has revolutionized the way applications are developed and deployed. With reduced delivery cycles and full automation, PaaS users can reach the market faster, significantly improving ROI and time-to-revenue. Cloud Foundry is one of the most popular open-source solutions for enterprises.
Until recently, .NET developers—who constitute a large part of software delivery folks—had rather limited access to Cloud Foundry’s services. The Iron Foundry project has corrected this imbalance by providing support for .NET on Cloud Foundry. It is not merely an extension, but an entire collection of tools and services .NET developers are used to working with, e.g. MS SQL and Message Bus-as-a-Service. Services can be bound to applications, so you do not have to worry about infrastructure and maintenance.
This post starts a series that will explore the capabilities of Iron Foundry. To show you how this platform works and try its services in action, I am going to create a validation prototype using a mixture of .NET and Node.js. I will rely on the Cloud-First approach in my investigation on how application interaction, management, and deployment are implemented in this platform. By the end of the series, you will have learned everything you need to know about creating .NET apps on Iron Foundry.
