What is versioning in serverless function management?
Serverless function management is derived from cloud computing. In serverless function management, the infrastructure and resources are obtained through an external source, most commonly a cloud provider. More details on the serverless architecture can be found here.
Versioning is an essential aspect of serverless function management, and we'll explore its uses and functionality in this Answer.
These version changes typically fall into one of the following categories:
Major: These include total functionality overhauls and behavioral changes. This is most commonly used to consolidate various new program functionality additions.
Minor: These include adding new functionality without breaking the previous versions. These may be single changes that don't require a whole system revamp.
Patches: These include fixing bugs by making small updates.
An example of how these updates may be visualized is given below:
In the example above, 1 refers to the major version of an application, whereas 20 and 3 refer to the minor and patch versions specifically. If, for instance, a major update is released, it may be tagged with 2.0.0, signifying the new version.
Versioning is vital in applications as it is feasible that even a tiny change in a function can break the entire functionality. With versioning, several snapshots of the functions will exist simultaneously, giving users the choice of which one to use. Through this, forced updates can also be avoided, which grants users the freedom to upgrade their applications when they wish.
Advantages and importance
The advantages of versioning in serverless function management are shown below:
Advantages | Description |
Backward compatible | Even if new versions are released, prior functions don't break. This allows users to shift to the new version at their own pace. |
Debugging | Having set versions and updates makes debugging issues in functions easier. If an error is found in one iteration and not in the one that came prior, we can deduce that the issue is due to the new version. |
Safety | With differing versions, developers can experiment without breaking the prior versions. If breaking changes are made, they can be rolled back to a previous version that works correctly. |
As the serverless architecture is primarily based online, versioning is beneficial for general code management. With the increase in size and resources of these serverless systems, versioning becomes vital to ensure their durability and functionality.
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