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BalloonJVM: Dynamically Resizable Heap for FaaS

Authors:
Abraham Chan
Kai-Ting Amy Wang
Vineet Kumar

Keywords: Ballooning; Function-as-a-Service; Serverless; Runtime environment; JVM Configuration

Abstract:
Serverless computing, or more specifically, Function as a Service (FaaS), offers the ability for software developers to quickly deploy their applications to the public without worrying about custom server architecture. However, developers using FaaS services must be cautious not to exceed their container memory limits. For FaaS developers using Java, a spontaneous out of memory exception could terminate their application. This could prompt some developers to consider scalability rather than focusing on functionality, reducing the advantage of FaaS. In this paper, we present BalloonJVM, which applies ballooning, a memory reclamation technique, to dynamically resize the heap for Java FaaS applications, deployed on Huawei Cloud's FunctionStage system. We explore the challenges of configuring BalloonJVM for production and outline opportunities for improving both developer and service provider flexibility.

Pages: 99 to 104

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019

Publication date: May 5, 2019

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4294

ISBN: 978-1-61208-703-0

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from May 5, 2019 to May 9, 2019