Introduction to Serverless on Kubernetes (LFS157)

The course is designed for developers and IT operators interested in exploring new approaches for building software, who prefer being able to set their own limits when it comes to things such as timeouts and choice of programming languages. Before enrolling, students should have an understanding of cloud and container technologies – including Kubernetes – as well as experience with Python.

This course will help you understand what serverless is starting with an overview of the CNCF landscape around serverless technologies. You'll learn how serverless can be made portable through the use of the Serverless 2.0 definition and Kubernetes, and explore the OpenFaaS toolchain, including: UI, CLI and REST API. You'll also learn about the OpenFaaS ecosystem, including the template store and function store for sharing functions and code templates. The course explores how to operate OpenFaaS with autoscaling, metrics, dashboards, upgrades, custom URLs, and versioning.

This course is designed to show you how a serverless approach works in tandem with a Kubernetes cluster, and help you discover the potential of serverless functions. By the end of the course you will be able to build functions using Python, configure them, and use secrets, as well as to add dependencies via pip, and learn how to build native extensions. You will also know how to expose functions securely on the Internet with TLS, and secure them with authentication.