Windows and .NET-based workloads are first-class citizens on AWS. In this session, we show how you can easily move an existing .NET application to the AWS cloud and take advantage of it serverless capabilities. We will cover migration and architectural considerations for porting your C# application to AWS Lambda, and using API Gateway to create a façade for your application to safely make changes as you migrate. Speakers: Stephen Liedig, Public Sector Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services Shane Baldacchino, Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services

1. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Stephen Liedig
Public Sector Solutions Architect
Amazon Web Services
Level 300
Migrating your .NET Applications to the
AWS Serverless Platform
Shane Baldacchino
Solutions Architect
Amazon Web Services
© 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.

2. Massive Scale with Lambda
Thomson Reuters processes 4,000 requests per second
FINRA processes half a trillion validations of stock trades daily
Hearst reduced the time to ingest and process data for its
analytics pipeline by 97%
Vevo can handle spikes of 80x normal traffic
Expedia triggers 1.2 billion Lambda requests each month

3. AWS Lambda
Supports C#
Dec 1, 2016

4. Windows and .NET-based
workloads are first-class
citizens on AWS

5. Modernising .NET Applications
Until recently…
• Revolved around .NET Framework and Windows ecosystem
• Containers have not been serious consideration for Windows
• JavaScript application frontends – backend architecture has
generally remained the same
• Microservices adoption slow

6. Why Serverless With .NET?

7. Why Serverless With .NET?
Internet
Mobile apps
Websites
Services
Amazon
Route 53
Load
Balancer
MS SQL
Amazon RDS
Auto Scaling group
security group
root volume
data volume
Amazon
CloudWatch
alarm

8. Serverless Value Propositions
Build and run
applications
without thinking
about servers
No need to worry
about provisioning,
securing, configuring,
patching servers
Availability and
scalability is managed
by AWS
Not paying for
idle time

9. Migration Path to Lambda

10. Porting to .NET Core From .NET Framework
• Upgrade all projects to .NET Framework 4.6.2
• Identify and account for your third-party dependencies
• Use the API Portability Analyzer tool to analyse your assemblies
• Port your test code.
Dependencies need to target .NET Core 1.0.x
(LTS version support)

11. Migration Paths
Integrate
Expose API Gateway
and integrate into your
application or new
function.
Migrate
Host your existing
ASP.NET WebAPI
application on Lambda
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Re-architect
Cloud first approach –
Create new functions
and APIs

12. ASP.NET Core Web API Architecture
IIS /
Nginx
Kestrel
ASP.NET
Core
Hosting
User’s Web API
Controllers
Internet

13. ASP.NET Core Architecture on Lambda
API
Gateway
Lambda
ASP.NET
Core
Hosting
User’s Web API
Controllers
Internet
Amazon.Lambda.AspNetCoreServer
Nuget Package

14. ASP.NET WebAPI Demo

15. What About Logging?

16. Logging for Serverless .NET Applications
Plugins for popular .NET logging frameworks that integrate with AWS
1. Amazon.Lambda.Logging.AspNetCore
2. AWS Logging .NET
• Nlog (AWS.Logger.Nlog)
• Log4net (AWS.Logger.Log4Net)
• ASP.NET Core logging framework (AWS.Logger.AspNetCore)

17. Logging in C# Lambda functions
Use the static Write or WriteLine methods in Console
Use the Log method on
the Amazon.Lambda.Core.LambdaLogger class.
Use the logger in ILambdaContext.
LambdaLogger.Log("DescribeProduct invoked with Id " + request.Id)
Console.WriteLine("DescribeProduct invoked with Id " + request.Id)
Context.Logger.Log("DescribeProduct invoked with Id " + request.Id)

18. Performance Tips

19. Optimising Performance
Start-up
time
Optimised
resource
allocation
Code
optimisation
Downstream
dependencies

20. Start-up Time
Cold starts are real, but happen mostly in a dev environment
Cold start latency varies by the size of your function, the number of
dependencies, the runtime of your application (interpreted languages
perform better)
Cold starts happen when:
• Developers use the console
• Edit the function
• Click test
VPC Integration will add overhead.

21. Memory and CPU
Think of memory as the “power” of the function. You increase memory
and AWS will proportionally increase # of vCPUs and networking
bandwidth allocated to the function.
Is your code CPU or memory-bound?
It could be cheaper to give more memory.
> Memory > Cores
1,526MB = XX Cores

22. Code Optimisation
AWS Lambda processes a single event per-container - only one event
will ever arrive at a time
• Parallelise as many event-processing tasks as possible once the event is
received (1024 threads)
Lazy load variables in the global scope
If you don’t need a response, invoke function
asynchronously on the client side.

23. Downstream Dependencies
Ensure you monitor your downstream dependencies for bottlenecks
and performance issues.
Watch for shared resources across functions.
Specify a realistic timeout value for your function.
Ensure they are idempotent
Remember, functions are stateless!

24. Serverless Deployments

25. Amazon.Lambda.Tools SDK
dotnet lambda deploy-function
Command to deploy the project to AWS Lambda
dotnet lambda deploy-serverless
Command to deploy an AWS Serverless application
dotnet lambda list-serverless
Command to list all your AWS Serverless applications
dotnet lambda delete-serverless
Command to delete an AWS Serverless application

26. Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM)
AWS SAM is a model to define serverless applications.
Defines simplified CloudFormation syntax for expressing
serverless resources.
Covers APIs (API Gateway), Lambda functions, event source
mappings and Amazon DynamoDB tables.
Lambda Environment Variables and you can include
multiple functions in a single template.

27. AWS::Serverless::Function Type
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: 'AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31'
Resources:
MySimpleFunction:
Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
Properties:
Handler: CloudDinner.CloudDinner.LambdaEntryPoint::FunctionHandlerAsync
Runtime: dotnetcore1.0
MemorySize: 256
TimeOut: 30
CodeUri: s3://<source-bucket>/MyCode.zip
Policies: AWSLambdaFullAccess
Environment:
Variables:
TABLE_NAME: !Ref MyBucket
Events:
ApiResourceEvent:
Type: Api
Properties:
Path: /{proxy+}
Method: Any
MyBucket:
Type: AWS::S3::Bucket
Environment variable declarations
Function definition
API event source mapping
Function execution policy / role

28. Serverless Deployment Demo

29. Summary
• Windows and .NET-based workloads are first-class
citizens on AWS!
• Achieve massive scale, drive down costs, increase
operational efficiency and developer productivity.
• Many paths lead to Lambda!
• Lambda with C# is new, get involved on the GitHub site!
• Reach out to your local AWS Solutions Architect for
advice in your modernisation projects

30. Useful Links
AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio
https://aws.amazon.com/visualstudio/
AWS Lambda .NET GitHub
https://github.com/aws/aws-lambda-dotnet
AWS Logging .NET
• https://github.com/aws/aws-logging-dotnet
AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM)
• https://github.com/awslabs/serverless-application-model
AWS .NET Developer Blog
• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/category/net/

31. Thank you!