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All Rights Reserved  \nAbstract  \nThis thesis examines the problem of building large-scale applications using the serverless computing model and proposes decentralized, application-level orchestration for serverless workloads. We demonstrate that application-level orchestration is possible and practical using just the basic APIs of existing serverless infrastructures, and bene􀀌ts both cloud users and cloud providers, compared with standalone orchestrators, the state-of-the-art solution to building large-scale serverless applications. It empowers cloud users with the 􀀍exibility of application-speci􀀌c optimizations. It frees cloud providers from hosting and maintaining yet another performance-critical service. Furthermore, the performance and e􀀎ciency of application-level orchestration improve as the underlying systems develop. Thus, cloud providers can direct freed-up resources to core services in their serverless infrastructure and automatically reaps the bene􀀌ts of a better orchestrator.  \nThis thesis describes mechanisms and implementations that help realize the goal of applicationlevel orchestration. In particular, we explain the necessity and challenges of decentralizing orchestration and present a system for decentralized orchestration named Unum. Unum introduces an intermediate representation (IR) language to express execution graphs using only node-local information to decentralize the orchestration logic of applications. Unum implements orchestration asa library that runs in-situ with user-de􀀌ned FaaS functions, rather than as a standalone service. The library relies on a minimal set of existing serverless APIs|function invocation and a few basic datastore operations|that are common across cloud platforms. Unum ensures work􀀍ow correctness despite multiple executions of non-deterministic functions by using checkpoints to commit to exactly one output for a function invocation.  \nOur results show that a representative set of applications scale better, run faster, and cost signi􀀌cantly less with Unum than a state-of-the-art centralized orchestrator. We also show that Unum's IR allows hand-tuned applications to run faster by using application-speci􀀌c optimizationsand supporting a richer set of application patterns.  \nWe hope the results of this thesis inspire cloud practitioners to reconsider the approach of supporting new functionalities by simply adding more services to the cloud infrastructure. And we hope to encourage the building of other application-level orchestration systems from the serverless community.  \nAcknowledgements  \nI would like to thank my advisor, Amit Levy, for his feedback, advice, and support throughout my graduate study. I learned a great deal from him over the many projects we worked on together. I am particularly grateful for his 􀀍exibility and accommodation during the challenging time of COVID.  \nThis thesis builds on research I have conducted in collaboration with Shadi Noghabi and Sebastian Burckhardt at MSR. I want to thank both Shadi and Sebastian for their invaluable contributions and for being wonderful colleagues. Additionally, I would like to thank Landon Cox for guiding mein my early days of research at Duke, for hosting me at MSR, and for giving me the support and freedom to explore what eventually became the Unum project and this thesis.  \nI also want to thank my other committee members, Mike Freedman, Jennifer Rexford, Wyatt Lloyd, and Ravi Netravali. They all provided valuable guidance and feedback during my study at Princeton. Special thanks to Mike Freedman for taking me on at the beginning [of my Ph.D. study](of my Ph.D. study). I learned and bene􀀌te","cbCailXuuQ085izA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailXuuQ085izA","pdf",1049386,7,78,"English","# Abstract\n# Acknowledgements\n# 1 Introduction\n# 2 Background\n## 2.1 Serverless Computing and Simple Serverless Applications\n## 2.2 The Serverless Abstraction\n## 2.3 Complex Serverless Applications\n## 2.4 Serverless Orchestrators\n# 3 Application-Level Orchestration: Design Goals, Benefits and Challenges\n## 3.1 Drawbacks of Standalone Orchestrators\n## 3.2 Design Goals and Challenges\n## 3.3 Towards Application-level Orchestration\n# 4 Application-Level Orchestration in Unum\n## 4.1 Architecture\n## 4.2 Unum Intermediate Representation\n## 4.3 Execution Guarantees Using Checkpoints\n## 4.4 Fan-in Patterns\n## 4.5 Garbage Collection","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the thesis address in serverless application development?\",\"answer\":\"It targets the challenge of building large-scale applications under the serverless computing model while coordinating serverless workloads effectively.\"},{\"question\":\"How does application-level orchestration differ from centralized orchestrators?\",\"answer\":\"The thesis proposes decentralized orchestration at the application level, enabling optimizations without running another standalone performance-critical service.\"},{\"question\":\"What system and mechanisms does the thesis propose to enable decentralized orchestration?\",\"answer\":\"It presents Unum, which uses an intermediate representation (IR) and runs as an in-situ library with user-defined FaaS functions. Checkpoints ensure workflow correctness for non-deterministic executions.\"}]","A Serverless Architecture for Application-Level Orchestration - Dissertation | PDF",27]