5-things.md

Five Ways to Super-charge Your Application with GraalVM

GraalVM?

• Fast, Efficent Java Runtime
• Application -> Native Binary

Available as Free (OSS) / Supported (Enterprise Edition)

Generate nonsense verse with a Spring Boot App

• Using Spring Native and GraalVM

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1 : Use GraalVM & the GraalVM Native Build Tools

Install GraalVM https://github.com/graalvm/graalvm-jdk-downloader/tree/dev:

# Get a token to use EE
bash <(curl -sL https://get.graalvm.org/ee-token)
# Install GraalVM
bash <(curl -sL https://get.graalvm.org/jdk)

• Super-charge your apps start-up time and footprint
• Make sure to use -Ob when developing, fast mode

Build a JAR and run it:

# You can build it with : ./mvnw package
java -jar target/...

Build a native image and run it:

./mvnw clean package -DskipTests -Pnative
cp target/jibber .
./jibber &

Check out the startup time - we will look at memory footprint later

2 : Run your JUnit Tests Natively

• With Spring Boot it should, "Just Work"
• Use the agent, -Dagent=true, to generate tracing config. This will be injected into your tests automatically

Run your Unit tests on the JVM:

./mvnw test

Run them as Native Code:

./mvnw -Pnative clean test
ls -l target
target/native-tests

The test generate a binary that you can run anytime.

3 : Use Monitoring

• Spring Boot Actuator works out of the box with Native Image, use it

./jibber &
curl http://localhost:8080/actuator/prometheus | bat

• Here's a nice example showing this working, oh and look at the memory usage of a native binary!
  • http://129.153.91.63:3000/d/qA79viunk/jibber-api?orgId=1

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4 : Use JFR in Your Application

• JFR works, but not everything is working yet
• Create a custom event, save a snapshot, take a look
• --install-exit-handlers
• 22.2 : -H:+AllowVMInspection / 22.3 : --enable-monitoring=jfr

    /**
     * Custom JFR Event
     */
    @Label("JibberwockyEvent")
    @Description("Used for recording events in our Jaberwocky Controller")
    static class JabberwockydEvent extends Event {
        @Label("Message")
        String message;
    }

    @Autowired
    Jabberwocky j;

    @RequestMapping
    ResponseEntity<String> jibber() {
        JabberwockydEvent event = new JabberwockydEvent();
        event.message = "Poem being generated";
        event.commit();
        return ResponseEntity.ok(j.generate());
    }

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5 : Statically Link you Application & Make a Small Container

• Static linking makes small containers, with nothing in them, other than what is essential
• Less in the container, the more secure it can be

Build a Java container:

make docker
docker images | head -n3

Build a native container, with statically linked binary:

make dockerNativeStaticOSX
docker images | head -n3

Take a look inside the "static" container:

dive jibber:static

The containers are small and have nothing in them, other than the binary. Also support, Mostly Static

6 : Use Github Actions (The Encore)

• Native Image building uses less memory. We can easily build within 7 GB, which is a free runner on Github Actions

name: GraalVM Jibber Github Actions Pipeline (EE)
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - uses: graalvm/setup-graalvm@v1
        with:
          version: 'latest'
          java-version: '17'
          components: 'native-image'
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Build and Test Java Code
        run: |
          ./mvnw --no-transfer-progress -Pnative test

• https://github.com/krisfoster/jibber/actions
• https://github.com/marketplace/actions/github-action-for-graalvm

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Grab the Code for This Demo

Thanks for listening!

https://github.com/krisfoster/jibber

To learn more about GraalVM: https://www.graalvm.org

Online Labs (search for: GraalVM): https://luna.oracle.com

Workshops: https://github.com/graalvm/workshops

Demos: https://github.com/graalvm/graalvm-demos