IBM BluemixDynamically scale your application usingAuto-Scaling, BlazeMeter, and New Relic

Bluemix worksby elastically scaling your application

Jeff SloyerDeveloper Advocate

IBM Bluemix@jsloyer

I want to have control over the scaling behavior of my app

I have apps that need to scale based on changing load patterns

Enterprises need their applications to scale

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I want to dynamically adapt my scaling strategy based on historical trends

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How can Bluemix scale my app?Bluemix offers the Auto-Scaling service to ease the process of handling application scaling

Dynamic scalingAutomatically add or remove instances to handle spikes in application usage

No cost to youThe auto-scaling service is free of charge for all users

You define the policiesScale your app based on CPU, memory, throughput, response time, and more

Scaling history Query past scaling activity based on status, time, and type

View historical metric dataVisualize the current and historical values of performance metrics

Save money By analyzing your scaling history and corresponding metrics, you can alter the scaling policies to keep your app highly available at lower costs to you

To handle varying loads and memory usage in your app, Bluemix enables the ability to scale in & out

Dynamic scaling based on your needs

You decide the initial number of instances and corresponding memory quota your app starts with

The Auto-Scaling service allows you to define custom policies that dictate your app’s scaling behavior

Auto-Scaling

View and analyze historical metrics

Monitor app metrics most important to you in real-time

Adapt your scaling policies based on historical scaling data in order to optimize your uptime and cut costs

Analyze historical performance metrics using the Auto-scaling dashboard

Demo

OverviewApplication displays current CPU utilization and memory usage of the

instance from which the page was served

Apply load to the application by creating a test in BlazeMeter

Once the application becomes stressed, a second instance will be provisioned and further traffic will be distributed between the instances

System Diagram

What you needBefore you begin, make sure you have the following:

BluemixYou need a valid Bluemix account with at least 256 MB and 3 services. The free trial provides these quotas.

Dev ToolingYou can use Bluemix’s powerful Dev Ops tools or easily bring your own. Download the Cloud Foundry CLI if you have not already.

Web BrowserFor this demo, we will be using the Google Chrome browser so we can take advantage of BlazeMeter’s Chrome extension.

NodeJS Packagesexpressnewrelicdust.jsconsolidatesocket.ioutilusagecron

Auto-Scaling

Create the appGitHub URL: https://github.com/IBM-Bluemix/auto-scaling-demo

Clone or download the above Git repository to your local machine.

Push the application to your Bluemix account using the Cloud Foundry CLI.

Change the ‘name and ‘host’ field in the package.json and manifest.yml files. These must be unique to Bluemix.

Add the Auto-Scaling serviceAdd/bind the Auto-Scaling service to your application and configure your scaling policy

Add/bind the Auto-Scaling service to your application.

Create an auto-scaling policy for your application with the settings to the right and save it.

Add the New Relic serviceAdd the New Relic service to monitor in-depth performance metrics

Add the New Relic service and bind it to your application.

Install the New Relic Node.js agent in your application by configuring the newrelic.js and app.js files and then restarting your app.

After the load test is complete, return to the New Relic app dashboard to see detailed historical metric data.

Add the BlazeMeter serviceAdd the BlazeMeter service and create a load test using the Chrome plugin

Add the BlazeMeter service. It does not bind directly to the application.

The application will scale out after the memory quota is exceeded for 30 seconds. Analyze the BlazeMeter test report after it completes.

Create a JMeter test using the BlazeMeter Chrome extension and run the test against your app.

Bluemix worksQuestions?

Additional ResourcesService Cataloghttps://console.ng.bluemix.net/?ace_base=true/#/store/cloudOEPaneId=store&serviceOfferingGuid=0f0f26e5-0562-46c9-afa2-353503ce1ddc&fromCatalog=trueAuto-Scaling Documentationhttps://www.ng.bluemix.net/docs/#services/Auto-Scaling/index.html#autoscalingBlazeMeter Documentationhttp://docs.run.pivotal.io/marketplace/services/blazemeter.htmlNew Relic Documentationhttp://docs.run.pivotal.io/marketplace/services/newrelic/Example apphttps://github.com/IBM-Bluemix/auto-scaling-demoBlog Posthttps://developer.ibm.com/bluemix/2015/04/03/handle-unexpected-bluemix-auto-scaling/