“March calendar” by on Charles Deluvio 🇵🇭🇨🇦 Unsplash One of the fun parts in using is the fact that you can try out new ideas and provision them in a flick of a finger. I’ve mentioned more than once that s3 is a powerful tool that can be used as more than an elastic persistent layer. serverless _S3 can be used more than just storing data. View novel ways to extend its functionality._hackernoon.com S3 the best of 2 worlds In this post, I’m going to demonstrate how to use s3 as a scheduling mechanism to execute various tasks. Overview Simple S3 flow S3, alongside a , creates a simple event base flow. For example, attach a Lambda to an s3 PUT event and create a new file, and the Lambda function is then called. To create a schedule event, all you have to do is to write the file you want to act upon on the designated time; however, AWS enables you to create only recurring . What happens when you want to schedule a one-time event? You are stuck. Lambda function events using cron or rate expression The s3-scheduler library enables you to do just that. Specifically, it uses s3 as a scheduling mechanism that enables you to schedule one-time events. How it works Each event is a separate file. Behind the scenes, the library uses the recurring mechanism to wake up every 1 minute, scan for the relevant files using s3’s , and if the scheduled time has passed, move the file to the relevant bucket + key. filter capabilities In order to function properly, the library has to know the answer to three questions: What content to save, Where to save it (bucket + key) → will trigger the appropriate Lambda function, and When to move it to the appropriate bucket. Encoding details The content to save is left unchanged, and points 2 and 3 (see above) are encoded in the key’s name and use as a separator between the parts. For example, to copy the relevant content on the 5th of August to a bucket called and a folder named , the scheduler will produce the following file: . By keeping the meta data outside the actual content, we achieve the following benefits: | s3-bucket s3_important_files 2018–08–05|s3-bucket|s3_files-important It speeds up the process with no need to read the entire content to decide when and where to copy. It allows the content to be binary, not only text-based. By using s3 filter capabilities, it reduces the cost to fetch the correct files. There is easier debugging; just view the file name to understand when and where to copy. Basic Usage Installation pip install s3-scheduler Setting up a recurring flow The library uses the AWS built-in capability to run every 1 minute. The configuration depends on your framework. For example, for Zappa use the following: Scheduling During initialization, the scheduler requires the bucket and a folder in which the actual scheduling details are kept. Remember that each event is a separate file; therefore, there is a need to save them somewhere. When to schedule is a simple object. datetime Stopping If you want to cancel the schedule event before it occurs, do the following: Fin Scheduling in the AWS world is a bit tricky. Right now, provides only cron-like capabilities, but this post has demonstrated one technique that can be used to create a more robust scheduling capability. serverless AWS Read “from the trenches” series Serverless testing from the trenches Serverless multi-cloud from the trenches Development flow in serverless environment from the trenches — Follow me to get an update when it’s ready
