Persistent Storage for Azure Functions with AI Integration

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In order to create a solution for Azure Functions with persistent storage and AI integration, we typically need to set up a few different components:

Azure Functions: This is your serverless compute service where you can host your application code. Azure Functions can be triggered by a variety of events, such as HTTP requests, database operations, and more.
Persistent Storage: For persistent storage, Azure Storage Accounts can be used. A storage account provides a unique namespace in Azure for your data. You can use Blob storage, Queues for messaging, Table storage for NoSQL data, or File storage for migrating on-premises applications.
AI Integration: Depending on the AI capabilities you want to integrate, various Azure services like Azure Cognitive Services would be ideal. They can be called from within your Azure Functions to add intelligence to your solutions.

Below is a simplified Pulumi program written in Python, which sets up these components. This program includes:

An Azure Storage Account for persistent storage.
An Azure Function App that can host serverless functions.
Example code to integrate Azure Cognitive Services for AI functionality (note that to use Cognitive Services, you usually need to provision the specific service and use its SDK).

import pulumi
from pulumi_azure_native import storage as azure_storage
from pulumi_azure_native import web as azure_web
from pulumi_azure_native import resources

# Create an Azure Resource Group
resource_group = resources.ResourceGroup("resource_group")

# Create an Azure Storage Account
account = azure_storage.StorageAccount("storageaccount",
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    sku=azure_storage.SkuArgs(
        name=azure_storage.SkuName.STANDARD_LRS,
    ),
    kind=azure_storage.Kind.STORAGE_V2
)

# Create the Function App on Linux, assuming Python functions
app_service_plan = azure_web.AppServicePlan("appserviceplan",
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    kind="Linux",
    reserved=True,
    sku=azure_web.SkuDescriptionArgs(
        tier="Dynamic",
        name="Y1",
    )
)

app = azure_web.WebApp("functionapp",
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    server_farm_id=app_service_plan.id,
    site_config=azure_web.SiteConfigArgs(
        app_settings=[
            azure_web.NameValuePairArgs(name="AzureWebJobsStorage", value=account.primary_connection_string.apply(lambda c: c)),
            azure_web.NameValuePairArgs(name="FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME", value="python"),
            azure_web.NameValuePairArgs(name="WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE", value="1"),
            # If using Azure Cognitive Services, you would also add the corresponding key and endpoint here as app settings
            # azure_web.NameValuePairArgs(name="COGNITIVE_SERVICE_KEY", value="<Cognitive Service Key>"),
            # azure_web.NameValuePairArgs(name="COGNITIVE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT", value="<Cognitive Service Endpoint>"),
        ]
    ),
    https_only=True
)

# Export the Azure Function App endpoint
pulumi.export("endpoint", app.default_host_name.apply(lambda endpoint: f"https://{endpoint}"))

Explanation

The above code accomplishes the following:

An Azure resource group is created as a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution.
A storage account (StorageAccount) is provisioned to provide persistent storage.
An App Service Plan (AppServicePlan) is set up to host the Azure Function App. The plan is of "Dynamic" tier which is used for serverless offerings.
The Function App (WebApp) is provisioned and configured with the required settings, such as the connection string to the storage account which is obtained dynamically using the .apply method.
The code assumes you will use Python for your function code, thus it sets the FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME setting to "python".
The WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE setting set to "1" indicates that the function app will run from a package file (zip or jar depending on the language).
The endpoint of the function app is exported as an output of our Pulumi program, which can be used to invoke the function once deployed.

This program provides a solid base on which to build. If you plan to integrate with Azure Cognitive Services, remember to add the corresponding service key and endpoint to the app_settings in SiteConfigArgs. Each Cognitive Service (e.g., Text Analytics, Vision, Speech) would require its own provisioning and configuration.

Keep in mind that the specifics of how you set up your Function App—such as the runtime, environment variables (app settings), and dependencies—will depend on the particulars of your implementation and the AI services you intend to integrate.