Develop Reference

Running Serverless Framework CLI commands, like "deploy", from Maven

What I am trying to do:
Build the (AWS Lambda function) Java Maven module, with the mvn command and goals, as usual.
Depending on given custom goals, Maven will call Serverless CLI commands to deploy the Java based Lambda function, using the serverless.yml file in the root dir of the module.
Maven continues with end to end test, using URLs returned by Serverless CLI command call (deploy). Or by sending messages to a queue, if that's the event triggering the function.
So, I've been searching for a Maven plugin for Serverless Framework CLI, but I can't find anyone. I really want Maven to execute the Serverless CLI when certain goals are given.
This is what I think my options might be, right now:
Write the Maven plugin myself.
Use shell scripts, I consider it ugly, but thats subjective.
Get a tip of a Maven plugin I've missed.
Another slick way to accomplish what I want, that I'm unaware of.
I appreciate all ideas, but really I'm focusing to solve this within the Maven lifecycle.

Another slick way to accomplish what I want, that I'm unaware of
I think a way the achieve this is to add the scripts to a step in your build server. Maven's primary function is to act as a build manager which is slightly different from the deployment use case you are outlining above.

If anyone is still intrigued by this I've started an inspired effort at https://github.com/olensmar/serverless4j/tree/master/maven-plugin - still working on how this would optimally fit in the maven lifecycle - ideas/suggestions as always welcome!

Tried and tested ways to automate load tests with Maven

I'm trying to figure out the best way to automate the execution of and result recording of load tests. We currently use Maven; ideally the solution would be executed as part of the Maven project life-cycle, so that people do not need so spend time on effort setting up the tests.
It should save the output of the tests (e.g. as some files that could be committed into version control), and should have the sense to not compare tests run on a dusty x486 with a 8 core Sparc.

JMeter is another Apache project which is very well adapted for automation (you can control most things from the command line); there are also several plugins that you can use to integrate it into Maven. Personally, I think this is by far the best tool for this sort of requirement.
You still need to create the actual tests to run and decide which environment to use - but this will always be the case no matter which tool you choose.
Have a look here, here and here.

Automatic deployment in GAE from subversion trunk

My team is developing a Java application which is to be deployed on Google App Engine(GAE). Currently we use the eclipse-plugin to build and deploy the code in GAE.
However, I would like to automate(by using cron or svn-post-commit hook) this process so that the source code in subversion trunk is automatically deployed in GAE before each scrum meeting. I hope this would eventually reduce the load on our programmers and help them to focus more on the application logic.
Please let me know if this is possible with Java+GAE+Subversion
thanks in advance

It is possible. This is what I did with my project. I should also note that this question is similar with another stackoverflow question in Possible to integrate Google AppEngine and Google Code for continuous integration? and it provides several good answer that you could use.
That being said, my personal approach is to set up ant build for the eclipse project, and use Jenkins to automatically update the code from Subversion and build them up using the ant build.
You could then add a target using appcfg and macro provided by google to upload your built project to Google App Engine. More details of using Ant on Google App Engine could be seen in here.
A bonus point of using continuous integration tools such as Jenkins is that you could add automated unit testing using JUnit or your personal testing flavor. It will save your team lots of headaches in the long run.

I used python for GAE and there is a appcfg.py script with which one can deploy the code with one command as -
python appcfg.py update
This makes me think that for Java as well there must be some script from Google to deploy applications. If there is one, then what you are trying to do must be a simple command which be used a cron job.

Your team should use a Continuous Integration tool, e.g. Jenkins. This will solve your next problems too, which you may not thought over: it can be configured to run unit and integration tests before deployment. It has many options for version control system integration.

What are the best methods for deploying java code to production?

Currently we have a Java Restlet API with dependencies controlled via Maven. When we update the API we run maven assembly:assembly which does the unit tests etc and produces a single jar file. We then upload this to the production server and run it using nohup.
Is there a better or more automated way of doing this? Is this where something like Hudson would come in?
Thanks

My experience goes with webapp-deployment. But same should hold true here. Use Maven, Cargo, Nexus (or Artifactory), Hudson and probably, Jira in conjunction of product release.
Automated release process are more reliable because there is no human factor involved that may forget a step.
We also use Liquibase for database versioning. And, if you are dealing with database changes in your application deployment. You'll realize Liquibase boosts so much confidence while running alter scripts.
I would suggest to go through the following resources
Automated Deployment with Maven - going the whole nine yards If you can, literally follow this pattern.
Maven 2 Effective Implementation -- this book really helped us a lot.

There are several Maven plugins to help deployment. The most general of them is Cargo, but there are also app server specific plugins for some concrete servers like JBoss.

Most companies I have worked for (actually, all) have had some sort of custom in-house built deployment system; even if build was done using a standard framework (like Maven in use at my current company).
Part of this is because there are many aspects that tie closely to company-specific infrastructure, capacity management and monitoring systems; and so even though there are open-source systems, there is usually something that needs to be tweaked.

It sounds like you are running your app on its own--it isn't part of any application server. If you aren't using an application server, there are probably some ways to get cargo and maven to deploy it for you, but you may be better off just using some shell scripts to deploy and run the application.
However, as your application grows, you may find a need for an application server like Jetty, JBoss, Glassfish, Tomcat, etc. When this happens, take a look at the cargo plugin for Maven because it will allow you to do something like:
mvn cargo:redeploy
That will package up your application, send it to the server and restart the app. If you want Hudson to do this for you automatically you can add it as a target to build.
Cargo can save you a lot of time when you have to frequently update an application server.

Continuous build with .NET and Java projects on a single machine

Is it possible to set up continuous build of projects written in .NET and Java on single build server with single set of applications?
I've seen CruiseControl has support for both world but as far as I know these are two separate applications. Should I go with a separate machine to build Java projects (a machine for .NET projects is already set up)?

Hudson has support for both Ant (out of the box IIRC) and NAnt (through plugin) so that's an option for you.

CruiseControl supports several different build options include Ant, Maven, NAnt, Phing (php), Rake, XCode, and then the generic "exec" which you can use to invoke any command-line script/tool you want. Not a problem mixing Java and .NET on the same server.
Of course this is not unique to CruiseControl. There are lots of CI tools that support multiple build technologies as you can see on this matrix of features.
Disclaimer: I work on CruiseControl. OTOH since I don't make money on it I don't much care which tool people choose. I care more about advancing the state of CI practices which is why I organize the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference (CITCON).

Ant and NAnt can reasonably easily execute arbitrary processes, including each other, so the actual build part shouldn't be too hard.
I'd expect the tricky bit to be getting the reports (including unit test results) into an appropriate format. How's your XSLT? ;)
EDIT: Now that I think about it, my first agile project had a continuous build server (just CruiseControl, I believe) which must have been doing some of this... I suspect at the time we directly invoked Visual Studio to build the code and NUnit to test it. If I were at the same company I'd check, but that was two jobs ago :(

You could checkout Atlassian Bamboo. Unfortunately, its not free, unless you are applying for an opensource/community license for use with opensource software.

You can use two different products on the same machine. Or you can run a single builds system across multiple machines. It is really up to the load you place on your CI.