Overview
Step Functions builds a serverless visual workflow to orchestrate your Lambda functions (see 02-AWS-Lambda). You design a graph and define, at each step, what happens next on success or failure. This enables complex workflows in AWS.
Features
- Sequencing, parallel functions, conditions, timeouts, error handling and more.
- Integrates with more than Lambda: EC2 instances, ECS tasks, on-premises servers, API Gateway (see 11-Amazon-API-Gateway), SQS queues and many other AWS services. The transcript also names one more service that is garbled and unclear.
- Human approval feature: the workflow runs up to some point, a human reviews the results. If "Yes", it goes on. If "No", it fails.
Use Cases
- Order fulfillment
- Data processing
- Web applications
- Any workflow that is complex to describe and needs a graph to visualize.
Exam Keyword
Orchestrate Lambda functions / visual workflow / human approval -> Step Functions.
Questions & Answers
Q1: What is Step Functions?
Answer:
A serverless visual workflow service that orchestrates Lambda functions and other AWS services as a graph, with success/failure paths.
Q2: Can a workflow wait for a person?
Answer:
Yes, with a human approval step. Yes continues, no fails.
Q3: What built-in features does it have?
Answer:
Sequencing, parallel functions, conditions, timeouts and error handling.
Check yourself
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