Links
Description
Serverless service / Function as a service allowing to run code without having to worry about underlying hardware and OS.
Event driven: the lambda is triggered by an event.
Pay only for what you use: per request and based on the duration of the code execution.
Use cases
- Data transformation (Kinesis Data Stream as input)
- File processing (when uploaded to S3 bucket)
- Website backend microservice
- Scheduled tasks
Bad use cases
- Long running processes (timeout after 15mn)
- Constant workload (no scalability and high cost)
- Large code base (needed to be loaded at startup)
- State management (lambda are stateless)
Anti-patterns
- Monolithic function
- increase package size
- hard to enforce least privilege permissions
- hard to upgrade, maintain and test
- Recursion
- Orchestration
- avoid complex workflow logic
- ties lambda with other systems
- instead consider AWS Step Functions or EventBridge
- Chaining (synchronously invoke another lambda)
- instead use EventBridge or QueueService
- Waiting (synchronously call services or databases)
- instead use asynchronous calls
Runtime
- OS
- Libraries
- Programming language (.NET, Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, Java)
Environnement variables
DOTNET_STARTUP_HOOKS |
ex: path to an assembly to inject logging
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Wrapper scripts
Execute the wrapper on top of the runtime and the lambda function.
- run shell commands and binaries
Use AWS_LAMBDA_EXEC_WRAPPER to point to your wrapper script.
Custom runtime
Provide your custom runtime.
- unsupported programming language
Method responsible for processing input events.
synchronous execution |
result returned to the calling app
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asynchronous execution |
result sent to the configured destination otherwise lost
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Using the C# 9's top-level statements feature, you generate an executable assembly which will be run by the Lambda. You provide Lambda only with the name of the executable assembly to run.
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var handler = async (string argument1, ILambdaContext context) => { };
// bootstrap the Lambda runtime and pass it the handler method
await LambdaBootstrapBuilder.Create(handler, new DefaultLambdaJsonSerializer()).Build().RunAsync();
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C# class library
You provide Lambda with information about your function's handler in the form of a handler string: ASSEMBLY::TYPE::METHOD
- ASSEMBLY is the name of the .NET assembly file for your application. If you use the Amazon.Lambda.Tools CLI to build your application and you don't set the assembly name using the AssemblyName property in the .csproj file, then ASSEMBLY is simply the name of your .csproj file.
- TYPE is the full name of the handler type, which consists of the Namespace and the ClassName.
- METHOD is the name of the function handler method in your code.
ex: MyProject::MyNamespace.MyClass::MyFunctionHandler
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[assembly: LambdaSerializer(typeof(Amazon.Lambda.Serialization.SystemTextJson.CamelCaseLambdaJsonSerializer))]
namespace MyNamespace;
public class MyClass
{
public APIGatewayProxyResponse Handle(APIGatewayProxyRequest request, ILambdaContext context)
{
var id = request.PathParameters["id"];
var function = $"{context.FunctionName} {context.FunctionVersion}";
var cognitoIdentity = context.Identity;
context.Logger.LogLine("Message");
return new APIGatewayProxyResponse
{
StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.OK,
Body = JsonSerializer.Serialize(id)
};
}
public void Handle(SQSEvent sqsEvent, ILambdaContext context) { }
}
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# install the VS project template
dotnet new install Amazon.Lambda.Templates
# install the command line tools
dotnet tool install -g Amazon.Lambda.Tools
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C# class library
Function.cs
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// Assembly attribute to enable the Lambda function's JSON input to be converted into a .NET class.
[assembly: LambdaSerializer(typeof(Amazon.Lambda.Serialization.SystemTextJson.DefaultLambdaJsonSerializer))]
namespace MyProject;
public class Function
{
public string FunctionHandler(string input, ILambdaContext context)
{
return input.ToUpper();
}
}
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aws-lambda-tools-defaults.json
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{
"Information": [ ],
"profile": "MyAwsProfile",
"region": "eu-central-1",
"configuration": "Release",
"function-architecture": "x86_64",
"function-runtime": "dotnet8",
"function-memory-size": 512,
"function-timeout": 30,
"function-handler": "MyProject::MyProject.Function::FunctionHandler"
}
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Properties/launchSettings.json
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{
"profiles": {
"Mock Lambda Test Tool": {
"commandName": "Executable",
"commandLineArgs": "--port 5050",
"workingDirectory": ".\\bin\\$(Configuration)\\net8.0",
"executablePath": "%USERPROFILE%\\.dotnet\\tools\\dotnet-lambda-test-tool-8.0.exe"
}
}
}
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C# class library
On VS, if the extension AWS Toolkit is installed you have the AWS .NET Mock Lambda Test Tool available.
A debug configuration is created for you lambda.
Properties\launchSettings.json
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{
"profiles": {
"Mock Lambda Test Tool": {
"commandName": "Executable",
"commandLineArgs": "--port 5050",
"executablePath": "%USERPROFILE%\\.dotnet\\tools\\dotnet-lambda-test-tool-8.0.exe",
"workingDirectory": ".\\bin\\$(Configuration)\\net8.0"
}
}
}
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You have to create the debug configuration file for you lambda.
Properties\launchSettings.json
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{
"profiles": {
"Mock Lambda Test Tool": {
"commandName": "Executable",
"commandLineArgs": "--port 5050",
"executablePath": "%USERPROFILE%\\.dotnet\\tools\\dotnet-lambda-test-tool-8.0.exe",
"workingDirectory": ".\\bin\\$(Configuration)\\net8.0",
"environmentVariables": {
"AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API": "localhost:5050",
"AWS_PROFILE": "MyProfile",
"AWS_REGION": "us-east-1"
}
}
}
}
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dotnet lambda deploy-function [AssemblyName] --profile [Profile]
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Call a lambda from code
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var jsonSerializerOptions = new JsonSerializerOptions
{
PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase,
Converters = { new JsonStringEnumConverter() }
};
var amazonLambdaClient = new AmazonLambdaClient();
var request = new InvokeRequest
{
FunctionName = functionName,
Payload = JsonSerializer.Serialize(myObject, jsonSerializerOptions),
LogType = LogType.Tail
};
var response = await this.amazonLambdaClient.InvokeAsync(request);
if(response.HttpStatusCode == System.Net.HttpStatusCode.OK)
{
var payload = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(response.Payload.ToArray()); // to debug only
var result = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<AwsJobResult<LambdaJob>>(response.Payload, jsonSerializerOptions);
}
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Errors
The Lambda on AWS has wrongly set the handler to LambdaTest.
AWS - Lambda - Functions - select your function - Code tab - Runtime settings - Edit - change the Handler