Lambda Function

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Lambda Function

AWS Lambda Function

Hello Everyone

Welcome to CloudAffaire and this is Debjeet.

In the last blog post, we have introduced AWS Lambda.

https://cloudaffaire.com/lambda-introduction/

In this blog post we are going to discuss AWS Lambda function.

Lambda Function:

You write code for your Lambda function in one of the languages AWS Lambda supports. Regardless of the language you choose, there is a common pattern to writing code for a Lambda function that includes the following core concepts:

Lambda Function Components:

  • Handler: Handler is the function AWS Lambda calls to start execution of your Lambda function. You identify the handler when you create your Lambda function. When a Lambda function is invoked, AWS Lambda starts executing your code by calling the handler function. AWS Lambda passes any event data to this handler as the first parameter. Your handler should process the incoming event data and may invoke any other functions/methods in your code.
  • Context: AWS Lambda also passes a context object to the handler function, as the second parameter. Via this context object your code can interact with AWS Lambda. For example, your code can find the execution time remaining before AWS Lambda terminates your Lambda function. In addition, for languages such as Node.js, there is an asynchronous platform that uses callbacks. AWS Lambda provides additional methods on this context object. You use these context object methods to tell AWS Lambda to terminate your Lambda function and optionally return values to the caller.
  • Logging: Your Lambda function can contain logging statements. AWS Lambda writes these logs to CloudWatch Logs. Specific language statements generate log entries, depending on the language you use to author your Lambda function code. Logging is subject to CloudWatch Logs limits. Log data can be lost due to throttling or, in some cases, when the execution context is terminated.
  • Exceptions: Your Lambda function needs to communicate the result of the function execution to AWS Lambda. Depending on the language you author your Lambda function code, there are different ways to end a request successfully or to notify AWS Lambda an error occurred during execution. If you invoke the function synchronously, then AWS Lambda forwards the result back to the client.

Lambda Function Invocation:

AWS Lambda supports synchronous and asynchronous invocation of a Lambda function. You can control the invocation type only when you invoke a Lambda function (referred to as on-demand invocation). The following examples illustrate on-demand invocations:

  • Your application/AWS service automatically invokes a Lambda function based on events or schedule.
  • You manually invoke a Lambda function (for example, using the AWS CLI) for testing purposes.

AWS Lambda integrates with other AWS services to invoke functions. You can configure triggers to invoke a function in response to resource lifecycle events, respond to incoming HTTP requests, consume events from a queue, or run on a schedule.

Services that Lambda reads events from (Lambda pulls the event from service end):
  • Amazon Kinesis
  • Amazon DynamoDB
  • Amazon Simple Queue Service
Services that invoke Lambda functions synchronously:
  • Amazon Cognito
  • Amazon Lex
  • Amazon Alexa
  • Amazon API Gateway
  • Amazon CloudFront (Lambda@Edge)
  • Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Services that invoke Lambda functions asynchronously:
  • Amazon Simple Storage Service
  • Amazon Simple Notification Service
  • Amazon Simple Email Service
  • AWS CloudFormation
  • Amazon CloudWatch Logs
  • Amazon CloudWatch Events
  • AWS CodeCommit
  • AWS Config

Lambda Function Configuration Options:

A Lambda function consists of code and any associated dependencies. In addition, a Lambda function also has configuration information associated with it. Initially, you specify the configuration information when you create a Lambda function. Lambda provides an API for you to update some of the configuration data.

  • Memory: Specify the amount of memory you want to allocate for your Lambda function. AWS Lambda allocates CPU power proportional to the memory by using the same ratio as a general purpose Amazon EC2 instance type, such as an M3 type. For example, if you allocate 256 MB memory, your Lambda function will receive twice the CPU share than if you allocated only 128 MB.
  • Timeout: You pay for the AWS resources that are used to run your Lambda function. To prevent your Lambda function from running indefinitely, you specify a timeout. When the specified timeout is reached, AWS Lambda terminates execution of your Lambda function. Currently Lambda supports maximum timeout value of 300 seconds.
  • Execution role: The role that AWS Lambda assumes when it executes the Lambda function. An AWS Lambda function’s execution role grants it permission to access AWS services and resources. You provide this role when you create a function, and Lambda assumes the role when your function is invoked. You can create an execution role for development that has permission to send logs to Amazon CloudWatch.
  • Handler name: The handler method is the entry point that executes your Lambda function code and any event source dependencies that you have included as part of your Lambda function. This setting appears in the function code editor.
  • Environment Variables: Environment variables for Lambda functions enable you to dynamically pass settings to your function code and libraries, without making changes to your code. Environment variables are key-value pairs that you create and modify as part of your function configuration, using either the AWS Lambda Console, the AWS Lambda CLI or the AWS Lambda SDK. AWS Lambda then makes these key value pairs available to your Lambda function code using standard APIs supported by the language, like os.environ for Python functions.
  • Network: AWS Lambda runs your function code securely within a VPC by default. However, to enable your Lambda function to access resources inside your private VPC, you must provide additional VPC-specific configuration information that includes VPC subnet IDs and security group IDs. AWS Lambda uses this information to set up elastic network interfaces (ENIs) that enable your function to connect securely to other resources within your private VPC.
  • Versions: By using versioning, you can manage your in-production function code in AWS Lambda better. When you use versioning in AWS Lambda, you can publish one or more versions of your Lambda function. As a result, you can work with different variations of your Lambda function in your development workflow, such as development, beta, and production. Each Lambda function version has a unique Amazon Resource Name (ARN). After you publish a version, it can’t be changed.
  • Aliases: AWS Lambda also supports creating aliases for each of your Lambda function versions. Conceptually, an AWS Lambda alias is a pointer to a specific Lambda function version. It’s also a resource similar to a Lambda function, and each alias has a unique ARN. Each alias maintains an ARN for the function version to which it points. An alias can only point to a function version, not to another alias. Unlike versions, aliases can be modified. You can update aliases to point to different versions of functions.
  • Layers: You can configure your Lambda function to pull in additional code and content in the form of layers. A layer is a ZIP archive that contains libraries, a custom runtime, or other dependencies. With layers, you can use libraries in your function without needing to include them in your deployment package. Layers let you keep your deployment package small, which makes development easier. You can avoid errors that can occur when you install and package dependencies with your function code. For Node.js, Python, and Ruby functions, you can develop your function code in the Lambda console as long as you keep your deployment package under 3 MB. A function can use up to 5 layers at a time. The total unzipped size of the function and all layers can’t exceed the unzipped deployment package size limit of 250 MB.
  • Tags: Lambda functions can span multiple applications across separate regions. To simplify the process of tracking the frequency and cost of each function invocation, you can use tags.

Your Lambda function code must be written in a stateless style and have no affinity with the underlying compute infrastructure. Your code should expect local file system access, child processes, and similar artifacts to be limited to the lifetime of the request. Persistent state should be stored in Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, or another cloud storage service. Requiring functions to be stateless enables AWS Lambda to launch as many copies of a function as needed to scale to the incoming rate of events and requests.

Hope you have enjoyed this article. In the next blog post, we will create our 1st lambda function using Python.

To get more details on Lambda, please refer below AWS documentation

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/index.html

 

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