CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsamazon-web-servicesvisual-studio-codeaws-lambdaaws-serverless
zak
zak

Reputation: 155

How is it possible to debug an AWS Lambda function from remote?

We are taking over a whole application from another company, and they have built the whole pipeline for deploying, but we still don't have access to it. What we know, that there's a lambda function is running triggered by certain SNS messages, and all the code is in Node.js, and the development is in VS Code. We also have issues debugging it locally, but it's a bigger problem, that we need to debug it remotely.

Since I am new in AWS services, I'd really appreciate if somebody could help me in this. Does it necessary to open a port? How is it possible to connect to a lambda? Do we need serverless to setup? Many unresolved questions.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 5692

Answers (4)

Antony Booth
Antony Booth

Reputation: 51

The way AWS have you 'remote' debug is to execute the lambda locally through Docker as it proxies the requests to the cloud for you, using AWS Toolkit. You have a lambda running on your local computer via docker that can access resources on the cloud, such as databases, api's etc. You can step through debug them using editors like vscode.

I use SAM with a template.yaml . This way, I can pass event data to the handler, reference dependency layers (shared code libraries) and have a deployment manifest to create a Cloudformation stack (release instance with history and resource management).

Debugging can be a bit slow as it compiles, deploys to Docker and invokes, but allows step through debugging and variable inspection.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/serverless-sam-cli-using-debugging.html

Upvotes: 4

Adam Smooch
Adam Smooch

Reputation: 1322

While far from ideal, any console-printing actions would likely get logged to CloudWatch, which you could then access to go through printed data.

For local debugging, there are many Github projects with Dockerfiles which which you can build a docker container locally, just like AWS does when your Lambda is invoked.

Upvotes: 0

serkan_ozal
serkan_ozal

Reputation: 194

Thundra (https://www.thundra.io/aws-lambda-debugger) has live/remote debugging support for AWS Lambda through its native IDE plugins (VSCode and IntelliJ IDEA).

Upvotes: 2

Ashish Modi
Ashish Modi

Reputation: 7770

I don't think there is way you can debug a lambda function remotely. Your best bet is to download the code on local machine, setup the env variables as you have set up on your lambda function and take it from there.

Remember at the end of the day lambda is just a container which is running the code for you. AWS doesn't allow any ssh or connection with those container. In your case you should be able to debug it on local till you have the same env variables. There are other things as well which are lambda specific but considering it is a running code which you have got so you should be able to find out the issue.

Hope it makes sense.

Upvotes: 3

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