Creating a function that returns logs Using the Lambda console Using the CloudWatch console Using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI)Deleting logs

AWS Lambda function logging in PowerShell

AWS Lambda automatically monitors Lambda functions on your behalf and sends function metrics to Amazon CloudWatch. Your Lambda function comes with a CloudWatch Logs log group and a log stream for each instance of your function. The Lambda runtime environment sends details about each invocation to the log stream, and relays logs and other output from your function's code.

This page describes how to produce log output from your Lambda function's code, or access logs using the AWS Command Line Interface, the Lambda console, or the CloudWatch console.

Sections

Creating a function that returns logs
Using the Lambda console
Using the CloudWatch console
Using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI)
Deleting logs

Creating a function that returns logs

After your function finishes processing an event, Lambda sends metrics about the invocation to CloudWatch. You can also create a Lambda function that returns logs for the invocation. To output logs from your function code, you can use cmdlets on Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility , or any logging module that writes to stdout or stderr. The following example uses Write-Host.

Example function/Handler.ps1 – Logging


#Requires -Modules @{ModuleName='AWSPowerShell.NetCore';ModuleVersion='3.3.618.0'}
Write-Host `## Environment variables
Write-Host AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_VERSION=$Env:AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_VERSION
Write-Host AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_GROUP_NAME=$Env:AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_GROUP_NAME
Write-Host AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_STREAM_NAME=$Env:AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_STREAM_NAME
Write-Host AWS_EXECUTION_ENV=$Env:AWS_EXECUTION_ENV
Write-Host AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME=$Env:AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME
Write-Host PATH=$Env:PATH
Write-Host `## Event
Write-Host (ConvertTo-Json -InputObject $LambdaInput -Compress -Depth 3)

Example log format


START RequestId: 56639408-xmpl-435f-9041-ac47ae25ceed Version: $LATEST
Importing module ./Modules/AWSPowerShell.NetCore/3.3.618.0/AWSPowerShell.NetCore.psd1
[Information] - ## Environment variables
[Information] - AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_VERSION=$LATEST
[Information] - AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_GROUP_NAME=/aws/lambda/blank-powershell-function-18CIXMPLHFAJJ
[Information] - AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_STREAM_NAME=2020/04/01/[$LATEST]53c5xmpl52d64ed3a744724d9c201089
[Information] - AWS_EXECUTION_ENV=AWS_Lambda_dotnetcore2.1_powershell_1.0.0
[Information] - AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME=blank-powershell-function-18CIXMPLHFAJJ
[Information] - PATH=/var/lang/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin/:/bin:/opt/bin
[Information] - ## Event
[Information] - 
{
    "Records": [
        {
            "messageId": "19dd0b57-b21e-4ac1-bd88-01bbb068cb78",
            "receiptHandle": "MessageReceiptHandle",
            "body": "Hello from SQS!",
            "attributes": {
                "ApproximateReceiveCount": "1",
                "SentTimestamp": "1523232000000",
                "SenderId": "123456789012",
                "ApproximateFirstReceiveTimestamp": "1523232000001"
            },
            ...
END RequestId: 56639408-xmpl-435f-9041-ac47ae25ceed
REPORT RequestId: 56639408-xmpl-435f-9041-ac47ae25ceed	Duration: 3906.38 ms	Billed Duration: 4000 ms	Memory Size: 512 MB	Max Memory Used: 367 MB	Init Duration: 5960.19 ms	
XRAY TraceId: 1-5e843da6-733cxmple7d0c3c020510040	SegmentId: 3913xmpl20999446	Sampled: true

The .NET runtime logs the START, END, and REPORT lines for each invocation. The report line provides the following details.

Report Log

RequestId – The unique request ID for the invocation.
Duration – The amount of time that your function's handler method spent processing the event.
Billed Duration – The amount of time billed for the invocation.
Memory Size – The amount of memory allocated to the function.
Max Memory Used – The amount of memory used by the function.
Init Duration – For the first request served, the amount of time it took the runtime to load the function and run code outside of the handler method.
XRAY TraceId – For traced requests, the AWS X-Ray trace ID.
SegmentId – For traced requests, the X-Ray segment ID.
Sampled – For traced requests, the sampling result.

Using the Lambda console

You can use the Lambda console to view log output after you invoke a Lambda function. For more information, see Accessing Amazon CloudWatch logs for AWS Lambda.

Using the CloudWatch console

You can use the Amazon CloudWatch console to view logs for all Lambda function invocations.

To view logs on the CloudWatch console

Open the Log groups page on the CloudWatch console.
Choose the log group for your function (/aws/lambda/your-function-name).
Choose a log stream.

Each log stream corresponds to an instance of your function. A log stream appears when you update your Lambda function, and when additional instances are created to handle multiple concurrent invocations. To find logs for a specific invocation, we recommend intrumenting your function with AWS X-Ray. X-Ray records details about the request and the log stream in the trace.

To use a sample application that correlates logs and traces with X-Ray, see Error processor sample application for AWS Lambda.

Using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI)

The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is an open source tool that enables you to interact with AWS services using commands in your command-line shell. To complete the steps in this section, you need the following:

You can use the AWS CLI to retrieve logs for an invocation using the --log-type command option. The response contains a LogResult field that contains up to 4 KB of base64-encoded logs from the invocation.

Example retrieve a log ID

The following example shows how to retrieve a log ID from the LogResult field for a function named my-function.


aws lambda invoke --function-name my-function out --log-type Tail

You should see the following output:


{
    "StatusCode": 200,
    "LogResult": "U1RBUlQgUmVxdWVzdElkOiA4N2QwNDRiOC1mMTU0LTExZTgtOGNkYS0yOTc0YzVlNGZiMjEgVmVyc2lvb...",
    "ExecutedVersion": "$LATEST"
}

Example decode the logs

In the same command prompt, use the base64 utility to decode the logs. The following example shows how to retrieve base64-encoded logs for my-function.


aws lambda invoke --function-name my-function out --log-type Tail \
--query 'LogResult' --output text |  base64 -d

You should see the following output:


START RequestId: 57f231fb-1730-4395-85cb-4f71bd2b87b8 Version: $LATEST
"AWS_SESSION_TOKEN": "AgoJb3JpZ2luX2VjELj...", "_X_AMZN_TRACE_ID": "Root=1-5d02e5ca-f5792818b6fe8368e5b51d50;Parent=191db58857df8395;Sampled=0"",ask/lib:/opt/lib",
END RequestId: 57f231fb-1730-4395-85cb-4f71bd2b87b8
REPORT RequestId: 57f231fb-1730-4395-85cb-4f71bd2b87b8  Duration: 79.67 ms      Billed Duration: 80 ms         Memory Size: 128 MB     Max Memory Used: 73 MB

The base64 utility is available on Linux, macOS, and Ubuntu on Windows. macOS users may need to use base64 -D.

Example get-logs.sh script

In the same command prompt, use the following script to download the last five log events. The script uses sed to remove quotes from the output file, and sleeps for 15 seconds to allow time for the logs to become available. The output includes the response from Lambda and the output from the get-log-events command.

Copy the contents of the following code sample and save in your Lambda project directory as get-logs.sh.


#!/bin/bash
aws lambda invoke --function-name my-function --payload '{"key": "value"}' out
sed -i'' -e 's/"//g' out
sleep 15
aws logs get-log-events --log-group-name /aws/lambda/my-function --log-stream-name $(cat out) --limit 5

Example macOS and Linux (only)

In the same command prompt, macOS and Linux users may need to run the following command to ensure the script is executable.


chmod -R 755 get-logs.sh

Example retrieve the last five log events

In the same command prompt, run the following script to get the last five log events.


./get-logs.sh

You should see the following output:


{
    "StatusCode": 200,
    "ExecutedVersion": "$LATEST"
}
{
    "events": [
        {
            "timestamp": 1559763003171,
            "message": "START RequestId: 4ce9340a-b765-490f-ad8a-02ab3415e2bf Version: $LATEST\n",
            "ingestionTime": 1559763003309
        },
        {
            "timestamp": 1559763003173,
            "message": "2019-06-05T19:30:03.173Z\t4ce9340a-b765-490f-ad8a-02ab3415e2bf\tINFO\tENVIRONMENT VARIABLES\r{\r  \"AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_VERSION\": \"$LATEST\",\r ...",
            "ingestionTime": 1559763018353
        },
        {
            "timestamp": 1559763003173,
            "message": "2019-06-05T19:30:03.173Z\t4ce9340a-b765-490f-ad8a-02ab3415e2bf\tINFO\tEVENT\r{\r  \"key\": \"value\"\r}\n",
            "ingestionTime": 1559763018353
        },
        {
            "timestamp": 1559763003218,
            "message": "END RequestId: 4ce9340a-b765-490f-ad8a-02ab3415e2bf\n",
            "ingestionTime": 1559763018353
        },
        {
            "timestamp": 1559763003218,
            "message": "REPORT RequestId: 4ce9340a-b765-490f-ad8a-02ab3415e2bf\tDuration: 26.73 ms\tBilled Duration: 27 ms \tMemory Size: 128 MB\tMax Memory Used: 75 MB\t\n",
            "ingestionTime": 1559763018353
        }
    ],
    "nextForwardToken": "f/34783877304859518393868359594929986069206639495374241795",
    "nextBackwardToken": "b/34783877303811383369537420289090800615709599058929582080"
}

Deleting logs

Log groups aren't deleted automatically when you delete a function. To avoid storing logs indefinitely, delete the log group, or configure a retention period after which logs are deleted automatically.

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