Chapter 7. Automating operational tasks with Lambda
This chapter covers
- Creating a Lambda function to perform periodic health checks
- Triggering a Lambda function with CloudWatch events
- Searching through your Lambda function’s logs with CloudWatch
- Monitoring Lambda functions with CloudWatch alarms
- Configuring IAM roles so Lambda functions can access other services
- Web application, data processing, and IoT with AWS Lambda
- Limitations of AWS Lambda
This chapter is about adding a new tool to your toolbox. The tool we’re talking about, AWS Lambda, is as flexible as a Swiss Army Knife. You don’t need a virtual machine to run your own code anymore, as AWS Lambda offers execution environments for Java, Node.js, C#, Python, and Go. All you have to do is to implement a function, upload your code, and configure the execution environment. Afterward, your code is executed within a fully managed computing environment. AWS Lambda is well-integrated with all parts of AWS, enabling you to easily automate operations tasks within your infrastructure. We use AWS to automate our infrastructure regularly. For example, we use it to add and remove instances to a container cluster based on a custom algorithm, and to process and analyze log files.