aws lambda publish-layer-version fails silently

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By Brian Fitzgerald

Introduction

aws lambda publish-layer-version fails silently. Out of memory is the root cause. Changing the instance type fixes the problem.

Symptoms

aws lambda publish-layer-version produces no output. The exit status is nonzero.

[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# aws lambda publish-layer-version --layer-name oracle-instant-client-layer --zip-file fileb://oracle-instant-client-layer.zip  --compatible-runtimes python3.7


[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# echo $?
255

Investigation

Investigation using strace reveals an out of memory condition

[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# uname -a
Linux ip-172-31-62-89.ec2.internal 4.14.186-146.268.amzn2.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Jul 14 18:16:52 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# strace -f -o tr aws lambda publish-layer-version --layer-name oracle-instant-client-layer --zip-file fileb://oracle-instant-client-layer.zip  --compatible-runtimes python3.7
[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# grep ENOMEM tr
3576  mmap(NULL, 272371712, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)
3576  mmap(NULL, 272502784, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)

The instance type is t2.micro. Physical memory is 983 MB

[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# curl -X GET http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-type                                                  t2.micro[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]#
[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            983          63         742           0         177         784
Swap:             0           0           0

Solution

Change the instance type to t2.small. Re-run the command, The normal json output appears. The exit status is 0.

[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# aws lambda publish-layer-version --layer-name oracle-instant-client-layer --zip-file fileb://oracle-instant-client-layer.zip  --compatible-runtimes python3.7
{
    "LayerVersionArn": "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:999999999999:layer:oracle-instant-client-layer:2",
    "Description": "",
    "CreatedDate": "2020-08-02T21:03:38.787+0000",
    "LayerArn": "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:999999999999:layer:oracle-instant-client-layer",
    "Content": {
        "CodeSize": 51069060,
        "CodeSha256": "B1DGnA385aL50A8mrKoq1FOsIsEtMerbhdYCwd485YA=",
        "Location": "https://prod-04-2014-layers. etc."
    },
    "Version": 2,
    "CompatibleRuntimes": [
        "python3.7"
    ]
}
[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# echo $?
0

Physical memory us 1991 MB.

[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# curl -X GET http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-type
t2.small
[root@ip-172-31-62-89 layers]# free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           1991          63        1712           0         215        1788
Swap:             0           0           0

Conclusion

An AWS CLI on EC2 produced no output and exited silently. Investigation uncovered an out of memory condition, which was fixed by upgrading the instance type.

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