Deploy Node.js Lambda functions with .zip file archives - Amazon Lambda
PrerequisitesUpdating a function with no dependenciesUpdating a function with additional dependencies
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Deploy Node.js Lambda functions with .zip file archives

Your Amazon Lambda function's code consists of scripts or compiled programs and their dependencies. You use a deployment package to deploy your function code to Lambda. Lambda supports two types of deployment packages: container images and .zip file archives.

To create the deployment package for a .zip file archive, you can use a built-in .zip file archive utility or any other .zip file utility (such as 7zip) for your command line tool. Note the following requirements for using a .zip file as your deployment package:

  • The .zip file contains your function's code and any dependencies used to run your function's code (if applicable) on Lambda. If your function depends only on standard libraries, or Amazon SDK libraries, you don't need to include these libraries in your .zip file. These libraries are included with the supported Lambda runtime environments.

  • If the .zip file is larger than 50 MB, we recommend uploading it to your function from an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket.

  • If your deployment package contains native libraries, you can build the deployment package with Amazon Serverless Application Model (Amazon SAM). You can use the Amazon SAM CLI sam build command with the --use-container to create your deployment package. This option builds a deployment package inside a Docker image that is compatible with the Lambda execution environment.

    For more information, see sam build in the Amazon Serverless Application Model Developer Guide.

  • You need to build the deployment package to be compatible with this instruction set architecture of the function.

  • Lambda uses POSIX file permissions, so you may need to set permissions for the deployment package folder before you create the .zip file archive.

Prerequisites

The Amazon CLI is an open-source tool that enables you to interact with Amazon services using commands in your command line shell. To complete the steps in this section, you must have the following:

Updating a function with no dependencies

To update a function by using the Lambda API, use the UpdateFunctionCode operation. Create an archive that contains your function code, and upload it using the Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI).

To update a Node.js function with no dependencies

  1. Create a .zip file archive.

    zip function.zip index.js

  2. To upload the package, use the update-function-code command.

    aws lambda update-function-code --function-name my-function --zip-file fileb://function.zip

    You should see the following output:

    {
    "FunctionName": "my-function",
    "FunctionArn": "arn:aws-cn:lambda:us-west-2:123456789012:function:my-function",
    "Runtime": "nodejs12.x",
    "Role": "arn:aws-cn:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-role",
    "Handler": "index.handler",
    "CodeSha256": "Qf0hMc1I2di6YFMi9aXm3JtGTmcDbjniEuiYonYptAk=",
    "Version": "$LATEST",
    "TracingConfig": {
        "Mode": "Active"
    },
    "RevisionId": "983ed1e3-ca8e-434b-8dc1-7d72ebadd83d",
    ...
}

Updating a function with additional dependencies

If your function depends on libraries other than the Amazon SDK for JavaScript, use npm to include them in your deployment package. Ensure that the Node.js version in your local environment matches the Node.js version of your function. If any of the libraries use native code, use an Amazon Linux environment to create the deployment package.

You can add the SDK for JavaScript to the deployment package if you need a newer version than the one included on the runtime, or to ensure that the version doesn't change in the future.

If your deployment package contains native libraries, you can build the deployment package with Amazon Serverless Application Model (Amazon SAM). You can use the Amazon SAM CLI sam build command with the --use-container to create your deployment package. This option builds a deployment package inside a Docker image that is compatible with the Lambda execution environment.

For more information, see sam build in the Amazon Serverless Application Model Developer Guide.

As an alternative, you can create the deployment package using an Amazon EC2 instance that provides an Amazon Linux environment. For instructions, see Using Packages and Native nodejs Modules in Amazon in the Amazon compute blog.

To update a Node.js function with dependencies

  1. Open a command line terminal or shell. Ensure that the Node.js version in your local environment matches the Node.js version of your function.

  2. Create a folder for the deployment package. The following steps assume that the folder is named my-function.

  3. Install libraries in the node_modules directory using the npm install command.

    npm install aws-xray-sdk

    This creates a folder structure that's similar to the following:

    ~/my-function
├── index.js
└── node_modules
    ├── async
    ├── async-listener
    ├── atomic-batcher
    ├── aws-sdk
    ├── aws-xray-sdk
    ├── aws-xray-sdk-core

  4. Create a .zip file that contains the contents of your project folder. Use the r (recursive) option to ensure that zip compresses the subfolders.

    zip -r function.zip .

  5. Upload the package using the update-function-code command.

    aws lambda update-function-code --function-name my-function --zip-file fileb://function.zip

    You should see the following output:

    {
    "FunctionName": "my-function",
    "FunctionArn": "arn:aws-cn:lambda:us-east-2:123456789012:function:my-function",
    "Runtime": "nodejs12.x",
    "Role": "arn:aws-cn:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-role",
    "Handler": "index.handler",
    "CodeSha256": "Qf0hMc1I2di6YFMi9aXm3JtGTmcDbjniEuiYonYptAk=",
    "Version": "$LATEST",
    "TracingConfig": {
        "Mode": "Active"
    },
    "RevisionId": "983ed1e3-ca8e-434b-8dc1-7d72ebadd83d",
    ...
}

In addition to code and libraries, your deployment package can also contain executable files and other resources. For more information, see Running Arbitrary Executables in Amazon Lambda in the Amazon Compute Blog.