Intermittent timeouts between AWS Lambda and RDS

Question

We are currently experiencing what I can only describe as random intermittent timeouts between AWS Lambda and RDS. After deploying our functions and running them successfully, they can randomly switch to a state of timing out with no configuration changes. Important to note, we are also monitoring the DB connections and can confirm that we aren't running into a max connection issue.

Here are the details on our setup:

Code being executed (using Node.JS v. 6.10):

const mysql = require('mysql');

exports.dbWrite = (events, context, callback) => {

   const db = mysql.createConnection({
       host: <redacted>,
       user: <redacted>,
       password: <redacted>,
       database: <redacted>
   });

   db.connect(function (err) {
       if (err) {
           console.error('error connecting: ' + err.stack);
           return;
       }

       console.log('connected !');
   });

   db.end();

};

We are using the Node.JS mysql library, v. 2.14.1.

From a networking perspective:

• The Lambda function is in the same VPC as our RDS instance
• The Lambda function has subnets assigned, which are associated with a routing table that does not have internet access (not associated with an internet gateway)
• The RDS database is not publicly accessible.
• A security group has been created and associated with the Lambda function that has wide open access on all ports (for now - once DB connectivity is reliable, that will change).
• The above security group has been whitelisted on port 3306 within a security group associated with the RDS instance.

CloudWatch error:

{
  "errorMessage": "connect ETIMEDOUT",
  "errorType": "Error",
  "stackTrace": [
    "Connection._handleConnectTimeout 
     (/var/task/node_modules/mysql/lib/Connection.js:419:13)",
     "Socket.g (events.js:292:16)",
     "emitNone (events.js:86:13)",
     "Socket.emit (events.js:185:7)",
     "Socket._onTimeout (net.js:338:8)",
     "ontimeout (timers.js:386:14)",
     "tryOnTimeout (timers.js:250:5)",
     "Timer.listOnTimeout (timers.js:214:5)",
     "    --------------------",
     "Protocol._enqueue                                     
      (/var/task/node_modules/mysql/lib/protocol/Protocol.js:145:48)",
     "Protocol.handshake 
      (/var/task/node_modules/mysql/lib/protocol/Protocol.js:52:23)",
     "Connection.connect 
      (/var/task/node_modules/mysql/lib/Connection.js:130:18)",
     "Connection._implyConnect 
      (/var/task/node_modules/mysql/lib/Connection.js:461:10)",
     "Connection.query 
      (/var/task/node_modules/mysql/lib/Connection.js:206:8)",
     "/var/task/db-write-lambda.js:52:12",
     "getOrCreateEventTypeId (/var/task/db-write-lambda.js:51:12)",
     "exports.dbWrite (/var/task/db-write-lambda.js:26:9)"
   ]
 }

Amongst the references already reviewed:

• https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=221928 (the invocation ID in CloudWatch is different on all timeout cases)
• pretty much every post in this list: https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=aws+lambda+timeouts+to+RDS

In summary, the fact that these timeouts are intermittent makes this an issue that is totally confusing. AWS support has stated that NodeJS-mysql is a third-party tool, and is technically not supported, but I know folks are using this technique.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Considering that the RDS connections are not exhausted, there is a possibility that the lambda running into a particular subnet is always failing to connect to db. I am assuming that the RDS instances and lambdas are running in separate subnets. One way to investigate this is to check flow logs.

Go to EC2 -> Network interfaces -> search for lambda name -> copy eni ref and then go to VPC -> Subnets -> select the subnet of lambda -> Flow Logs -> search by eni ref.

If you see "REJECT OK" in your flow logs for your db port means that there is missing config in Network ACLs.

Answer 2

Updating this issue: It turns out that the issue was related to the fact that the database connection was being made within the handler! Due to the asynchronous nature of Lambda and Node, this was the culprit for the intermittent timeouts.

Here's the revised code:

const mysql = require('mysql');
const database = getConnection();

exports.dbWrite = (events, context, callback) => {

   database.connect(function (err) {
     if (err) {
          console.error('error connecting: ' + err.stack);
          return;
     }

     console.log('connected !');
});

db.end();


function getConnection() {
   let db = mysql.createConnection({
       host: process.env.DB_HOST,
       user: process.env.DB_USER,
       password: process.env.DB_PASS,
       database: process.env.DB_NAME
   });

   console.log('Host: ' + process.env.DB_HOST);
   console.log('User: ' + process.env.DB_USER);
   console.log('Database: ' + process.env.DB_NAME);

   console.log('Connecting to ' + process.env.DB_HOST + '...');

   return db;
}