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lambda-traffic-shifting-using-aliases.md

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Traffic Shifting Using Aliases

By default, an alias points to a single Lambda function version. When the alias is updated to point to a different function version, incoming request traffic in turn instantly points to the updated version. This exposes that alias to any potential instabilities introduced by the new version. To minimize this impact, you can implement the routing-config parameter of the Lambda alias that allows you to point to two different versions of the Lambda function and dictate what percentage of incoming traffic is sent to each version.

For example, you can specify that only 2 percent of incoming traffic is routed to the new version while you analyze its readiness for a production environment, while the remaining 98 percent is routed to the original version. As the new version matures, you can gradually update the ratio as necessary until you have determined the new version is stable. You can then update the alias to route all traffic to the new version.

Note
You can point an alias to a maximum of two Lambda function versions. In addition:
Both versions should have the same Dead Letter Queues configuration (or no DLQ configuration). Both versions should have the same IAM execution role. When pointing an alias to more than one version, the alias cannot point to $LATEST.

Traffic Shifting Using an Alias (CLI)

To configure an alias to shift traffic between two function versions based on weights by using the CreateAlias operation, you need to configure the routing-config parameter. The example following points an alias to two different Lambda function versions, with version 2 receiving 2 percent of the invocation traffic and the remaining 98 percent invoking version 1.

aws lambda create-alias --name alias name --function-name function-name \ --function-version 1
--routing-config AdditionalVersionWeights={"2"=0.02}

You can update the percentage of incoming traffic to your new version (version 2) by using the UpdateAlias operation. For example, you can boost the invocation traffic to your new version to 5 percent, as shown following.

aws lambda update-alias --name alias name --function-name function-name \
--routing-config AdditionalVersionWeights={"2"=0.05}

To route all traffic to version 2, again use the UpdateAlias operation to change the function-version property to point to version 2. Then set the routing-config parameter to an empty string, as shown following.

aws lambda update-alias --name alias name --function-name function-name \ 
--function-version 2 --routing-config ''

Traffic Shifting Using an Alias (Console)

You can configure traffic shifting with an alias by using the Lambda console as described below:

  1. Open your Lambda function and verify that you have at least two previously published versions. Otherwise, you can go to Introduction to AWS Lambda Versioning to learn more about versioning, and publish your first function version.

  2. For Actions, choose Create alias.

  3. In the Create a new alias window, specify a value for Name*, optionally for Description, and for Version* of the Lambda function that the alias will point to. Here the version is 1.

  4. Under Additional version, specify the following:

    1. Specify a second Lambda function version.

    2. Type a weight value for the function. Weight is the percentage of traffic that is assigned to that version when the alias is invoked. The first version receives the residual weight. For example, if you specify 10 percent to Additional version, the first version automatically is assigned 90 percent.

  5. Choose Create.

Determining Which Version Has Been Invoked

When your alias is shifting traffic between two function versions, there are two ways to determine which Lambda function version has been invoked:

  1. CloudWatch Logs – Lambda automatically emits a START log entry that contains the invoked version ID to CloudWatch Logs for every function invocation. An example follows.

    19:44:37 START RequestId: request id Version: $version

    Lambda uses the Executed Version dimension to filter the metric data by the executed version. This only applies to alias invocations. For more information, see AWS Lambda CloudWatch Dimensions.

  2. Response payload (synchronous invocations) – Responses to synchronous function invocations include an x-amz-executed-version header to indicate which function version has been invoked.