Slow import time for clients

[mk0sojo]

Checkboxes for prior research

• I've gone through Developer Guide and API reference
• I've checked AWS Forums and StackOverflow.
• I've searched for previous similar issues and didn't find any solution.

Describe the bug

Currently upgrading from AWS SDK v2 to AWS SDK v3 and importing @aws-sdk/client-xxx is slower than I would expect and is causing very slow cold starts (close to 1 second).

SDK version number

@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb@latest, @aws-sdk/client-s3, @aws-sdk/client-ssm

Which JavaScript Runtime is this issue in?

Node.js

Details of the browser/Node.js/ReactNative version

Node 18 lambda

Reproduction Steps

1. In the AWS console create a new Node 18 lambda. Set the memory to 1024 MB
2. It is pre populated with the following code:

export const handler = async (event) => {
  // TODO implement
  const response = {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify('Hello from Lambda!'),
  };
  return response;
};

3. Test run the code, this returns something like this:

Response
{
  "statusCode": 200,
  "body": "\"Hello from Lambda!\""
}

Function Logs
START RequestId: 12248941-44db-4e8c-93fa-458c0080ad45 Version: $LATEST
END RequestId: 12248941-44db-4e8c-93fa-458c0080ad45
REPORT RequestId: 12248941-44db-4e8c-93fa-458c0080ad45	Duration: 2.66 ms	Billed Duration: 3 ms	Memory Size: 1024 MB	Max Memory Used: 67 MB	Init Duration: 172.79 ms

Init duration (cold start) here is 172.79 ms which is expected.

4. Now add a few imports to the top of the file so it looks like this:

import { DynamoDBClient, GetItemCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb"
import { S3Client, GetObjectCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
import { SSMClient, GetParameterCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-ssm";

export const handler = async (event) => {
  // TODO implement
  const response = {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify('Hello from Lambda!'),
  };
  return response;
};

5. Deploy and test. This will return something like this:

Response
{
  "statusCode": 200,
  "body": "\"Hello from Lambda!\""
}

Function Logs
START RequestId: fa753048-9567-4836-b9e7-278df1a9767f Version: $LATEST
END RequestId: fa753048-9567-4836-b9e7-278df1a9767f
REPORT RequestId: fa753048-9567-4836-b9e7-278df1a9767f	Duration: 2.56 ms	Billed Duration: 3 ms	Memory Size: 1024 MB	Max Memory Used: 115 MB	Init Duration: 917.74 ms

Request ID
fa753048-9567-4836-b9e7-278df1a9767f

The cold start time is now 917.74 ms. This seems quite large (and this is before creating any clients (and definately more than AWS SDK v2). Is this expected?

Observed Behavior

Slow cold start time when importing AWS SDK clients.

Expected Behavior

A bit faster?

Possible Solution

No response

Additional Information/Context

No response

[kuhe]

We recommend creating a bundled application if cold start times are a concern.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/reduce-lambda-cold-start-times-migrate-to-aws-sdk-for-javascript-v3/

[mk0sojo]

When I bundle it it takes around 450 ms for a cold start which is similar to v2 I think.

[yenfryherrerafeliz]

@mk0sojo I am glad to hear that bundling the SDK helped you in reducing the cold start times. It is actually what we recommend as @kuhe said. I am going to resolve this issue now, but please if you have anything else that we can help you with, feel free of opening a new issue.

Thanks!

[github-actions]

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs and link to relevant comments in this thread.