aws-sdk services timing out in lambda nodejs

Question

I am currently working on a lambda function in which I have to send a message to an SQS queue. The Lambda function sits inside of a VPC to allow connection with a peered network that the Function makes requests to.

Whenever I try to send the message to SQS however code execution seems to timeout consistently. I had the same issue when I was trying to send commands to DynamoDB.

```
import { SQSClient, SendMessageCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-sqs";

const sqsClient = new SQSClient({region: 'us-east-1'});
export const handler = async (event, context, callback) => {
  const response = await sqsClient.send(new SendMessageCommand(messageParams));
  console.log(response); // <----- Doesn't reach here
  return callback(null, 'OK'); 
};
```

IAM Permissions are all correct and the Security Group allows all traffic (When set to a VPC)

So far, to specifically target the timeout problem, I've tried putting the function in a private subnet, public subnet, placing it in no VPC, replacing SDK v3 with aws-sdk v2 via a layer. None of these seem to have any impact on the issue.

I haven't used VPC endpoints yet but I guess that shouldn't be necessary when the function is not connected to a VPC or in a public subnet?

Answer

Consistent timeouts when trying to call a public API are usually caused by network misconfiguration which prevents the function from being able to reach the internet. In the case of Lambda functions in a VPC, in order to reach the internet they must be configured in a private subnet with a route through a NAT Gateway.  [See this article for more info on how this should be configured](https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/internet-access-lambda-function). Alternatively you can add the appropriate VPC endpoints to allow you function to be able to connect with the required APIs privately.

aws-sdk services timing out in lambda nodejs

Relevant content