@aws-cdk/aws-synthetics-alpha

Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics Construct Library

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All classes with the Cfn prefix in this module (CFN Resources) are always stable and safe to use.

The APIs of higher level constructs in this module are in developer preview before they become stable. We will only make breaking changes to address unforeseen API issues. Therefore, these APIs are not subject to Semantic Versioning, and breaking changes will be announced in release notes. This means that while you may use them, you may need to update your source code when upgrading to a newer version of this package.

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Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics allow you to monitor your application by generating synthetic traffic. The traffic is produced by a canary: a configurable script that runs on a schedule. You configure the canary script to follow the same routes and perform the same actions as a user, which allows you to continually verify your user experience even when you don't have any traffic on your applications.

Canary

To illustrate how to use a canary, assume your application defines the following endpoint:

% curl "https://api.example.com/user/books/topbook/"
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

The below code defines a canary that will hit the books/topbook endpoint every 5 minutes:

const canary = new synthetics.Canary(this, 'MyCanary', {
  schedule: synthetics.Schedule.rate(Duration.minutes(5)),
  test: synthetics.Test.custom({
    code: synthetics.Code.fromAsset(path.join(__dirname, 'canary')),
    handler: 'index.handler',
  }),
  runtime: synthetics.Runtime.SYNTHETICS_NODEJS_PUPPETEER_3_1,
  environmentVariables: {
      stage: 'prod',
  },
});

The following is an example of an index.js file which exports the handler function:

const synthetics = require('Synthetics');
const log = require('SyntheticsLogger');

const pageLoadBlueprint = async function () {
    // Configure the stage of the API using environment variables
    const url = `https://api.example.com/${process.env.stage}/user/books/topbook/`;

    const page = await synthetics.getPage();
    const response = await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded', timeout: 30000 });
    // Wait for page to render. Increase or decrease wait time based on endpoint being monitored.
    await page.waitFor(15000);
    // This will take a screenshot that will be included in test output artifacts.
    await synthetics.takeScreenshot('loaded', 'loaded');
    const pageTitle = await page.title();
    log.info('Page title: ' + pageTitle);
    if (response.status() !== 200) {
        throw 'Failed to load page!';
    }
};

exports.handler = async () => {
    return await pageLoadBlueprint();
};

Note: The function must be called handler.

The canary will automatically produce a CloudWatch Dashboard:

The Canary code will be executed in a lambda function created by Synthetics on your behalf. The Lambda function includes a custom runtime provided by Synthetics. The provided runtime includes a variety of handy tools such as Puppeteer (for nodejs based one) and Chromium.

To learn more about Synthetics capabilities, check out the docs.

Canary Schedule

You can specify the schedule on which a canary runs by providing a Schedule object to the schedule property.

Configure a run rate of up to 60 minutes with Schedule.rate:

Schedule.rate(Duration.minutes(5)), // Runs every 5 minutes.

You can also specify a cron expression via Schedule.expression:

Schedule.expression('cron(0 0,8,16 * * ? *)'), // Run at 12am, 8am, 4pm UTC every day

If you want the canary to run just once upon deployment, you can use Schedule.once().

Configuring the Canary Script

To configure the script the canary executes, use the test property. The test property accepts a Test instance that can be initialized by the Test class static methods. Currently, the only implemented method is Test.custom(), which allows you to bring your own code. In the future, other methods will be added. Test.custom() accepts code and handler properties -- both are required by Synthetics to create a lambda function on your behalf.

The synthetics.Code class exposes static methods to bundle your code artifacts:

• code.fromInline(code) - specify an inline script.
• code.fromAsset(path) - specify a .zip file or a directory in the local filesystem which will be zipped and uploaded to S3 on deployment. See the above Note for directory structure.
• code.fromBucket(bucket, key[, objectVersion]) - specify an S3 object that contains the .zip file of your runtime code. See the above Note for directory structure.

Using the Code class static initializers:

// To supply the code inline:
new synthetics.Canary(this, 'Inline Canary', {
  test: synthetics.Test.custom({
    code: synthetics.Code.fromInline('/* Synthetics handler code */'),
    handler: 'index.handler', // must be 'index.handler'
  }),
  runtime: synthetics.Runtime.SYNTHETICS_NODEJS_PUPPETEER_3_1,
});

// To supply the code from your local filesystem:
new synthetics.Canary(this, 'Asset Canary', {
  test: synthetics.Test.custom({
    code: synthetics.Code.fromAsset(path.join(__dirname, 'canary')),
    handler: 'index.handler', // must end with '.handler'
  }),
  runtime: synthetics.Runtime.SYNTHETICS_NODEJS_PUPPETEER_3_1,
});

// To supply the code from a S3 bucket:
import * as s3 from '@aws-cdk/aws-s3';
const bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'Code Bucket');
new synthetics.Canary(this, 'Bucket Canary', {
  test: synthetics.Test.custom({
    code: synthetics.Code.fromBucket(bucket, 'canary.zip'),
    handler: 'index.handler', // must end with '.handler'
  }),
  runtime: synthetics.Runtime.SYNTHETICS_NODEJS_PUPPETEER_3_1,
});

Note: Synthetics have a specified folder structure for canaries. For Node scripts supplied via code.fromAsset() or code.fromBucket(), the canary resource requires the following folder structure:

canary/
├── nodejs/
   ├── node_modules/
        ├── <filename>.js

For Python scripts supplied via code.fromAsset() or code.fromBucket(), the canary resource requires the following folder structure:

canary/
├── python/
    ├── <filename>.py

See Synthetics docs.

Alarms

You can configure a CloudWatch Alarm on a canary metric. Metrics are emitted by CloudWatch automatically and can be accessed by the following APIs:

• canary.metricSuccessPercent() - percentage of successful canary runs over a given time
• canary.metricDuration() - how much time each canary run takes, in seconds.
• canary.metricFailed() - number of failed canary runs over a given time

Create an alarm that tracks the canary metric:

import * as cloudwatch from '@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch';
new cloudwatch.Alarm(this, 'CanaryAlarm', {
  metric: canary.metricSuccessPercent(),
  evaluationPeriods: 2,
  threshold: 90,
  comparisonOperator: cloudwatch.ComparisonOperator.LESS_THAN_THRESHOLD,
});

Future Work

• Add blueprints to the Test class #9613.