Datadog Serverless Plugin

Datadog recommends the Serverless Framework Plugin for developers using the Serverless Framework to deploy their serverless applications. The plugin automatically enables instrumentation for your Python and Node.js applications to collect metrics, traces, and logs by:

• Installing the Datadog Lambda library to your Lambda functions as a Lambda layer.
• Installing the Datadog Lambda Extension to your Lambda functions as a Lambda layer (addExtension) or subscribing the Datadog Forwarder to your Lambda functions' log groups (forwarderArn).
• Making the required configuration changes, such as adding environment variables, to your Lambda functions.

Getting started

To quickly get started, follow the installation instructions for Python or Node.js, and view your function's enhanced metrics, traces, and logs in Datadog. These instructions will get you a basic working setup.

Upgrade

Each version of the plugin is published with a specific set of versions of the Datadog Lambda layers. To pick up new features and bug fixes provided by the latest versions of Datadog Lambda layers, upgrade the serverless framework plugin. Test the new version before applying it on your production applications.

More configuration options

To further configure your plugin, use the following custom parameters in your serverless.yml:

Parameter	Description
flushMetricsToLogs	Send custom metrics by using logs with the Datadog Forwarder Lambda function (recommended). Defaults to true. If you disable this parameter, it's required to set apiKey (or apiKMSKey if encrypted). flushMetricsToLogs is ignored when addExtension is true.
site	Set which Datadog site to send data, this is only used when flushMetricsToLogs is false or addExtension is true. Possible values are datadoghq.com, datadoghq.eu, us3.datadoghq.com and ddog-gov.com. The default is datadoghq.com.
apiKey	Datadog API Key, only needed when flushMetricsToLogs is false or addExtension is true. Defining apiKey will add the Datadog API key directly to your Lambda functions as an environment variable. For more information about getting a Datadog API key, see the API key documentation.
apiKMSKey	Datadog API Key encrypted using KMS. Use this parameter in place of apiKey when flushMetricsToLogs is false or addExtension is true, and you are using KMS encryption. Defining apiKMSKey will add the Datadog API Key directly to your Lambda functions as an environment variable.
monitorsApiKey	Datadog API Key. Only needed when using plugin to create monitors for your functions and when monitors is defined. Separate from apiKey with your function, monitorsApiKey is only used to create monitors through the Datadog Monitors API. You may use the same API key for both apiKey and monitorsApiKey.
monitorsAppKey	Datadog Application Key. Only needed when using plugin to create monitors for your function and when monitors is defined.
addLayers	Whether to install the Datadog Lambda library as a layer. Defaults to true. Set to false when you plan to package the Datadog Lambda library to your function's deployment package on your own so that you can install a specific version of the Datadog Lambda library (Python or Node.js).
addExtension	Whether to install the Datadog Lambda Extension as a layer. Defaults to false. When enabled, it's required to set the apiKey (or apiKMSKey) parameter. Learn more about the Lambda Extension Layer here. Note: AWS only supports Lambda Extensions for certain runtimes.
logLevel	The log level, set to DEBUG for extended logging.
enableXrayTracing	Set true to enable X-Ray tracing on the Lambda functions and API Gateway integrations. Defaults to false.
enableDDTracing	Enable Datadog tracing on the Lambda function. Note: This applies only to integrations using the Datadog Extension. Defaults to true.
enableDDLogs	Enable Datadog log collection for the Lambda function. Note: This setting has no effect on logs sent via the Datadog Forwarder. Defaults to true.
subscribeToApiGatewayLogs	Enable automatic subscription of the Datadog Forwarder to API Gateway log groups. Defaults to true.
subscribeToHttpApiLogs	Enable automatic subscription of the Datadog Forwarder to Http-api log groups. Defaults to true.
subscribeToWebsocketLogs	Enable automatic subscription of the Datadog Forwarder to Websocket log groups. Defaults to true.
forwarderArn	Setting this parameter subscribes the given Datadog forwarder to the Lambda functions’ CloudWatch log groups. Required when enableDDTracing is set to true unless the subscription is otherwise applied. For example, if a Datadog Forwarder subscription is applied via Datadog's AWS Integration, then forwarderArn is not required.
integrationTesting	Set true when running integration tests. This will bypass the validation of the Forwarder ARN and the addition of Datadog Monitor output links. Defaults to false.
enableTags	When set, automatically tag the Lambda functions with the service and env tags using the service and stage values from the serverless application definition. It does NOT override if a service or env tag already exists. Defaults to true.
injectLogContext	When set, the lambda layer will automatically patch console.log with Datadog's tracing ids. Defaults to true.
exclude	When set, this plugin will ignore all specified functions. Use this parameter if you have any functions that should not include Datadog functionality. Defaults to [].
enabled	When set to false, the Datadog plugin will stay inactive. Defaults to true. You can control this option using an environment variable, e.g. enabled: ${strToBool(${env:DD_PLUGIN_ENABLED, true})}, to activate/deactivate the plugin during deployment. Alternatively, you can also use the value passed in through --stage to control this option, see example.
monitors	When defined, the Datadog plugin will configure monitors for the deployed function. You must also have monitorsApiKey and monitorsAppKey defined. To learn how to define monitors, see To Enable and Configure a Recommended Serverless Monitor.
customHandler	When set, the specified handler is set as the handler for all the functions. By deafult, the handler is set to /opt/nodejs/node_modules/datadog-lambda-js/handler.handler if addLayers is set to true, or node_modules/datadog-lambda-js/dist/handler.handler if addLayers is set to false

To use any of these parameters, add a custom > datadog section to your serverless.yml similar to this example:

custom:
  datadog:
    flushMetricsToLogs: true
    apiKey: "{Datadog_API_Key}"
    apiKMSKey: "{Encrypted_Datadog_API_Key}"
    monitorsApiKey: "{Datadog_API_Key}"
    monitorsAppKey: "{Datadog_Application_Key}"
    addLayers: true
    logLevel: "info"
    enableXrayTracing: false
    enableDDTracing: true
    enableDDLogs: true
    subscribeToApiGatewayLogs: true
    forwarderArn: arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:000000000000:function:datadog-forwarder
    enableTags: true
    injectLogContext: true
    exclude:
      - dd-excluded-function

Note: If you use webpack, Datadog recommends using the prebuilt layers by setting addLayers to true, which is the default, and add datadog-lambda-js and dd-trace to the externals section of your webpack config.

TypeScript

If you are using serverless-typescript, make sure that serverless-datadog is above the serverless-typescript entry in your serverless.yml. The plugin will automatically detect .ts files.

plugins:
  - serverless-plugin-datadog
  - serverless-typescript

If you use TypeScript, you may encounter the error of missing type definitions. A missing type definition happens when you use the prebuilt layers (for example, set addLayers to true, which is the default) and need to import helper functions from the datadog-lambda-js and dd-trace packages to submit custom metrics or instrument a specific function. To resolve the error, add datadog-lambda-js and dd-trace to the devDependencies list of your project's package.json.

Webpack

dd-trace is known to be not compatible with webpack due to the use of conditional import and other issues. If using webpack, make sure to mark datadog-lambda-js and dd-trace as externals for webpack, so webpack knows these dependencies will be available in the runtime. You should also remove datadog-lambda-js and dd-trace from package.json and the build process to ensure you're using the versions provided by the Datadog Lambda Layer.

serverless-webpack

If using serverless-webpack, make sure to also exclude datadog-lambda-js and dd-trace in your serverless.yml in addition to declaring them as external in your webpack config file.

webpack.config.js

var nodeExternals = require("webpack-node-externals");

module.exports = {
  // we use webpack-node-externals to excludes all node deps.
  // You can manually set the externals too.
  externals: [nodeExternals(), "dd-trace", "datadog-lambda-js"],
};

serverless.yml

custom:
  webpack:
    includeModules:
      forceExclude:
        - dd-trace
        - datadog-lambda-js

Forwarder

The Datadog Forwarder Lambda function needs to be installed and subscribed to your Lambda functions' log groups. The plugin automatically creates the log subscriptions when the Forwarder's ARN is supplied via the forwarderArn option.

If you run into the following error, double check the supplied Forwarder ARN is correct and ensure it is from the same region and account where your serverless application is deployed.

An error occurred: GetaccountapiLogGroupSubscription - Could not execute the lambda function. Make sure you have given CloudWatch Logs permission to execute your function. (Service: AWSLogs; Status Code: 400; Error Code: InvalidParameterException).

Disable Plugin for Particular Environment

If you'd like to turn off the plugin based on the environment (passed via --stage), you can use something similar to the example below.

provider:
  stage: ${self:opt.stage, 'dev'}

custom:
  staged: ${self:custom.stageVars.${self:provider.stage}, {}}

  stageVars:
    dev:
      dd_enabled: false

  datadog:
    enabled: ${self:custom.staged.dd_enabled, true}

Serverless Monitors

There are seven recommended monitors with default values pre-configured.

Monitor	Metrics	Threshold	Serverless Monitor ID
High Error Rate	aws.lambda.errors/aws.lambda.invocations	>= 10%	high_error_rate
Timeout	aws.lambda.duration.max/aws.lambda.timeout	>= 1	timeout
Out of Memory	aws.lambda.lambda.enhanced.max_memory_used/ aws.lambda.memorysize	>= 1	out_of_memory
High Iterator Age	aws.lambda.iterator_age.maximum	>= 24 hrs	high_iterator_age
High Cold Start Rate	aws.lambda.enhanced.invocations(cold_start:true)/ aws.lambda.enhanced.invocations	>= 20%	high_cold_start_rate
High Throttles	aws.lambda.throttles/aws.lambda.invocations	>= 20%	high_throttles
Increased Cost	aws.lambda.enhanced.estimated_cost	↑20%	increased_cost

To Enable and Configure a Recommended Serverless Monitor

To create a recommended monitor, you must use its respective serverless monitor ID. Note that you must also set the monitorApiKey and monitorAppKey.

If you’d like to further configure the parameters for a recommended monitor, you can directly define the parameter values below the serverless monitor ID. Parameters not specified under a recommended monitor will use the default recommended value. The query parameter for recommended monitors cannot be directly modified and will default to using the query valued as defined above; however, you may change the threshold value in query by re-defining it within the options parameter. To delete a monitor, remove the monitor from the serverless.yml template. For further documentation on how to define monitor parameters, see the Datadog Monitors API.

Monitor creation occurs after the function is deployed. In the event that a monitor is unsuccessfully created, the function will still be successfully deployed.

To create a recommended monitor with the default values

Define the appropriate serverless monitor ID without specifying any parameter values

custom:
  datadog:
    addLayers: true
    monitorsApiKey: "{Datadog_API_Key}"
    monitorsAppKey: "{Datadog_APP_Key}"
    monitors:
      - high_error_rate:

To configure a recommended monitor

custom:
 datadog:
   addLayers: true
   monitorsApiKey: "{Datadog_API_Key}"
   monitorsAppKey: "{Datadog_APP_Key}"
   monitors:
     - high_error_rate:
        name: "High Error Rate with Modified Warning Threshold"
        message: "More than 10% of the function’s invocations were errors in the selected time range. Notify @[email protected] @slack-serverless-monitors"
        tags: ["modified_error_rate", "serverless", "error_rate"]
        require_full_window: true
        priority: 2
        options: {
          include_tags: true
          notify_audit:true
          thresholds: {
            ok: 0.025
            warning: 0.05
          }
        }

To delete a monitor

Removing the serverless monitor ID and its parameters will delete the monitor.

To Enable and Configure a Custom Monitor

To define a custom monitor, you must define a unique serverless monitor ID string in addition to passing in the API key and Application key. The query parameter is required but every other parameter is optional. Define a unique serverless monitor ID string and specify the necessary parameters below. For further documentation on monitor parameters, see the Datadog Monitors API.

custom:
  datadog:
    addLayers: true
    monitorsApiKey: "{Datadog_API_Key}"
    monitorsAppKey: "{Datadog_APP_Key}"
    monitors:
      - custom_monitor_id:
          name: "Custom Monitor"
          query: "max(next_1w):forecast(avg:system.load.1{*}, 'linear', 1, interval='60m', history='1w', model='default') >= 3"
          message: "Custom message for custom monitor. Notify @[email protected] @slack-serverless-monitors"
          tags: ["custom_monitor", "serverless"]
          priority: 3
          options: {
            enable_logs_sample: true
            require_full_window: true
            include_tags: false
            notify_audit:true
            notify_no_data: false
            thresholds: {
              ok: 1
              warning: 2
            }
          }

Opening Issues

If you encounter a bug with this package, let us know by filing an issue! Before opening a new issue, please search the existing issues to avoid duplicates.

When opening an issue, include your Serverless Framework version, Python/Node.js version, and stack trace if available. Also, please include the steps to reproduce when appropriate.

You can also open an issue for a feature request.

Contributing

If you find an issue with this package and have a fix, please feel free to open a pull request following the procedures.

Community

For product feedback and questions, join the #serverless channel in the Datadog community on Slack.

License

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all files in this repository are licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0.

This product includes software developed at Datadog (https://www.datadoghq.com/). Copyright 2021 Datadog, Inc.