Config AWS Cloudwatch Application Signals for NodeJs Lambda with CDK

Use case

You want to use AWS Cloudwatch Application Signals for your NodeJs Lambda functions. For IaC you use CDK.

Setup

In a new AWS account the Management Console show the two steps to set up the Cloudwatch Application Signals. Step 1 is an Account wide setup, Step 2 is necessary for each Lambda function.

application signals config steps

Account wide setup

For starting the discovery the service linked role application-signals.cloudwatch.amazonaws.com must be created: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/using-service-linked-roles.html#service-linked-role-signals. CDK itself has no direct functionality for that. The SDK can help here via a custom resource.

 const serviceLinkeRoleArnApplicationSignals = `arn:aws:iam::${Stack.of(this).account}:role/aws-service-role/application-signals.cloudwatch.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForCloudWatchApplicationSignals`;
    const applicationSignalsStartDiscovery = new AwsCustomResource(
      this,
      "ApplicationSignalsStartDiscovery",
      {
        onCreate: {
          service: "@aws-sdk/client-application-signals",
          action: "StartDiscovery",
          physicalResourceId: PhysicalResourceId.of(
            "ApplicationSignalsStartDiscovery",
          ),
        },
        // fromSdkCalls didn't work, that's why the policy is set manually
        // policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls({ resources: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE }),
        policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromStatements([
          new PolicyStatement({
            effect: Effect.ALLOW,
            actions: ["iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole"],
            resources: [serviceLinkeRoleArnApplicationSignals],
          }),
          new PolicyStatement({
            effect: Effect.ALLOW,
            actions: ["application-signals:StartDiscovery"],
            resources: ["*"],
          }),
        ]),
      },
    );
 
    const customResourceId = `AWS${AwsCustomResource.PROVIDER_FUNCTION_UUID.replaceAll("-", "")}`;
    NagSuppressions.addResourceSuppressionsByPath(
      Stack.of(this),
      [
        `/${Stack.of(this).stackName}/${customResourceId}/ServiceRole/Resource`,
        `/${Stack.of(this).stackName}/${customResourceId}/Resource`,
      ],
      [
        {
          id: "AwsSolutions-L1",
          reason: "CDK managed lambda function",
        },
        {
          id: "AwsSolutions-IAM4",
          reason: "CDK managed policy",
        },
        {
          id: "AwsSolutions-IAM5",
          reason: "CDK managed policy",
        },
      ],
      true,
    );
 
    NagSuppressions.addResourceSuppressions(
      applicationSignalsStartDiscovery,
      [
        {
          id: "AwsSolutions-IAM5",
          reason: "CDK managed policy",
        },
      ],
      true,
    );

Each Lambda function

As described here each lambda need the environment variable AWS_LAMBDA_EXEC_WRAPPER with the value /opt/otel-instrument and the layer AWSOpenTelemetryDistroJs with the respective ARN.

  const LAMBDA_APPLICATION_SIGNALS_LAYER_ARN =
    "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:615299751070:layer:AWSOpenTelemetryDistroJs:5";
  const LAMBDA_APPLICATION_SIGNALS_ENV = {
    AWS_LAMBDA_EXEC_WRAPPER: "/opt/otel-instrument",
  };
 
 
    const lambda = new NodejsFunction(this, id, {
      runtime: Runtime.NODEJS_22_X,
      timeout: Duration.seconds(10),
      environment: props.enableApplicationSignals
        ? LAMBDA_APPLICATION_SIGNALS_ENV
        : {},
    });
    lambda.role?.addManagedPolicy(
      ManagedPolicy.fromAwsManagedPolicyName(
        "CloudWatchLambdaApplicationSignalsExecutionRolePolicy",
      ),
    );
    NagSuppressions.addResourceSuppressions(
      lambda,
      [
        {
          id: "AwsSolutions-IAM4",
          reason: "CDK managed policy",
        },
      ],
      true,
    );
    const layerApplicationSignals = LayerVersion.fromLayerVersionArn(
      this,
      "LambdaApplicationSignalsLayer",
      LAMBDA_APPLICATION_SIGNALS_LAYER_ARN,
    );
 
    lambda.addLayers(layerApplicationSignals);

The lambda function implementation can than look like this:

const handler = async (event: undefined, context: undefined) => {
  console.log("lambda was called...");
  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({
      message: "Hello from Lambda!",
    }),
  };
};
module.exports = { handler };

⚠️ The documentation recommend to use currently CommonJS (CJS) instead of ECMAScript Modules (ESM).

Also for CommonJs some “details” are to consider like the export of the handler: https://github.com/aws-observability/aws-otel-lambda/issues/284#issuecomment-1465465790

Result

After the setup and some runs of the Lambda function the Cloudwatch Application Signals are visible in the Management Console (It takes some minutes).

application signals result