Lambda Timeout Too High
A stuck invocation is billed for the whole timeout before it is killed, so a failure that should cost a second costs minutes.
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AWS
Found, explained, fixed.
What we would change and why, with no savings claim and no policy behind it.
Detect
ZopNight checks this automatically across AWS, with read-only access to the account.
Explain
Every finding says exactly what to change: Reduce Lambda function timeout.
Fix
After a guided review, where you confirm the change, ZopNight applies a lifecycle policy, then checks the change took.
- Applies to
- Lambda Functions on AWS
- The fix, by hand
- CloudWatch → Lambda → Duration metric on the resource → p99 over 14 days.
- If timeout is grossly over p99 (e.g. timeout = 900s, p99 = 5s) the function may be silently hanging. Reduce timeout to ~2× p99 so failures surface fast.
- If function frequently times out, the workload may need Step Functions or ECS instead.
- Lambda → Configuration → General configuration → Edit → set Timeout → Save.
- Watch CloudWatch Errors / Throttles for 48h post-change.
ZopNight does this for you after a guided review.
- Category
- Performance. A measured bottleneck worth clearing: throttled operations, undersized tiers, a workload near its limit.
- Where it appears
- The Advisory tab of Recommendations, with every affected resource listed.
- Rule ID
RC-156- Full reference
Related checks
See the performance findings in your account.
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