AWS Lambda hang until it timout on stipe invoices list

Question

I am using AWS Lambda to host a nodeJs service that fetch my open invoices on Stripe and execute a payment and update my database. The problem is that most of the time, but not all the time (sometimes everything goes how it should), it hang on the call of invoice list and do nothing.

Here's the part of the code where log stops :

const stripe = require('stripe')(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, {
    maxNetworkRetries: 1,
    timeout: 2000
});
[other imports]

const microservice = async (event, context, callback) => {
    [some code including database connection]

    console.log('retrieving all open invoices...')
    let invoices;
    try {
        invoices = await stripe.invoices.list({
            status: 'open',
            limit: 100,
        });
        console.log(invoices.data.length + ' data retrieved.');
    } catch (error) {
        console.log('Unable fetch stripe invoices : ', error);
        console.log('Exiting due to stripe connection error.');
        reports.push(new Report('Unable fetch stripe invoices', 'ERROR'));
        return {
        statusCode: 500,
        };
    }
    
    [code that process invoices]

    return {};
};
module.exports.microservice = microservice;

And here the log output :

START RequestId: d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 Version: $LATEST
2021-10-26T00:04:05.741Z d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 INFO Connecting to database...
2021-10-26T00:04:05.929Z d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 INFO Executing (default): SELECT 1+1 AS result
2021-10-26T00:04:05.931Z d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 INFO Connection has been established successfully.
2021-10-26T00:04:05.931Z d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 INFO retrieving all open invoices...
END RequestId: d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249
REPORT RequestId: d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 Duration: 15015.49 ms Billed Duration: 15000 ms Memory Size: 400 MB Max Memory Used: 40 MB
2021-10-26T00:04:20.754Z d628aa1e-dee6-4cc6-9ce0-f7c11cf73249 Task timed out after 15.02 seconds

And when it gooes all right it's like that :

START RequestId: e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 Version: $LATEST
2021-10-25T14:35:03.369Z e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 INFO Connecting to database...
2021-10-25T14:35:03.590Z e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 INFO Executing (default): SELECT 1+1 AS result
2021-10-25T14:35:03.600Z e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 INFO Connection has been established successfully.
2021-10-25T14:35:03.600Z e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 INFO retrieving all open invoices...
2021-10-25T14:35:04.011Z e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 INFO 0 data retrieved.
2021-10-25T14:35:04.011Z e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 INFO Everything went smoothly !
END RequestId: e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31
REPORT RequestId: e5fb6b08-adf9-433f-b1da-fd9ec29dde31 Duration: 646.58 ms Billed Duration: 647 ms Memory Size: 400 MB

I don't get why it hangs with no error or log...

Answer 1

It is not really a solution, but what is causing the issue is that Stripe take a very long time to return less than 100 results.

We found workaround in order to not fetch this list.

Answer 2

Network issues can happen due to various reasons. In your case, what you can try doing is to reduce the limit (e.g. limit : 30) and set your client library to retry the connection again by setting maxNetworkRetries : 3 or number that fits your application. When this is set, Stripe will retry the connection when the timeout error occurs.

Answer 3

This is a perfect match for Step functions use cases. It will allow you to orchestrate the steps of getting the invoices and processing them and easily design a retry mechanism in case of errors.