Calls to Square createPayment timing out in AWS lambda function

Question

I'm creating a Square Client object like this:

const squareClient = new Client({
  environment: Environment.Sandbox,
  accessToken:
    "The_correct_sandbox_token_goes_here",
});
const paymentsApi = squareClient.paymentsApi;

and calling the createPayment method from within a lambda function with a body like the one below:

{
    "sourceId": "cnon:CBASEHY1uZmmlYRYagaqS7yd9Zo",
    "amountMoney": {
        "amount": "12500",
        "currency": "USD"
    },
    "locationId": "Location_ID_here",
    "idempotencyKey": "6a36e49c-914d-4934-bc34-c183ba0a08c5"
}

This works fine on my local machine (using serverless offline), but when deployed to AWS, the call to createPayment times out after six seconds. Is there something extra that needs to be done to call createPayment from a lambda function?

Answer 1

The timeout you experienced might be due to the function being attached to a VPC.

If an AWS Lambda function is configured to use a VPC, then the function only has access to the Internet if the following have been configured:

• Lambda function is connected to a private subnet
• A NAT Gateway or NAT Instance is running in a public subnet in the same VPC
• A Route Table on the private subnet directs Internet-bound traffic to the NAT

If the Lambda function does not require access to any resources in the VPC, do not attach the function to a VPC. This will automatically grant direct access to the Internet.

Alternatively, you might try increasing the timeout of the Lambda function in case the external service simply needed more time.