rlambda - R on AWS Lambda

Docker

• All containers start using the public.ecr.aws/lambda/provided base Docker image, which provides the basic components necessary to serve a Lambda.
  • Note this base image is not ubuntu/debian based but CentOS - so yum not apt
• Install R, R Package System Requirements, R Packages, and the lambr package.
• Copy a runtime.R into container plus any other necessary files.
• Generate a simple bootstrap which runs runtime.R with R
• Set the handler as the CMD

Basic Scaffolding:

FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/provided

ENV R_VERSION={{{r_ver}}}

# Pre-Reqs
RUN yum install -y git openssl-devel tar wget deltarpm

# Install R
RUN yum -y update \
  && yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm \
  && wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/centos-7/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm \
  && yum -y install R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm \
  && rm R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
  
# Add R to PATH
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/"

# Install System Requirements for R Packages
{{{sysreqs}}}

# Install R Packages
{{{cran_pkgs}}}

# Install Remotes
{{{gh_pkgs}}}

RUN mkdir /lambda
COPY runtime.R /lambda
RUN chmod 755 -R /lambda

RUN printf '#!/bin/sh\ncd /lambda\nRscript runtime.R' > /var/runtime/bootstrap \
  && chmod +x /var/runtime/bootstrap

CMD ["<function>"]

Full example:

FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/provided

ENV R_VERSION=4.1.2

RUN yum -y install wget git tar

RUN yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm \
  && wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/centos-7/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm \
  && yum -y install R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm \
  && rm R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

ENV PATH="${PATH}:/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/"

# System requirements for R packages
RUN yum -y install openssl-devel

RUN Rscript -e "install.packages(c('httr', 'jsonlite', 'logger', 'remotes'), repos = 'https://packagemanager.rstudio.com/all/__linux__/centos7/latest')"
RUN Rscript -e "remotes::install_github('mdneuzerling/lambdr')"

RUN mkdir /lambda
COPY runtime.R /lambda
RUN chmod 755 -R /lambda

RUN printf '#!/bin/sh\ncd /lambda\nRscript runtime.R' > /var/runtime/bootstrap \
  && chmod +x /var/runtime/bootstrap

CMD ["parity"]

Creation of New Base Docker Image

First, pull AWS base image and run interactively launching a bash shell:

docker pull public.ecr.aws/lambda/provided
docker run --entrypoint "/bin/bash" --name rlambda -it public.ecr.aws/lambda/provided

Now in the container, run the following:

R_VERSION=4.1.0

yum -y update
yum -y install wget git openssl-devel tar deltarpm
yum -y update
yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/centos-7/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
yum -y install R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
rm R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

PATH="${PATH}:/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/"

Rscript -e 'R.home(component="home")'
Rscript -e 'install.packages(c("httr", "jsonlite", "logger", "remotes", "dplyr", "lubridate", "stringr", "purrr"), repos = "https://packagemanager.rstudio.com/all/__linux__/centos7/latest")'
Rscript -e 'remotes::install_github("mdneuzerling/lambdr")'

mkdir /lambda
touch /lambda/example_runtime.R
chmod 755 -R /lambda

printf '#!/bin/sh\ncd /lambda\nRscript runtime.R' > /var/runtime/bootstrap
chmod +x /var/runtime/bootstrap

history > /command-history

this performs the following tasks:

• Sets R_VERSION
• Updates yum
• Installs wget, git, tar, deltarpm and openssl-devel
• Installs epel
• Downloads (via wget) the specified R_VERSION's .rpm for CentOS
• Installs downloaded .rpm for R
• Removes the .rpm file
• Sets PATH to include new R installation
• Installs R Packages: httr, jsonlite, logger, remotes, dplyr, lubridate, stringr, and purrr from CRAN using RSPM instead of default CRAN repository which has to compile the binaries.
• Installs lambdr package from GitHub via remotes
• Creates /lambda root level directory to house runtime scripts and sets permissions
• Creates /var/runtime/bootstrap to run the runtime script with R and sets permissions
• Copies all history commands to /command-history

Next, from outside the container:

• Copy the /command-history to my host machine for reference
• Commit the container as our new base image prefixed with my ghcr.io URL syntax
• Login to ghcr.io
• Push to GitHub

docker cp rlambda:/command-history ./command-history
docker ps
docker commit --author "Jimmy Briggs" rlambda ghcr.io/jimbrig/rlambda/rlambda:v1
docker login ghcr.io --username jimbrig --password $GITHUB_TOKEN
docker push ghcr.io/jimbrig/rlambda/rlambda:v1

Resulting in the new rlambda:v1 or rlambda:latest base docker image to be used for future AWS Lambda R projects!

To use simply add FROM ghcr.io/jimbrig/rlambda:latest to the top of your Dockerfile.

Elastic Container Registry

➜ aws ecr create-repository --repository-name rlambda --image-scanning-configuration scanOnPush=true
{
    "repository": {
        "repositoryArn": "arn:aws:ecr:us-east-1:594723403908:repository/rlambda",
        "registryId": "594723403908",
        "repositoryName": "rlambda",
        "repositoryUri": "594723403908.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rlambda",
        "createdAt": "2021-12-15T19:58:17-05:00",
        "imageTagMutability": "MUTABLE",
        "imageScanningConfiguration": {
            "scanOnPush": true
        },
        "encryptionConfiguration": {
            "encryptionType": "AES256"
        }
    }
}

This provides a URI, the resource identifier of the created repository. The image can now be pushed:

URI=594723403908.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rlambda
docker tag rlambda:v1 ${URI}:latest
aws ecr get-login-password | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin ${URI}
docker push ${URI}:v1

Resources

• The lambdr R package