AWS Lambda Telemetry

Compare AWS Lambda ingestion options for function logs, platform logs, metrics, and traces to choose between CloudWatch, extensions, or the ADOT layer.

AWS Lambda emits function logs (your application output), platform logs (cold starts, timeouts, out-of-memory events), and — when instrumented — distributed traces. The right ingestion path depends on your runtime and whether you also want traces.

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Recommended method

ADOT Lambda Layer — sends logs, metrics, and traces directly to Bronto over OTLP on Python, Node.js, and Java (traces only on .NET).

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Alternatives

• CloudWatch Log Forwarder — captures Lambda’s automatic stdout / stderr and works with runtimes that have no ADOT layer (Go, Ruby, custom runtimes).
• Amazon Data Firehose — Lambda can deliver function logs directly to a Firehose stream instead of CloudWatch Logs. Set the function’s log destination to Firehose in its logging configuration, then point the stream at Bronto. This captures stdout / stderr on any runtime without running a forwarder. Send a few test invocations and check how the records land in Bronto before relying on it.

See Ingesting AWS Data into Bronto for the full service-to-method mapping.

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References

• AWS Lambda — monitoring with CloudWatch Logs
• AWS Lambda — sending function logs to Firehose