How To Create An AWS Lambda PowerShell Function the Easy Way — Using Docker

Background

I’ve been working with PowerShell since its beginning and haven’t looked back since. Last year, while working on an serverless project for work, I decided to try Lambda on my own and deploy some PowerShell code to AWS to see how it works.

Fast forward to now…I started working more with AWS on my own while studying for some certs. I jumped back into Lambda and was reminded of how tedious it was to setup my environment for publishing my PowerShell code to AWS. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any notes last time and wanted to ensure I next time around I could just focus on the code. That is where Docker comes in to save the day and our story begins — I created a Docker container with all the dependencies required to publish your PowerShell code to AWS in as little as 5 minutes with a few scripts included to help streamline the process.

So, jump on in and give it a try.

See It In Action

Assumptions

  • You have an AWS Account and access to you “Access Key Id” and “Secret Access key”
  • You have access to Docker or Docker Desktop
  • You have some Docker know how

If you are lacking in either of these areas head on over to the Docker website and learn how to Get Started!

So, How Easy Is It To Publish My Code?

Really easy, check out the steps below…

Start the container

docker run -dit — name powershell-builder rickjacobo/lambda-powershell-project-builder

Access the container shell

docker exec -it powershell-builder pwsh

Create a project

./create-project.ps1

The create-project script will ask a few questions during setup to assist with

  • Setting up the PowerShell Lambda Project
  • Creating a script to edit your PowerShell code
  • Creating a script to publish your PowerShell
  • Adding your AWS credentials via the ‘aws configure’ cli

Add code to your project

./edit-<projectname>.ps1

This is the same as running

vi /<projectname>/<projectname>.ps1

If you don’t have any code readily available feel free to append the code below to <projectname>.ps1.

$Json = @"
{
"Message":"Hello, World!"
}
"@

$Json

P