FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What does zero overhead mean? How can I achieve that with Thundra?

Thundra offers you the option of monitoring your data synchronously via HTTP calls or asynchronously through AWS Cloudwatch Log generation.  If Thundra gathers data synchronously, you incur extra overhead and usage charges because your function will need to wait until the HTTP call completes. With asynchronous monitoring, the AWS Lambdas will generate Cloudwatch logs as they execute and Thundra simply collects these logs for analysis.  Check out our blog explaining the advantages of asynchronous data collection and the resulting zero overhead! You can also set this up in your environment via our documentation or start directly with an example.

Will my functions take longer to execute with Thundra?

No. If you set up asynchronous monitoring, our collector module will collect your serverless data without any interference to your serverless system. This is unique to Thundra and we are proud of it.

Will I experience the loss of monitoring data?

 No. Data loss occurs when a system using synchronous HTTPS calls initially fails, and then eventually gives up on trying to make a successful call. Once the system stops re-trying to make a successful call (which itself causes latencies in synchronous systems), the system will experience data loss.  Thundra offers asynchronous monitoring outside of your main application Lambda functions. This means that Thundra can ensure delivery of the monitoring data without affecting overall functionality or increasing latencies of the main Lambda functions.

My AWS Lambda environment is deployed with a VPC. Can I still use Thundra for observability and monitoring of this environment?

Yes. Thundra does not need to connect to any outside servers in order to provide observability of your serverless environment. With asynchronous monitoring, Thundra will simply collect the AWS Cloudwatch data that sits outside your VPC. If you want, you can also set up Thundra as you would in a non-VPC environment, but you’ll have to add an exception to your proxy. For other advantages of asynchronous monitoring, check out our blog post.

Why do I need to generate an API Key to use Thundra?

In order to send monitoring data produced by Thundra agents to Thundra Web Console, you need to use a valid API key. The API key is required for authentication and identifying requests.

Can I use my Thundra plan to collect monitoring data from different teams and applications within my organization?

Yes. You can create multiple API keys to collect monitoring data from different applications and teams within your organization. Note that the combined invocation and data volumes from multiple API keys will still need to adhere to your particular Thundra subscription plan.

What if my invocation and data volumes exceed my plan’s limit?

If your invocation and data volumes exceed the limit allowed in your subscription plan, you risk HTTP errors (if using synchronous monitoring) or receiving error logs in AWS Cloudwatch (if using asynchronous monitoring).

I set up Thundra and executed my Lambda function. When will I start seeing data in the Thundra Web Console?

For paid subscription plans, you should be able to see Thundra data within seconds if you are using synchronous monitoring and within a couple minutes if you’re using asynchronous monitoring. For the free plan, it will take a bit longer for your data to arrive but should be in the Thundra Web Console within 5 minutes.

I’m writing Lambda functions in different programming languages. What programming languages can Thundra monitor?

Thundra currently supports monitoring of Lambda functions in Java, Node.js, Python, and Go. You can use the same API key to monitor functions in all supported languages.

My monitoring data includes personally identifiable or sensitive data. How can I keep this private to my organization?

You can always mask the request and response of your functions in order to hide it from the Thundra Web Console. By configuring Thundra, you can also which traces to send and which traces to not send.

I want to be able to monitor and observe my serverless application. But I want to keep all my monitoring data on-premises OR I want to use a different platform for visualization, analysis, and alerting. Can Thundra help me with this?

Our integrations allow you to analyze your monitoring data from anywhere - including on-premises or private cloud.You can also use our integrations to visualize and manipulate your serverless monitoring data alongside your other organization’s data. We currently support integration with Splunk and are always working on new integrations. Learn more about our integrations. Or submit an integration request.

How does Thundra provide serverless observability without needing me to make changes to my code?

You can monitor your serverless environment without changing your code via our automated instrumentation approach. To do this, you first install the appropriate Thundra libraries for your programming languages, then you configure some environmental variables. That’s all you need to do! To learn more, please consult our best practices document about it.

I have questions about the subscription plans and pricing.

Please visit the FAQs on our pricing page. Or contact us with your question and we would be happy to help!

I want to see a certain feature or specific new capability in Thundra! Who can I ask?

We would love to hear from you! Shoot us a message at info@thundra.com, fill out our contact form, or ping us on our Slack channel.

I couldn’t find an answer to my question. How can I get help?

Check out our troubleshooting pages. Still no answer? Just join our Slack channel, we'll be glad to assist you.