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S3 Event Notifications Using Lambda

I earned my AWS Solutions Architect Certification in Feb 2026 (🎊) but Like Smash Mouth said, "So much to do...so much to see." 

I've used Lambdas that, when an object was uploaded to a bucket, sent a notification to Eventbridge, and then sent me a text and email via SNS. Now, thanks to the free project on Adrian Cantrill's GitHub, I'm going to make a small image processing eventflow.

(Emoji use is for fun; Everything here written by a human being.) 

What's Happening:

Images uploaded to an S3 bucket are made into 5 thumbnail variations thanks to the power of Lambdas and inserted into an output bucket.  

Business Use case;

If you want to get quick thumbnails.  Maybe this can be scaled out to do file conversion, like .txt to .pdf. 

Materials:

2 S3 buckets - one for input, one for processed output.

Lambda

An image! 

Step 1: Bucket Creation ðŸª£

I made one bucket (runtcpip-source, for images to go in) and copied the settings from it to make the second bucket (runtcpip-processed, for images to go out). 

Public Access is blocked, and it is managed with Server-side encryption. I could have likely made them with Cloud Formation or Terraform but with such a simple setup, way quicker to use the GUI today.

Step 2: Making the Lambda Role ðŸ”—

This policy gives Lambda the permission to control runtcpip-source and runtcpip-processed with read, write, delete, and modify permissions but now we have to put it on the Lambda.

Step 3 - Making the Lambda 

 I select the latest Python runtime available. This is a mistake. There is a code to upload to do the pixellation. With the code installed, this lambda now has the knowledge to work its magic on our uploaded images.

Step 4 - Configuring the Trigger for the Lambda

 Make sure the correct bucket name is set to not incur costs of an eternally - running Lambda. Sure you have  a lot of free ones, but don't take that chance.

I realize I misnamed my bucket and changed the code in the IAM role. I skimmed the instructions again to check if I needed to do so elsewhere, and no.

With this step, I attach the source and output buckets to the lambda so when action happens in the bucket, the lambda is triggered.And I check again to avoid Recursive Invocation (Lambda doesn't stop)

Step 5 - Run the event.

It doesn't work, and Amazon Q says it's because of Runtime incompatibility. The versions of Python are different (the instructions say 3.9). So I return to Step 3 and remake the function. The earliest version is 3.10. This still does not work.

10 minutes after cleaning up, I realize I could have poked in the code provided to change the runtime, but that shouldn't make a difference, right? 

 

I'm sharing this -- What do you think? Have you been able to replicate this? 

 

 

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