How to get Selenium running in AWS Lambda using .net core

Question

Trying to get an AWS Lambda function to run Selenium on .NET Core. Here is code:

public string FunctionHandler(ILambdaContext context)
        {
            context.Logger.LogLine("Entering function");
            try
            {
                var driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
                context.Logger.LogLine("Navigating to URL");

                driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://www.google.com/");

                context.Logger.LogLine("Returning Done");
                return "Done";
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                context.Logger.LogLine("Oops: " + e);
                return "Failed";
            }
        }

The error I get in the AWS console is:

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: Cannot start the driver service on http://localhost:41663/ at OpenQA.Selenium.DriverService.Start() at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.DriverServiceCommandExecutor.Execute(Command commandToExecute) at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.Execute(String driverCommandToExecute, Dictionary`2 parameters) at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.StartSession(ICapabilities desiredCapabilities) at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver..ctor(ICommandExecutor commandExecutor, ICapabilities desiredCapabilities) at OpenQA.Selenium.IE.InternetExplorerDriver..ctor(InternetExplorerDriverService service, InternetExplorerOptions options, TimeSpan commandTimeout) at OpenQA.Selenium.IE.InternetExplorerDriver..ctor(InternetExplorerDriverService service, InternetExplorerOptions options) at OpenQA.Selenium.IE.InternetExplorerDriver..ctor(InternetExplorerOptions options) at OpenQA.Selenium.IE.InternetExplorerDriver..ctor() at InstagramMagic.Function.FunctionHandler(ILambdaContext context)

It is best not to use local drivers on Lambda, you would be best served by keeping a external selenium grid and then using the grid url in your script — Tarun Lalwani
– Tarun Lalwani, Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 15:54

tsu-denim · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-22 05:02:02Z

It is possible, but so far I've only had luck getting it to work with Chrome. AWS Lambda is running a bare bones version of Amazon Linux. If you want to run something on it beyond the basics, you must package a zip file and deploy it with all of the binaries required. Unfortunately, I doubt IE will run on AWS Lambda. However, there is hope it could run on Azure's equivalent service, which uses what they call a 'Windows Container'.

You have to specify where the Chrome binary is located within Lambda's runtime file system that contains your function, which is going to be /var/task/. This is a node.js example of what you are attempting to do, but using chromedriver.

'use strict';

exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
    var webdriver = require('selenium-webdriver');
    var chrome = require('selenium-webdriver/chrome');
    var builder = new webdriver.Builder().forBrowser('chrome');
    var chromeOptions = new chrome.Options();
    const defaultChromeFlags = [
        '--headless',
        '--disable-gpu',
        '--window-size=1280x1696', // Letter size
        '--no-sandbox',
        '--user-data-dir=/tmp/user-data',
        '--hide-scrollbars',
        '--enable-logging',
        '--log-level=0',
        '--v=99',
        '--single-process',
        '--data-path=/tmp/data-path',
        '--ignore-certificate-errors',
        '--homedir=/tmp',
        '--disk-cache-dir=/tmp/cache-dir'
    ];

    chromeOptions.setChromeBinaryPath("/var/task/lib/chrome");
    chromeOptions.addArguments(defaultChromeFlags);
    builder.setChromeOptions(chromeOptions);

    var driver = builder.build();
    driver.get(event.url);
    driver.getTitle().then(function(title) {

        console.log("Page title for " + event.url + " is " + title)
        callback(null, 'Page title for ' + event.url + ' is ' + title);
    });

    driver.quit();
};

I actually have a runnable packaged zip of this with a video tutorial on github, with a more detailed explanation. Peak inside the zip file to get an idea how the package should be laid out. https://blackboard.github.io/lambda-selenium/

In addition, I've submitted an issue on your behalf for a runnable .net core example.

https://github.com/blackboard/lambda-selenium/issues/22

Any luck with .net core, I am struggling with these settings

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