firebase-functions: Cloud functions first call to Firestore very slow

We are experiencing extreme cold boot times, even with a small function like helloWorld, it takes like 5-6 seconds when firestore is used. Please see the following examples. The first function is done very fast, less than a second, I get the response “works”, and the second time, after querying firestore, takes 6 seconds: Function Version 1:

export const helloWorld = functions.https.onRequest(async (req, res) => {
  console.log(process.env.FUNCTION_NAME + ' has started');
  const admin = await import('firebase-admin');
  admin.initializeApp();
  res.status(200).json('works');
)}

Function Version 2, takes 6 seconds to return the user

export const helloWorld = functions.https.onRequest(async (req, res) => {
  console.log(process.env.FUNCTION_NAME + ' has started');
  const admin = await import('firebase-admin');
  admin.initializeApp();

  const userCol = await admin.firestore().collection('users').limit(1).get();
  const userDoc = userCol.docs[0];
  const user = userDoc.data();
  res.status(200).json(user);
)}

I am using Node 8, and these dependencies: “firebase”: “^5.9.1”, “firebase-admin”: “^7.1.1”, “firebase-functions”: “^2.2.1”,

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About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 5 years ago
Comments: 23 (8 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

Reopen this issue! This is not solved!

+13

hvdscheer on Feb 19, 2020

For anyone who still has this problem, here’s my hack that help reduce initial firestore call from ~5s to ~80ms.

Reason is, google-admin sdk lazily loads gRPC Firestore and gRPC module. we need to get around that by making a random db query as following:

try {
  // warm up the db connection and preload the gRPC module
  db.collection("country").limit(1).get();
  // feel free to change `country` to any collection that makes sense in your application
  console.log("Warm up DB connection success");
} catch (err) {
  console.error("Problem warming up DB connection success", err);
}

export * from "./functions";

It might also be necessary and beneficial to run functions with minInstances

functions
    .region(config.region)
    .runWith({
      minInstances: 1, // or more
    });

NOTE: you will have to pay for these minInstances!

Good luck!

+10

AmrAbdulrahman on Feb 23, 2022

Why this issue is closed. This issue should be reopened

MuhammadUsman786786 on Nov 17, 2019

If this problem is affecting you, please upvote https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-node/issues/2942#issuecomment-604268183

transitive-bullshit on Mar 26, 2020

reopen this issue

mInzamamMalik on Apr 9, 2020

same problem happening with firebase functions

mInzamamMalik on Apr 9, 2020

This issue is closed because there is nothing in the firebase-functions repo that can be done to solve it. The correct place to follow up is: https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-node/issues/2942

mbleigh on Mar 19, 2020

@hitchingsh I have some good news - this will be the new default in the next functions release since we will be using the latest Firestore library that defaults to the smaller gRPC library. This release is coming very soon. For the meantime though, you can set that environment variable in the cloud console by going to Cloud Functions, selecting the function, and clicking Edit. Expand the list and at the bottom you’ll see “+ Add variable”:

thechenky on Jun 5, 2019

I think, it can help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3eG9xpzNXM

polRk on Apr 7, 2019

Hi @xkLander thank you for filing this, I’m sorry to hear you’re having this issue. The first call to Firestore is quite heavyweight unfortunately since we have to create a gRPC connection under the hood and that takes some time. I’m curious - on subsequent runs of the V2 function, does it return faster? Since the connection to Firestore is established, it should be faster to call Firestore a second time the function is invoked (assuming it’s still on the same warm instance).

thechenky on Mar 27, 2019