Amazon SNS message archiving and replay for FIFO topics
What is message archiving and replay?
Amazon SNS provides a no-code message archiving and replay feature, specifically designed for FIFO (First-In-First-Out) topics. This feature allows topic owners to store messages directly within the topic archive for up to 365 days and replay them to subscribers when needed. Message archiving and replay are essential for recovering lost messages and synchronizing applications across regions or systems by replicating states.
This functionality can be accessed through the AWS API, SDK, AWS CloudFormation, and AWS Management Console.
Key use cases
-
Message recovery – Recover messages lost due to downstream application failures by replaying them to the subscriber’s endpoint.
-
State replication – Replicate the state of an existing system in a new environment by replaying messages starting from a specific timestamp.
-
Error correction – Resend missed messages during outages to ensure all events are processed correctly.
Components of message archiving and replay
Manage message archiving and replay for Amazon SNS FIFO topics, including setting retention periods, monitoring archived messages using CloudWatch, initiating replays through subscription attributes, and understanding the permissions required to modify and initiate replays.
Message archiving
-
The topic owner enables the archiving feature and sets the message retention period, which can be up to 365 days. For more, see Amazon SNS message archiving for FIFO topic owners
-
CloudWatch metrics help monitor the archived messages.
Message replay
-
A subscriber initiates a replay, selecting the time window for the messages to be reprocessed to the subscribed endpoint. For more see, Amazon SNS message replay for FIFO topic subscribers.
-
You manage the replay through subscription attributes using the
ReplayPolicyfeature.
Relevant permissions
-
SetSubscriptionAttributes– Required to configure or modify replay settings using theReplayPolicyattribute on a subscription. -
Subscribe– Necessary to attach a new subscription and initiate replays. -
GetTopicAttributes– Allows viewing the topic's properties, but replay initiation primarily revolves around subscription management.
