AWS SNS Messages

The built-in AWS SNS Messages trigger initiates a flow when it receives a signal from an Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) topic.

Add the AWS SNS Messages trigger to the canvas

  1. Go to the Triggers tab in the palette, expand the App Triggers section and drag the trigger onto the canvas.
  2. Double-click the trigger (or click the pencil icon).
  3. Set the authenticating user, and then copy URL — you'll use this to set up the webhook in AWS SNS. Alternatively, you can create an integration user to use as the authenticating user.

  1. Click the Flood Control tab to edit the trigger's default flood control settings. For more information about these settings, see Trigger Flood Control.
  2. Click Done.
  3. On the flow canvas, connect the steps you want to run when xMatters receives a request to that URL.

You're now ready to configure AWS SNS to target the trigger.

Configure AWS SNS to send requests to the trigger URL

To have AWS SNS send alerts to the flow trigger, you need to configure a webhook and set it to use the trigger URL.

  1. In AWS, go to the Amazon SNS panel.
  2. Click Topics, then click Create Topic to create a Simple Notification Service (SNS) Topic for the xMatters webhook. You can also edit an existing SNS topic.

  3. Give the webhook a unique name and a display name, then click Create topic.
  4. On the Amazon SNS panel, click Subscriptions, then click Create Subscription.

  5. In the Details section:
    • In the Topic ARN box, select the SNS Topic you just created.
    • In the Protocol box, select HTTPS.
    • In the Endpoint field, paste the trigger URL.
    • Leave the Enable raw message delivery checkbox unselected.

  6. Add the target names of any recipients you want to notify when the alert fires.
    • For URL authentication, use an ampersand to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Emma Pearson and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Antares service, you'd add &recipients=epearson,antares to the end of the URL.
    • For other authentication types, use a question mark to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Barry Gull and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Cassiopeia service, you'd add ?recipients=bgull,cassiopeia to the end of the URL.
    • You must URL-encode any special characters or spaces in the target names.
  7. Click Create Subscription.

You're ready to use the webhook to trigger automated flows, including steps such as sending alerts and initiating incidents, though we always recommend testing before putting things into use.

Outputs

The trigger has the following outputs you can use as inputs to steps further along the flow.

Label

 Description
Type Type of message, as set by Amazon. For example, SubscriptionConfirmation, or Notification.
Message ID Unique identifier of the message. The same ID is used when Amazon SNS attempts to resend the message. 
Token Value to confirm the Amazon SNS subscription to the endpoint.
Topic ARN Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for the topic of the subscription.
Subject Subject of the message as provided by Amazon.
Message Contents of the message as provided by Amazon.
Timestamp Timestamp of when the message was published (in GMT).
Signature Version

Version of the Amazon SNS signature used. Available values are: 1 - SHA1withRSA, 2 - SHA256withRSA.
Signature Based on the Signature Version, a Base64-encoded signature that includes the Message, Message ID, Type, Timestamp, and Topic ARN fields.  
Signing Certificate URL URL of the certificate used to sign the message.
Subscribe URL URL used to confirm the subscription endpoint. 
Unsubscribe URL URL used to unsubscribe the endpoint from the topic.