SNS Topic ARN — Notification Service Resources
Parse an Amazon SNS topic ARN to understand how notification topics are identified. Covers FIFO topics, subscriptions, and cross-region event patterns.
Detailed Explanation
SNS Topic ARN Structure
Amazon SNS topic ARNs have a straightforward structure where the topic name serves directly as the resource ID, without a separate resource type prefix.
Example ARN
arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:order-notifications
Parsed Components
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| Partition | aws |
| Service | sns |
| Region | us-east-1 |
| Account ID | 123456789012 |
| Resource Type | (none) |
| Resource ID | order-notifications |
No Resource Type Prefix
SNS topic ARNs do not use a topic/ prefix — the topic name appears directly after the account ID. This means the parser reports no explicit resource type and treats the entire final segment as the resource ID.
FIFO Topics
FIFO (First-In-First-Out) topics append .fifo to the topic name:
arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:order-notifications.fifo
The .fifo suffix is part of the topic name, not a separate ARN component. FIFO topics guarantee ordered, exactly-once message delivery.
Subscription ARNs
SNS subscriptions have their own ARNs that include the topic name plus a subscription ID:
arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:order-notifications:a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-EXAMPLE11111
Cross-Account and Cross-Region
SNS topics are region-scoped, so the same topic name can exist in different regions. Cross-account access is configured via topic policies that reference the subscriber's account ARN as a principal.
Use Case
Configuring Lambda function triggers, SQS queue subscriptions, and CloudWatch alarm actions. The SNS topic ARN is the primary identifier used when creating subscriptions and publishing messages from other AWS services.