Can AWS CloudWatch triggers a lambda function when SQS receives new message?

Question

I have a lambda function is responsible for checking the server status. It needs to be called when SQS receives new messages and It is not allowed to change anything in SQS. I tried using SQS Lambda trigger but it will push the message into lambda function => that changed SQS queue.

I am looking the way to handle this problem. I try to use CloudWatch to handle this but I don't know is this possible or not? How Cloudwatch can trigger Lambda functions when SQS receives new messages?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This will be difficult because, if the message is consumed quickly, it might not have an impact on Amazon CloudWatch metrics. You'll need to experiment to see whether this is the case. For example, set a metric for the maximum number of messages received in a 1-minute time period and try to trigger a CloudWatch Alarm when it is greater than zero.

Alternatively, have the system that sends the SQS message send it to Amazon SNS instead. Then, both the SQS queue and the Lambda function can subscribe to the SNS topic and both can be activated.

In fact, I know somebody who always uses SNS in front of SQS "just in case" this type of thing is necessary.