Guided Lab: Creating an Amazon SNS HTTPS Subscription

1. Navigate to the Amazon SNS Console.

2. To create Topics, look for the Topics in the left-sidebar. Then, click on Create Topic. Follow the configurations below:

• Choose the Standard type.
• Enter a name for the topic, such as TD-Topic (as shown in the first image).

• Click Create Topic.

Kindly ignore the “Couldn’t retrieve data protection policy” warning. You can safely finish this lab even without this policy.

1. Navigate to the Lambda service and select “Create function”.

2. Follow the configurations below:

• Function name: HTTPSNotificationHandler
• Runtime: Python 3.12 
• Tick the Use an existing role and choose PlayCloud-Sandbox
• Scroll down, and tick Enable function URL and set the following:
  • Auth type: None (for testing purposes; ensure to secure this in production).

4. Click “Create function”.

5. In the function code editor, replace the existing code with the following Python code example:

import json

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    print("Received SNS message:", json.dumps(event))
    return {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'body': 'Message received successfully'
    }

1. In the Amazon SNS Console, go to Subscriptions in the left sidebar and click Create subscription. Configure the subscription with the following settings:

• • Topic ARN: Choose the ARN of the TD-Topic created earlier.
  • Protocol: Select HTTPS.
  • Endpoint: Enter the Function URL from the Lambda function.
  • Tick the Enable raw message delivery.

• Click Create subscription.

1. Check your Lambda function’s CloudWatch logs to verify that the subscription confirmation was received. Then, look for the SubscribeURL and copy it.

2. Select the subscription created earlier in the Amazon SNS console > Subscription, and click Confirm Subscription. 

3. Paste the Function URL of your Lambda in the Confirm subscription text box. Click Confirm subscription.

4. You will receive a success confirmation notice.

• If you refresh the page, the status should have been updated to Confirmed.

1. In the SNS Console, go to the Topics section and select TD-Topic. Then, click on Publish message.

Kindly ignore the “Couldn’t retrieve data protection policy” warning. You can safely finish this lab even without this policy.

• Subject: “Test HTTPS Notification” 
• Message body: “Hello from Tutorials Dojo Team Mabuhay!”
• Leave the rest as is, scroll down, and click Publish message.

2. Check your Lambda function’s CloudWatch logs again. Open the latest log stream. You should see similar logs like the following image:

Congratulations! You have configured an HTTPS subscription protocol in Amazon SNS using a Lambda Function URL as the endpoint. By publishing a message directly in SNS, you verified that the message from SNS reached the Lambda function via HTTPS, demonstrating secure message delivery.

Key Takeaways:

• The HTTPS Subscription Protocol in Amazon SNS enables secure, encrypted notifications to HTTPS endpoints.
• Using a Lambda Function URL as an HTTPS endpoint allows you to receive and log SNS notifications in a serverless way.
• This configuration suits secure, event-driven architectures requiring reliable and structured message handling.

As a best practice, remember to delete any resources no longer in use, such as AWS Lambda, SNS topics, and subscriptions, to maintain a clutter-free AWS environment.

Thank you for joining this lab, and happy learning!