aws-sns-controller

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for aws-sns-controller

SNS controller is an AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) service controller for Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS).

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-sns-controller:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

Compatibility Notes

Chainguard's aws-sns-controller image is a minimal, Wolfi-based container image for the AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) service controller managing Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) resources. It is comparable to the sns-controller image published by AWS in functionality: the controller binary is available at /bin/controller (the path the upstream image and Helm chart use) and the image runs as the nonroot user 1000.

Getting Started

The controller is deployed with the official ACK (AWS Controllers for Kubernetes) Helm chart, oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/sns-chart, published in the ACK registry within the Amazon ECR Public Gallery. Installing it creates the controller Deployment, the custom resource definitions, the service account, and the RBAC it needs.

The chart is released in lockstep with the controller, so each chart version deploys the controller of the same version. List the versions available with:

crane ls public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/sns-chart

The controller exits at startup until it has AWS credentials, so give it an IAM identity before installing. On Amazon EKS, annotate the chart's service account with an IAM role that can manage SNS, as described in the ACK guide to configuring IAM permissions. Outside EKS, set aws.credentials.secretName to a Secret holding an AWS shared credentials file instead. Create a values.yaml pointing the chart at this image and that role, replacing AWS_ACCOUNT_ID and IAM_ROLE_NAME with your own:

cat > values.yaml <<EOF
image:
  repository: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-sns-controller
  tag: latest
aws:
  region: us-east-1
serviceAccount:
  annotations:
    eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::AWS_ACCOUNT_ID:role/IAM_ROLE_NAME
EOF

Then install the chart:

aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | helm registry login --username AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws

helm install ack-sns-controller \
  oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/sns-chart \
  --namespace ack-system --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml --wait

Confirm the controller came up and registered its custom resource definitions:

kubectl rollout status deployment -n ack-system -l app.kubernetes.io/name=sns-chart
kubectl get crd | grep sns.services.k8s.aws

Once running, the controller reconciles SNS custom resources. The chart installs CRDs for four SNS kinds: Topic, Subscription, PlatformApplication, and PlatformEndpoint, alongside the two shared ACK kinds FieldExport and IAMRoleSelector. For example, to create a topic:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: sns.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: Topic
metadata:
  name: my-topic
  namespace: ack-system
spec:
  name: my-topic
  displayName: Managed by ACK
EOF

The controller writes the result back onto the resource, so a successful reconcile is visible in its status:

kubectl get topic my-topic -n ack-system \
  -o jsonpath='{.status.ackResourceMetadata.arn}'

A Subscription can refer to the topic by its Kubernetes name through topicRef, and the controller resolves it to the topic's ARN. This subscribes an existing SQS queue, whose ARN replaces the placeholder below:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: sns.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: my-topic-to-queue
  namespace: ack-system
spec:
  topicRef:
    from:
      name: my-topic
  protocol: sqs
  endpoint: arn:aws:sqs:us-east-1:111122223333:my-queue
EOF

Delivery to an SQS queue also needs a queue policy that allows the topic to send messages to it.

Configuration

The chart's deletionPolicy decides what happens to the AWS resource when its custom resource is deleted. It defaults to delete, which removes the SNS topic, subscription, or platform application along with the Kubernetes object. A PlatformEndpoint is the exception: the controller does not delete endpoints, so deleting the custom resource leaves the endpoint in SNS. Set it to retain when the Kubernetes objects are managed by a pipeline that may recreate or prune them, so that deleting a manifest cannot remove a topic that other systems still publish to:

cat > values.yaml <<EOF
image:
  repository: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-sns-controller
  tag: latest
aws:
  region: us-east-1
deletionPolicy: retain
leaderElection:
  enabled: true
  namespace: ack-system
serviceAccount:
  annotations:
    eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::AWS_ACCOUNT_ID:role/IAM_ROLE_NAME
EOF

Apply it with the same chart. helm upgrade --install both creates the release and updates an existing one, so the same command works whether or not the controller is already deployed:

helm upgrade --install ack-sns-controller \
  oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/sns-chart \
  --namespace ack-system --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml --wait

Under retain the controller clears its finalizer and leaves the AWS resource in place. leaderElection is worth enabling alongside it whenever the Deployment runs more than one replica, so only one controller reconciles at a time.

To see every value the chart accepts, including the resource-specific reconcile settings:

helm show values oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/sns-chart

Documentation and Resources

• AWS SNS Controller GitHub project
• ACK controller installation with Helm
• ACK deletion policy documentation
• AWS Controllers for Kubernetes documentation

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