Resolving Client 429 Errors in AWS Cloudwatch - Best Programming Practices

Resolving Client 429 Errors

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Question

Your application is developed to pick up metrics from several servers and push them off to Cloudwatch.

At times, the application gets client 429 errors.

Which of the following can be done from the programming side to resolve such errors?

Answers

Explanations

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A. B. C. D.

Answer - C.

The main reason for such errors is that throttling occurs when many requests are sent via API calls.

The best way to mitigate this is to stagger the rate at which you make the API calls.

This is also given in the AWS Documentation.

In addition to simple retries, each AWS SDK implements an exponential backoff algorithm for better flow control.

The idea behind exponential backoff is to use progressively longer waits between retries for consecutive error responses.

You should implement a maximum delay interval, as well as a maximum number of retries.

The maximum delay interval and maximum number of retries are not necessarily fixed values and should be set based on the operation being performed and other local factors, such as network latency.

Option A is invalid because this accounts for the same thing.

It's basically the number of requests that is the issue.

Option B is invalid because any way you have to add the timestamps when sending the requests.

Option D is invalid because this would not help in the issue.

For more information on API retries, please refer to the below URL-

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/api-retries.html

When an AWS service returns HTTP 429 "Too Many Requests" status code, it indicates that the client has sent too many requests in a given amount of time. This error usually occurs when the client-side code is sending requests too quickly, and the server is unable to process them all.

To resolve this error from the programming side, you can take the following steps:

C. Use exponential backoff in your requests. One of the most effective ways to handle 429 errors is to use exponential backoff in your requests. Exponential backoff is a strategy where the client retries the request with an increasing delay between each retry attempt. The idea is to reduce the number of requests sent to the server, and allow the server to catch up with the workload. With each successive retry, the delay between each request attempt doubles.

A. Use the AWS CLI instead of the SDK to push the metrics. Using the AWS CLI instead of the SDK can help resolve 429 errors. This is because the AWS CLI has built-in rate limiting to prevent clients from overloading the server with too many requests. However, this approach may not be suitable for all scenarios, such as when the application requires real-time data ingestion.

B. Ensure that all metrics have a timestamp before sending them across. It's important to ensure that all metrics have a timestamp before sending them across to Cloudwatch. Cloudwatch requires a timestamp for each data point to plot the data on a graph correctly. If a timestamp is not provided, the data point is ignored.

D. Enable encryption for the requests. Enabling encryption for requests can help prevent malicious actors from intercepting and modifying requests. However, it does not directly address 429 errors.

In conclusion, the best option to resolve 429 errors is to use exponential backoff in your requests. This will allow the server to catch up with the workload and prevent the client from overwhelming the server with too many requests.