ElasticMQ - Amazon SQS-Compatible Message Queue | cloudimg

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ElasticMQ is an open source message queue with a fully Amazon SQS-compatible REST interface. Point aws-cli, boto3, the AWS SDKs or Spring Cloud AWS at ElasticMQ with a single endpoint override and you get a local, self-hosted SQS - no AWS account, no network egress, and no per-message charges. It is the standard choice for local development, CI and integration testing, demos, and lightweight self-hosted queueing where a full managed queue service is unnecessary. This AMI delivers ElasticMQ fully installed and hardened on AWS so you have a working SQS-compatible endpoint within minutes of launch - no JVM setup, no reverse-proxy configuration, and no credential wiring required.

• The pinned upstream ElasticMQ fat jar (elasticmq-server-all-1.7.1.jar), verified by sha256, installed under /opt/elasticmq and run as a dedicated elasticmq system user
• A systemd unit (elasticmq.service) that binds ElasticMQ to loopback only, so the queue engine is never directly internet-exposed
• An nginx front end providing two customer-facing endpoints: an unauthenticated drop-in SQS port for AWS SDK clients and a Basic Auth gated management port, plus an unauthenticated health endpoint for load balancers
• Per-instance administrator credentials generated on first boot

Running ElasticMQ safely for a team means more than downloading a jar: you need a service account, a systemd unit, a reverse proxy that separates the unauthenticated SDK endpoint from an authenticated management endpoint, a per-host credential, and a health check. This image does all of that. Because ElasticMQ has no authentication of its own, this appliance binds the queue engine to localhost and fronts it with nginx, so the queue is never left as a world-open unauthenticated service by accident.

• Loopback-bound engine: ElasticMQ binds to 127.0.0.1 only. All external access flows through nginx.
• Per-instance credentials on first boot: A one-shot service generates a 24-character random password for the admin user, bcrypt-hashes it into the nginx Basic Auth file, and writes the plaintext to /root/elasticmq-credentials.txt with mode 0600. No credentials are baked into the image.
• Default security group opens SSH only: Ports 80, 443 and 9324 are served by nginx but are not reachable until you explicitly open them in your security group. Restrict them to your own application CIDR - the SQS drop-in port is unauthenticated by design (SQS SDKs sign with SigV4 and cannot send Basic Auth), so network isolation is its security boundary.
• TLS ready: Front the management port with your own certificate on port 443 for encryption in transit.

ElasticMQ runs with in-memory storage, which is its canonical mode for development, CI and testing. Queues and messages are held in memory and are lost on service restart or instance reboot. This is intentional and documented on the instance MOTD, in the credentials file, and in the user guide. If you need durable queues, ElasticMQ supports optional file and embedded-database persistence that you can enable in the configuration - the user guide explains how.

• Local and CI SQS testing: Run your SQS-dependent test suites against a local endpoint with zero AWS cost and full offline reproducibility.
• Development environments: Give every developer a private SQS-compatible queue without provisioning real AWS queues per person.
• Demos and air-gapped queueing: Provide a lightweight, dependency-free SQS API where a managed service is unavailable or unnecessary.

Launch the AMI, SSH in as the login user for your operating system variant, and read your unique admin password from /root/elasticmq-credentials.txt. Point any SQS client at the drop-in endpoint with an endpoint-url override and dummy AWS credentials. For a guided setup or a durability/persistence review, contact cloudimg support.

ElasticMQ is an open source project by SoftwareMill, distributed under the Apache License 2.0.

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