Skip to main content
Redhat Developers  Logo
  • Products

    Platforms

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      Red Hat Enterprise Linux Icon
    • Red Hat AI
      Red Hat AI
    • Red Hat OpenShift
      Openshift icon
    • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
      Ansible icon
    • View All Red Hat Products

    Featured

    • Red Hat build of OpenJDK
    • Red Hat Developer Hub
    • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
    • Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
    • Red Hat OpenShift Local
    • Red Hat Developer Sandbox

      Try Red Hat products and technologies without setup or configuration fees for 30 days with this shared Openshift and Kubernetes cluster.
    • Try at no cost
  • Technologies

    Featured

    • AI/ML
      AI/ML Icon
    • Linux
      Linux Icon
    • Kubernetes
      Cloud icon
    • Automation
      Automation Icon showing arrows moving in a circle around a gear
    • View All Technologies
    • Programming Languages & Frameworks

      • Java
      • Python
      • JavaScript
    • System Design & Architecture

      • Red Hat architecture and design patterns
      • Microservices
      • Event-Driven Architecture
      • Databases
    • Developer Productivity

      • Developer productivity
      • Developer Tools
      • GitOps
    • Automated Data Processing

      • AI/ML
      • Data Science
      • Apache Kafka on Kubernetes
    • Platform Engineering

      • DevOps
      • DevSecOps
      • Ansible automation for applications and services
    • Secure Development & Architectures

      • Security
      • Secure coding
  • Learn

    Featured

    • Kubernetes & Cloud Native
      Openshift icon
    • Linux
      Rhel icon
    • Automation
      Ansible cloud icon
    • AI/ML
      AI/ML Icon
    • View All Learning Resources

    E-Books

    • GitOps Cookbook
    • Podman in Action
    • Kubernetes Operators
    • The Path to GitOps
    • View All E-books

    Cheat Sheets

    • Linux Commands
    • Bash Commands
    • Git
    • systemd Commands
    • View All Cheat Sheets

    Documentation

    • Product Documentation
    • API Catalog
    • Legacy Documentation
  • Developer Sandbox

    Developer Sandbox

    • Access Red Hat’s products and technologies without setup or configuration, and start developing quicker than ever before with our new, no-cost sandbox environments.
    • Explore Developer Sandbox

    Featured Developer Sandbox activities

    • Get started with your Developer Sandbox
    • OpenShift virtualization and application modernization using the Developer Sandbox
    • Explore all Developer Sandbox activities

    Ready to start developing apps?

    • Try at no cost
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Videos

Persistence vs. Durability in Messaging. Do you know the difference?

August 10, 2016
Mary Cochran
Related topics:
Java
Related products:
Streams for Apache Kafka

Share:

    Messaging is a critical aspect of integrating systems, and while there are many different messaging platforms and infrastructures, a common request is for "zero loss of messages."  From there, the terms "Persistence" and "Durability" often get thrown around, but what do those two things really mean?

    Persistence

    At a basic level, persistence means that when failure occurs during message processing, the message will still be there (where you found it the first time) to process again once the failure is resolved.

    Take JBoss Active MQ for example. In AMQ we have brokers that do the communicating of the messages. For simplicity's sake, let's assume we only have a single broker doing the communication to and from a queue. Should this broker be shut down while a message is in the queue, ready to be processed, once the broker comes back up the message will be processed normally.

    So how does this work?  In order for messages to "persist" they must be stored somewhere other than just broker memory.  Depending on the platform this could be a temporary folder, a database, a log file, etc.

    Now, why would anyone not use persistent messaging?  Well, for one thing it tends slows things down. Otherwise, maybe some messages are okay to lose in the event of a broker shutting down, and it's not worth the complexity.

    If you think of messaging in the context of status checking, the system may want to periodically ensure that a device is up and running. The device send a status message every few minutes. In the event of a broker restart without using persistent messaging we may lose 1 status message, but that might not be a problem since another message is probably on its way --- in this case some data-loss may be acceptable.

    Durability

    Queues and Topics are important parts of messaging (particularly JMS). A queue by itself is great for point-to-point messaging, often one producer to one consumer. Topics on the other hand are most often used when you have a single producer (or multiple for the same purpose) and many consumers.

    A common pattern is to have the producer send the message to the topic and then have the queues subscribe to the topic. This allows each queue to receive its own copy of the message. But what happens to the message if it is sent to the topic, but no queues are online (remember our queues subscribe to the topic)?

    This is where durability comes into play. When a durable subscription is set up between a queue and a topic, the queue can be offline when the message hits the topic. Once the queue comes back online, the message can be received.

    If the subscription is non-durable, then any messages received to the topic while the topic subscriber is offline will not be received by the subscriber (in this case the queue).

    Preventing Message Loss

    So what do we need to prevent message loss?  If you are using both queues and topics, then using both persistent messaging and durable subscriptions is your best bet. This will ensure you have a back up of the message in case of broker failure and that your subscriptions will always receive the proper messages. Just remember that certain messaging systems, such as Amazon's SQS and SNS, may not support durable subscriptions.

    Last updated: February 22, 2024

    Recent Posts

    • Migrating Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 to 2.5

    • Multicluster resiliency with global load balancing and mesh federation

    • Simplify local prototyping with Camel JBang infrastructure

    • Smart deployments at scale: Leveraging ApplicationSets and Helm with cluster labels in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes

    • How to verify container signatures in disconnected OpenShift

    Red Hat Developers logo LinkedIn YouTube Twitter Facebook

    Products

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    • Red Hat OpenShift
    • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

    Build

    • Developer Sandbox
    • Developer Tools
    • Interactive Tutorials
    • API Catalog

    Quicklinks

    • Learning Resources
    • E-books
    • Cheat Sheets
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Newsletter

    Communicate

    • About us
    • Contact sales
    • Find a partner
    • Report a website issue
    • Site Status Dashboard
    • Report a security problem

    RED HAT DEVELOPER

    Build here. Go anywhere.

    We serve the builders. The problem solvers who create careers with code.

    Join us if you’re a developer, software engineer, web designer, front-end designer, UX designer, computer scientist, architect, tester, product manager, project manager or team lead.

    Sign me up

    Red Hat legal and privacy links

    • About Red Hat
    • Jobs
    • Events
    • Locations
    • Contact Red Hat
    • Red Hat Blog
    • Inclusion at Red Hat
    • Cool Stuff Store
    • Red Hat Summit
    © 2025 Red Hat

    Red Hat legal and privacy links

    • Privacy statement
    • Terms of use
    • All policies and guidelines
    • Digital accessibility

    Report a website issue