PolicyChangesInProgressException in AWS Organizations

Introduction

AWS Organizations is a service that helps you centrally manage and govern your AWS accounts. It allows you to organize and maintain multiple accounts under a single umbrella. To make changes to the policies defined for your organization, AWS Organizations provides a comprehensive set of APIs. One of the exceptions you may encounter when working with these APIs is the PolicyChangesInProgressException. In this article, we will dive deep into this exception, understand its implications, causes, and explore ways to handle it effectively.

Understanding PolicyChangesInProgressException

The PolicyChangesInProgressException is thrown by the com.amazonaws.services.organizations.model in AWS Organizations. It indicates that there are policy changes currently in progress, and therefore, the requested API operation cannot be completed until those changes are completed or canceled.

Causes of PolicyChangesInProgressException

Several factors can lead to the occurrence of the PolicyChangesInProgressException. Let’s explore some of the common causes:

1. Existing Policy Change Requests

If there are any pending policy change requests, such as creating, updating, or deleting a policy, the PolicyChangesInProgressException will be thrown. You may encounter this exception when trying to initiate any new policy change requests while an existing one is still pending.

2. Stacked Requests

Sometimes, multiple policy change requests can be queued up simultaneously. In such cases, when you attempt to perform a new policy change request while previous requests are still being processed, the PolicyChangesInProgressException may be thrown.

3. Time-limited Constraints

AWS Organizations applies time-limited constraints to ensure consistency and avoid race conditions in policy changes. If you try to initiate multiple requests within a short timespan, the PolicyChangesInProgressException might be thrown.

Handling PolicyChangesInProgressException

To handle the PolicyChangesInProgressException more gracefully, you can utilize the information provided by the exception and adopt a retry strategy. Here’s an example code snippet demonstrating how you can handle this exception in Java:

try {
    // Make AWS Organizations API request
} catch (PolicyChangesInProgressException ex) {
    // Display a message indicating policy changes are in progress
    System.out.println("Policy changes are currently in progress. Please wait and try again.");
}

Retry Strategy for PolicyChangesInProgressException

To effectively handle the PolicyChangesInProgressException, a retry strategy can be implemented. Here’s an example of a retry function in Python, using the botocore library:

import botocore

def retry_on_policy_changes(func):
    def inner(*args, **kwargs):
        retry_count = 0
        while True:
            try:
                return func(*args, **kwargs)
            except botocore.exceptions.PolicyChangesInProgressException:
                print("Policy changes are in progress. Retrying...")
                retry_count += 1
                if retry_count == 5:
                    raise
    return inner

In the above code, func represents the actual AWS Organizations API call that you wish to make. The retry_on_policy_changes function catches the PolicyChangesInProgressException, displays a message, and retries the API call. It retries up to 5 times before rethrowing the exception.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the PolicyChangesInProgressException in AWS Organizations. We looked at its causes and how to handle it gracefully. By leveraging the information provided by this exception and implementing a retry strategy, you can effectively navigate and manage policy changes in your AWS organization.

Please remember that handling this exception in your code is crucial for ensuring a smooth experience when working with AWS Organizations APIs. By adopting best practices and following AWS’s recommendations, you can maintain control and manage your organization’s policies efficiently.

To learn more about AWS Organizations and the exceptions it may throw, refer to the official AWS documentation: AWS Organizations Documentation.

Happy coding, and keep building amazing things with AWS!

References

• AWS Organizations Documentation