In the reliability pattern for non-transactional systems, what is the role of the acquisition flow?

• A. Receives incoming messages and dispatches them to the persisted queue
• B. Logs messages for auditing
• C. Dispatches messages directly to the DLQ
• D. Processes messages from the processing queue

Answer: (A)

In this reliability pattern, the key idea is to decouple ingestion from processing to protect against data loss in non-transactional systems. The acquisition flow acts as the entry point that receives incoming messages from external systems and immediately dispatches them to a durable, persisted queue. This ensures messages are durably stored before any processing happens, so even if downstream components fail or restart, the messages can be recovered and processed later. It sets up an at-least-once delivery model by guaranteeing that inbound data is captured and kept safely in the queue.

Logging for auditing, routing straight to a dead-letter queue, or processing directly from a processing queue are responsibilities that occur after the message has been acquired and stored. The acquisition flow’s primary role is to receive and place the message into the persistent queue.