Import from S3 in DynamoDB - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Import Data from S3 into DynamoDB

📖 Scenario: You work for an online store that stores product information in DynamoDB. The product data is backed up in JSON files on Amazon S3. You want to import this product data from S3 into your DynamoDB table to keep your database updated.

🎯 Goal: Build a step-by-step DynamoDB import setup that reads product data from an S3 bucket and imports it into a DynamoDB table called Products.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a DynamoDB table named Products with a primary key ProductID.

Specify the S3 bucket and JSON file path where the product data is stored.

Write the import configuration to connect the S3 data source to the DynamoDB table.

Complete the import setup with the necessary IAM role and import command.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Importing data from S3 into DynamoDB is common when migrating data, restoring backups, or syncing offline data sources.

💼 Career

Knowing how to import data into DynamoDB from S3 is valuable for cloud engineers, database administrators, and backend developers working with AWS.

1

Create DynamoDB Table

Create a DynamoDB table named Products with ProductID as the partition key of type String.

DynamoDB

# Define the DynamoDB table creation parameters
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the AWS CLI create-table command with the correct attribute and key schema.

2

Specify S3 Data Source

Create a variable called s3_bucket and set it to the exact S3 bucket name store-product-backups. Also create a variable called s3_key and set it to the JSON file path backup/products.json.

DynamoDB

aws dynamodb create-table \
    --table-name Products \
    --attribute-definitions AttributeName=ProductID,AttributeType=S \
    --key-schema AttributeName=ProductID,KeyType=HASH \
    --provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=5,WriteCapacityUnits=5

# Define the S3 bucket and key variables
s3_bucket = "store-product-backups"
s3_key = "backup/products.json"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the exact bucket name and file path to variables s3_bucket and s3_key.

3

Configure Import from S3

Create a JSON configuration string called import_config that specifies the S3 bucket and key as the data source, and the DynamoDB table Products as the target. Use the format required by AWS CLI for import from S3.

DynamoDB

aws dynamodb create-table \
    --table-name Products \
    --attribute-definitions AttributeName=ProductID,AttributeType=S \
    --key-schema AttributeName=ProductID,KeyType=HASH \
    --provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=5,WriteCapacityUnits=5

s3_bucket = "store-product-backups"
s3_key = "backup/products.json"

import_config = '{"S3BucketSource": {"S3Bucket": "store-product-backups", "S3KeyPrefix": "backup/products.json"}, "InputFormat": "DYNAMODB_JSON", "TableCreationParameters": {"TableName": "Products"}}'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a JSON string to specify the S3 bucket and key prefix, input format, and table name.

4

Complete Import Setup

Write the AWS CLI command to start the import from S3 into DynamoDB using the import_config JSON. Include the required IAM role ARN arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/DynamoDBImportRole with the --role-arn option and specify the table name Products with --table-name.

DynamoDB

aws dynamodb create-table \
    --table-name Products \
    --attribute-definitions AttributeName=ProductID,AttributeType=S \
    --key-schema AttributeName=ProductID,KeyType=HASH \
    --provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=5,WriteCapacityUnits=5

s3_bucket = "store-product-backups"
s3_key = "backup/products.json"

import_config = '{"S3BucketSource": {"S3Bucket": "store-product-backups", "S3KeyPrefix": "backup/products.json"}, "InputFormat": "DYNAMODB_JSON", "TableCreationParameters": {"TableName": "Products"}}'

aws dynamodb import-table \
    --cli-input-json "$import_config" \
    --table-name Products \
    --role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/DynamoDBImportRole
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the import-table command with the JSON config, table name, and role ARN.