AWS::DynamoDB::Table

The AWS::DynamoDB::Table resource creates a DynamoDB table. For more information, see CreateTable in the Amazon DynamoDB API Reference.

You should be aware of the following behaviors when working with DynamoDB tables:

AWS CloudFormation typically creates DynamoDB tables in parallel. However, if your template includes multiple DynamoDB tables with indexes, you must declare dependencies so that the tables are created sequentially. Amazon DynamoDB limits the number of tables with secondary indexes that are in the creating state. If you create multiple tables with indexes at the same time, DynamoDB returns an error and the stack operation fails. For an example, see DynamoDB Table with a DependsOn Attribute.
Updates to AWS::DynamoDB::Table resources that are associated with AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget resources will always result in an update failure and then an update rollback failure. The following ScalableDimension attributes cause this problem when associated with the table:
- dynamodb:table:ReadCapacityUnits
- dynamodb:table:WriteCapacityUnits
- dynamodb:index:ReadCapacityUnits
- dynamodb:index:WriteCapacityUnits
As a workaround, please deregister scalable targets before performing updates to AWS::DynamoDB::Table resources.

Syntax

To declare this entity in your AWS CloudFormation template, use the following syntax:

JSON


{
  "Type" : "AWS::DynamoDB::Table",
  "Properties" : {
    "AttributeDefinitions" : [ AttributeDefinition, ... ],
    "BillingMode" : String,
    "GlobalSecondaryIndexes" : [ GlobalSecondaryIndexes, ... ],
    "KeySchema" : [ KeySchema, ... ],
    "LocalSecondaryIndexes" : [ LocalSecondaryIndexes, ... ],
    "PointInTimeRecoverySpecification" : PointInTimeRecoverySpecification,
    "ProvisionedThroughput" : ProvisionedThroughput,
    "SSESpecification" : SSESpecification,
    "StreamSpecification" : StreamSpecification,
    "TableName" : String,
    "Tags" : [ Resource Tag, ... ],
    "TimeToLiveSpecification" : TimeToLiveSpecification
  }
}

YAML


Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
Properties:
  AttributeDefinitions:
    - AttributeDefinition
  BillingMode: String
  GlobalSecondaryIndexes:
    - GlobalSecondaryIndexes
  KeySchema:
    - KeySchema
  LocalSecondaryIndexes:
    - LocalSecondaryIndexes
  PointInTimeRecoverySpecification: 
    PointInTimeRecoverySpecification
  ProvisionedThroughput:
    ProvisionedThroughput
  SSESpecification:
    SSESpecification
  StreamSpecification:
    StreamSpecification
  TableName: String
  Tags: 
    - Resource Tag
  TimeToLiveSpecification: 
    TimeToLiveSpecification

Properties

AttributeDefinitions

A list of attributes that describe the key schema for the table and indexes. Duplicates are allowed.

Required: Yes

Type: List of AttributeDefinition

Update requires: Some interruptions. Replacement if you edit an existing AttributeDefinition.

BillingMode

Specify how you are charged for read and write throughput and how you manage capacity.

Valid values include:

PROVISIONED: Sets the billing mode to PROVISIONED. We recommend using PROVISIONED for predictable workloads.
PAY_PER_REQUEST: Sets the billing mode to PAY_PER_REQUEST. We recommend using PAY_PER_REQUEST for unpredictable workloads.

If not specified, the default is PROVISIONED.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: No interruption

GlobalSecondaryIndexes

Global secondary indexes to be created on the table. You can create up to 5 global secondary indexes.

Important

If you update a table to include a new global secondary index, AWS CloudFormation initiates the index creation and then proceeds with the stack update. AWS CloudFormation doesn't wait for the index to complete creation because the backfilling phase can take a long time, depending on the size of the table. You can't use the index or update the table until the index's status is ACTIVE. You can track its status by using the DynamoDB DescribeTable command.

If you add or delete an index during an update, we recommend that you don't update any other resources. If your stack fails to update and is rolled back while adding a new index, you must manually delete the index.

Required: No

Type: List of GlobalSecondaryIndex

Update requires: Updates are not supported. The following are exceptions:

If you update only the provisioned throughput values of global secondary indexes, you can update the table without interruption.
You can delete or add one global secondary index without interruption. If you do both in the same update (for example, by changing the index's logical ID), the update fails.

KeySchema

Specifies the attributes that make up the primary key for the table. The attributes in the KeySchema property must also be defined in the AttributeDefinitions property.

Required: Yes

Type: List of KeySchema

Update requires: Replacement

LocalSecondaryIndexes

Local secondary indexes to be created on the table. You can create up to 5 local secondary indexes. Each index is scoped to a given hash key value. The size of each hash key can be up to 10 gigabytes.

Required: No

Type: List of LocalSecondaryIndex

Update requires: Replacement

PointInTimeRecoverySpecification

The settings used to enable point in time recovery.

Required: No

Type: PointInTimeRecoverySpecification

Update requires: No interruption

ProvisionedThroughput

Throughput for the specified table, which consists of values for ReadCapacityUnits and WriteCapacityUnits. For more information about the contents of a provisioned throughput structure, see Amazon DynamoDB Table ProvisionedThroughput.

Required: Conditional. If you set BillingMode as PROVISIONED, you must specify this property. If you set BillingMode as PAY_PER_REQUEST, you cannot specify this property.

Type: ProvisionedThroughput

Update requires: No interruption

SSESpecification

Specifies the settings to enable server-side encryption.

Required: No

Type: DynamoDB Table SSESpecification

Update requires: Some interruptions

StreamSpecification

The settings for the DynamoDB table stream, which capture changes to items stored in the table.

Required: No

Type: StreamSpecification

Update requires: No interruption to the table. However, the stream is replaced.

TableName

A name for the table. If you don't specify a name, AWS CloudFormation generates a unique physical ID and uses that ID for the table name. For more information, see Name Type.

Important

If you specify a name, you cannot perform updates that require replacement of this resource. You can perform updates that require no or some interruption. If you must replace the resource, specify a new name.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

Tags

Specifies an arbitrary set of tags (key–value pairs) to associate with this table. Use tags to manage your resources.

Required: No

Type: Resource Tag

Update requires: No interruption

TimeToLiveSpecification

Specifies the Time to Live (TTL) settings for the table.

Required: No

Type: TimeToLiveSpecification

Update requires: No interruption

Note

For detailed information about the limits in DynamoDB, see Limits in Amazon DynamoDB in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Return Values

Ref

When the logical ID of this resource is provided to the Ref intrinsic function, Ref returns the resource name. For example:


{ "Ref": "MyResource" }

For the resource with the logical ID myDynamoDBTable, Ref will return the DynamoDB table name.

For more information about using the Ref function, see Ref.

Fn::GetAtt

Fn::GetAtt returns a value for a specified attribute of this type. The following are the available attributes and sample return values.

Arn: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the DynamoDB table, such as arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-2:123456789012:table/myDynamoDBTable.
StreamArn: The ARN of the DynamoDB stream, such as arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/testddbstack-myDynamoDBTable-012A1SL7SMP5Q/stream/2015-11-30T20:10:00.000.

Note

You must specify the StreamSpecification property to use this attribute.

For more information about using Fn::GetAtt, see Fn::GetAtt.

Examples

DynamoDB Table with Local and Secondary Indexes

The following sample creates an DynamoDB table with Album, Artist, Sales, NumberOfSongs as attributes. The primary key includes the Album attribute as the hash key and Artist attribute as the range key. The table also includes two global and one secondary index. For querying the number of sales for a given artist, the global secondary index uses the Sales attribute as the hash key and the Artist attribute as the range key.

For querying the sales based on the number of songs, the global secondary index uses the NumberOfSongs attribute as the hash key and the Sales attribute as the range key.

For querying the sales of an album, the local secondary index uses the same hash key as the table but uses the Sales attribute as the range key.

JSON


{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion" : "2010-09-09",
  "Resources" : {
    "myDynamoDBTable" : {
      "Type" : "AWS::DynamoDB::Table",
      "Properties" : {
        "AttributeDefinitions" : [
          {
            "AttributeName" : "Album",
            "AttributeType" : "S"   
          },
          {
            "AttributeName" : "Artist",
            "AttributeType" : "S"
          },
          {
            "AttributeName" : "Sales",
            "AttributeType" : "N"
          },
          {
            "AttributeName" : "NumberOfSongs",
            "AttributeType" : "N"
          }
        ],
        "KeySchema" : [
          {
            "AttributeName" : "Album",
            "KeyType" : "HASH"
          },
          {
            "AttributeName" : "Artist",
            "KeyType" : "RANGE"
          }
        ],
        "ProvisionedThroughput" : {
          "ReadCapacityUnits" : "5",
          "WriteCapacityUnits" : "5"
        },
        "TableName" : "myTableName",
        "GlobalSecondaryIndexes" : [{
          "IndexName" : "myGSI",
          "KeySchema" : [
            {
              "AttributeName" : "Sales",
              "KeyType" : "HASH"
            },
            {
              "AttributeName" : "Artist",
              "KeyType" : "RANGE"
            }
          ],                         
          "Projection" : {
            "NonKeyAttributes" : ["Album","NumberOfSongs"],
            "ProjectionType" : "INCLUDE"
          },
          "ProvisionedThroughput" : {
            "ReadCapacityUnits" : "5",
            "WriteCapacityUnits" : "5"
          }
        },
        {
          "IndexName" : "myGSI2",
          "KeySchema" : [
            {
              "AttributeName" : "NumberOfSongs",
              "KeyType" : "HASH"
            },
            {
              "AttributeName" : "Sales",
              "KeyType" : "RANGE"
            }
          ],                         
          "Projection" : {
            "NonKeyAttributes" : ["Album","Artist"],
            "ProjectionType" : "INCLUDE"
          },
          "ProvisionedThroughput" : {
            "ReadCapacityUnits" : "5",
            "WriteCapacityUnits" : "5"
          }
        }],
        "LocalSecondaryIndexes" :[{
          "IndexName" : "myLSI",
          "KeySchema" : [
            {
              "AttributeName" : "Album",
              "KeyType" : "HASH"
            },
            {
              "AttributeName" : "Sales",
              "KeyType" : "RANGE"
            }
          ],                           
          "Projection" : {
            "NonKeyAttributes" : ["Artist","NumberOfSongs"],
            "ProjectionType" : "INCLUDE"
          }
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}

YAML


AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Resources: 
  myDynamoDBTable: 
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties: 
      AttributeDefinitions: 
        - 
          AttributeName: "Album"
          AttributeType: "S"
        - 
          AttributeName: "Artist"
          AttributeType: "S"
        - 
          AttributeName: "Sales"
          AttributeType: "N"
        - 
          AttributeName: "NumberOfSongs"
          AttributeType: "N"
      KeySchema: 
        - 
          AttributeName: "Album"
          KeyType: "HASH"
        - 
          AttributeName: "Artist"
          KeyType: "RANGE"
      ProvisionedThroughput: 
        ReadCapacityUnits: "5"
        WriteCapacityUnits: "5"
      TableName: "myTableName"
      GlobalSecondaryIndexes: 
        - 
          IndexName: "myGSI"
          KeySchema: 
            - 
              AttributeName: "Sales"
              KeyType: "HASH"
            - 
              AttributeName: "Artist"
              KeyType: "RANGE"
          Projection: 
            NonKeyAttributes: 
              - "Album"
              - "NumberOfSongs"
            ProjectionType: "INCLUDE"
          ProvisionedThroughput: 
            ReadCapacityUnits: "5"
            WriteCapacityUnits: "5"
        - 
          IndexName: "myGSI2"
          KeySchema: 
            - 
              AttributeName: "NumberOfSongs"
              KeyType: "HASH"
            - 
              AttributeName: "Sales"
              KeyType: "RANGE"
          Projection: 
            NonKeyAttributes: 
              - "Album"
              - "Artist"
            ProjectionType: "INCLUDE"
          ProvisionedThroughput: 
            ReadCapacityUnits: "5"
            WriteCapacityUnits: "5"
      LocalSecondaryIndexes: 
        - 
          IndexName: "myLSI"
          KeySchema: 
            - 
              AttributeName: "Album"
              KeyType: "HASH"
            - 
              AttributeName: "Sales"
              KeyType: "RANGE"
          Projection: 
            NonKeyAttributes: 
              - "Artist"
              - "NumberOfSongs"
            ProjectionType: "INCLUDE"

DynamoDB Table with a DependsOn Attribute

If you include multiple DynamoDB tables with indexes in a single template, you must include dependencies so that the tables are created sequentially. DynamoDB limits the number of tables with secondary indexes that are in the creating state. If you create multiple tables with indexes at the same time, DynamoDB returns an error and the stack operation fails.

The following sample assumes that the myFirstDDBTable table is declared in the same template as the mySecondDDBTable table, and both tables include a secondary index. The mySecondDDBTable table includes a dependency on the myFirstDDBTable table so that AWS CloudFormation creates the tables one at a time.

JSON


"mySecondDDBTable" : {
  "Type" : "AWS::DynamoDB::Table",
  "DependsOn" : "myFirstDDBTable" ,
  "Properties" : {
    "AttributeDefinitions" : [
      {
        "AttributeName" : "ArtistId",
        "AttributeType" : "S"        
      },
      {
        "AttributeName" : "Concert",
        "AttributeType" : "S"        
      },
      {
        "AttributeName" : "TicketSales",
        "AttributeType" : "S"        
      }
    ],
    "KeySchema" : [
      {
        "AttributeName" : "ArtistId",
        "KeyType" : "HASH"
      },
      {
        "AttributeName" : "Concert",
        "KeyType" : "RANGE"
      }
    ],
    "ProvisionedThroughput" : {
      "ReadCapacityUnits" : {"Ref" : "ReadCapacityUnits"},
      "WriteCapacityUnits" : {"Ref" : "WriteCapacityUnits"}
    },
    "GlobalSecondaryIndexes" : [{
      "IndexName" : "myGSI",
      "KeySchema" : [
        {
          "AttributeName" : "TicketSales",
          "KeyType" : "HASH"
        }
      ],                           
      "Projection" : {
        "ProjectionType" : "KEYS_ONLY"
      },    
      "ProvisionedThroughput" : {
        "ReadCapacityUnits" : {"Ref" : "ReadCapacityUnits"},
        "WriteCapacityUnits" : {"Ref" : "WriteCapacityUnits"}
      }
    }],    
    "Tags": [
      {
        "Key": "foo",
        "Value": "bar"
      }
    ]
  }
}

YAML


mySecondDDBTable: 
  Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
  DependsOn: "myFirstDDBTable"
  Properties: 
    AttributeDefinitions: 
      - 
        AttributeName: "ArtistId"
        AttributeType: "S"
      - 
        AttributeName: "Concert"
        AttributeType: "S"
      - 
        AttributeName: "TicketSales"
        AttributeType: "S"
    KeySchema: 
      - 
        AttributeName: "ArtistId"
        KeyType: "HASH"
      - 
        AttributeName: "Concert"
        KeyType: "RANGE"
    ProvisionedThroughput: 
      ReadCapacityUnits: 
        Ref: "ReadCapacityUnits"
      WriteCapacityUnits: 
        Ref: "WriteCapacityUnits"
    GlobalSecondaryIndexes: 
      - 
        IndexName: "myGSI"
        KeySchema: 
          - 
            AttributeName: "TicketSales"
            KeyType: "HASH"
        Projection: 
          ProjectionType: "KEYS_ONLY"
        ProvisionedThroughput: 
          ReadCapacityUnits: 
            Ref: "ReadCapacityUnits"
          WriteCapacityUnits: 
            Ref: "WriteCapacityUnits"
    Tags:
      - Key: foo
        Value: bar

DynamoDB Table with Application Auto Scaling

This example sets up Application Auto Scaling for a AWS::DynamoDB::Table resource. The template defines a TargetTrackingScaling scaling policy that scales up the WriteCapacityUnits throughput for the table.

JSON


{
  "Resources": {
    "DDBTable": {
      "Type": "AWS::DynamoDB::Table",
      "Properties": {
        "AttributeDefinitions": [
          {
            "AttributeName": "ArtistId",
            "AttributeType": "S"
          },
          {
            "AttributeName": "Concert",
            "AttributeType": "S"
          },
          {
            "AttributeName": "TicketSales",
            "AttributeType": "S"
          }
        ],
        "KeySchema": [
          {
            "AttributeName": "ArtistId",
            "KeyType": "HASH"
          },
          {
            "AttributeName": "Concert",
            "KeyType": "RANGE"
          }
        ],
        "GlobalSecondaryIndexes": [
          {
            "IndexName": "GSI",
            "KeySchema": [
              {
                "AttributeName": "TicketSales",
                "KeyType": "HASH"
              }
            ],
            "Projection": {
              "ProjectionType": "KEYS_ONLY"
            },
            "ProvisionedThroughput": {
              "ReadCapacityUnits": 5,
              "WriteCapacityUnits": 5
            }
          }
        ],
        "ProvisionedThroughput": {
          "ReadCapacityUnits": 5,
          "WriteCapacityUnits": 5
        }
      }
    },
    "WriteCapacityScalableTarget": {
      "Type": "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget",
      "Properties": {
        "MaxCapacity": 15,
        "MinCapacity": 5,
        "ResourceId": { "Fn::Join": [
          "/",
          [
            "table",
            { "Ref": "DDBTable" }
          ]
        ] },
        "RoleARN": {
          "Fn::GetAtt": ["ScalingRole", "Arn"]
        },
        "ScalableDimension": "dynamodb:table:WriteCapacityUnits",
        "ServiceNamespace": "dynamodb"
      }
    },
    "ScalingRole": {
      "Type": "AWS::IAM::Role",
      "Properties": {
        "AssumeRolePolicyDocument": {
          "Version": "2012-10-17",
          "Statement": [
            {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Principal": {
                "Service": [
                  "application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com"
                ]
              },
              "Action": [
                "sts:AssumeRole"
              ]
            }
          ]
        },
        "Path": "/",
        "Policies": [
          {
            "PolicyName": "root",
            "PolicyDocument": {
              "Version": "2012-10-17",
              "Statement": [
                {
                  "Effect": "Allow",
                  "Action": [
                    "dynamodb:DescribeTable",
                    "dynamodb:UpdateTable",
                    "cloudwatch:PutMetricAlarm",
                    "cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms",
                    "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
                    "cloudwatch:SetAlarmState",
                    "cloudwatch:DeleteAlarms"
                  ],
                  "Resource": "*"
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "WriteScalingPolicy": {
      "Type": "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy",
      "Properties": {
        "PolicyName": "WriteAutoScalingPolicy",
        "PolicyType": "TargetTrackingScaling",
        "ScalingTargetId": {
          "Ref": "WriteCapacityScalableTarget"
        },
        "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration": {
          "TargetValue": 50.0,
          "ScaleInCooldown": 60,
          "ScaleOutCooldown": 60,
          "PredefinedMetricSpecification": {
            "PredefinedMetricType": "DynamoDBWriteCapacityUtilization"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

YAML


Resources:
  DDBTable:
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties:
      AttributeDefinitions:
        -
          AttributeName: "ArtistId"
          AttributeType: "S"
        -
          AttributeName: "Concert"
          AttributeType: "S"
        -
          AttributeName: "TicketSales"
          AttributeType: "S"
      KeySchema:
        -
          AttributeName: "ArtistId"
          KeyType: "HASH"
        -
          AttributeName: "Concert"
          KeyType: "RANGE"
      GlobalSecondaryIndexes:
        -
          IndexName: "GSI"
          KeySchema:
            -
              AttributeName: "TicketSales"
              KeyType: "HASH"
          Projection:
            ProjectionType: "KEYS_ONLY"
          ProvisionedThroughput:
            ReadCapacityUnits: 5
            WriteCapacityUnits: 5
      ProvisionedThroughput:
        ReadCapacityUnits: 5
        WriteCapacityUnits: 5
  WriteCapacityScalableTarget:
    Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
    Properties:
      MaxCapacity: 15
      MinCapacity: 5
      ResourceId: !Join
        - /
        - - table
          - !Ref DDBTable
      RoleARN: !GetAtt ScalingRole.Arn
      ScalableDimension: dynamodb:table:WriteCapacityUnits
      ServiceNamespace: dynamodb
  ScalingRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: "2012-10-17"
        Statement:
          -
            Effect: "Allow"
            Principal:
              Service:
                - application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com
            Action:
              - "sts:AssumeRole"
      Path: "/"
      Policies:
        -
          PolicyName: "root"
          PolicyDocument:
            Version: "2012-10-17"
            Statement:
              -
                Effect: "Allow"
                Action:
                  - "dynamodb:DescribeTable"
                  - "dynamodb:UpdateTable"
                  - "cloudwatch:PutMetricAlarm"
                  - "cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms"
                  - "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics"
                  - "cloudwatch:SetAlarmState"
                  - "cloudwatch:DeleteAlarms"
                Resource: "*"
  WriteScalingPolicy:
    Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy
    Properties:
      PolicyName: WriteAutoScalingPolicy
      PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling
      ScalingTargetId: !Ref WriteCapacityScalableTarget
      TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration:
        TargetValue: 50.0
        ScaleInCooldown: 60
        ScaleOutCooldown: 60
        PredefinedMetricSpecification:
          PredefinedMetricType: DynamoDBWriteCapacityUtilization

Warning Javascript is disabled or is unavailable in your browser.

To use the AWS Documentation, Javascript must be enabled. Please refer to your browser's Help pages for instructions.

Document Conventions

« Previous Next »