Setting DynamoDB Locally & Configuring AWS CLI

Using DynamoDB Locally

Localstack with Docker

services:
  localstack:
    container_name: "${LOCALSTACK_DOCKER_NAME:-localstack-main}"
    image: localstack/localstack
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:4566:4566"            # LocalStack Gateway
      - "127.0.0.1:4510-4559:4510-4559"  # external services port range
    environment:
      - DEBUG=${DEBUG:-0}

DynamoDB Local with Docker

services:
  dynamodb-local:
    command: "-jar DynamoDBLocal.jar -sharedDb -dbPath ./data"
    image: "amazon/dynamodb-local:latest"
    container_name: dynamodb-local
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - "./docker/dynamodb:/home/dynamodblocal/data"
    working_dir: /home/dynamodblocal

User should have proper permission on the directory, otherwise dynamodb-admin won’t be able to read data and throw error.

sudo chmod 777 ./docker/dynamodb

If you want data persistence without any fancy workaround, you should just go with the dynamodb-local image provided by AWS, as Localstack doesn’t provide data persistence in their free image, we need to use localstack-pro image for that. You can also use communtity edition image of localstack gresau/localstack-persist for data persistence.

Using AWS Cli / awslocal

Follow the instructions here to use the cli or the wrapper.

AWS Cli

You can setup your config & credentials by typing aws configure command, it will add your creds and config under ~/.aws/ folder in separate files named config & credentials in default profile. If you need to jump around different creds and config, you can leverage it using profile specific config & creds.

~/.aws/credentials

[default]
aws_access_key_id = key
aws_secret_access_key = key

[localstack]
aws_access_key_id = key
aws_secret_access_key = key

[dynamodblocal]
aws_access_key_id = key
aws_secret_access_key = key

~/.aws/config

[default]
region = us-east-1
output = json
services = dynamodblocal-services

[profile localstack]
services = localstack-services
region = us-east-1
output = json

[profile dynamodblocal]
services = dynamodblocal-services
region = us-east-1
output = json

[services localstack-services]
dynamodb =
  endpoint_url = http://localhost:4566

[services dynamodblocal-services]
dynamodb =
  endpoint_url = http://localhost:8000

Now you can use commands with aws cli without mentioning endpoint-url & jump around different profiles

aws dynamodb list-tables --profile dynamodblocal
aws dynamodb list-tables --profile localstack

If you don’t mention any profile, it will use the config & creds for default profile.

Using DynamoDB Admin

Use the below yml & start the service with docker compose up command

services:
  dynamodb-admin:
    depends_on:
      - localstack
    image: aaronshaf/dynamodb-admin
    ports:
      - "8001:8001"
    environment:
      - DYNAMO_ENDPOINT=http://localstack:4566
      - AWS_REGION=us-east-1

Now, you can use the UI on here

Tags: database dynamodb aws