List Exports in an Account

You can list all exports in your AWS account using the list-exports command:

aws simpledbv2 list-exports

The command returns a list of export summaries:

{
  "exportSummaries": [
    {
      "exportArn": "arn:aws::sdb:us-east-1:111122223333:domain/myDomain/export/3677e7cd-ca7a-47e2-9d24-2b86115503a6",
      "exportStatus": "SUCCEEDED",
      "requestedAt": "2026-02-03T13:32:04.394000+00:00",
      "domainName": "myDomain"
    },
    {
      "exportArn": "arn:aws::sdb:us-east-1:111122223333:domain/myDomain/export/2890f3b6-a683-4277-adb6-c76a9b434b75",
      "exportStatus": "FAILED",
      "requestedAt": "2026-02-03T13:38:00.347000+00:00",
      "domainName": "myDomain"
    },
    {
      "exportArn": "arn:aws::sdb:us-east-1:111122223333:domain/myDomain/export/6f7ed325-e8cc-4ffe-aa56-b4f6fa8a0fc5",
      "exportStatus": "SUCCEEDED",
      "requestedAt": "2026-02-06T11:57:09.953000+00:00",
      "domainName": "myDomain"
    }
  ]
}

Filtering and Pagination

You can filter the list of exports by domain name:

aws simpledbv2 list-exports \
		    --domain-name 'myDomain'

To limit the number of results returned, use the --max-results parameter:

aws simpledbv2 list-exports \
		    --max-results 10

If there are more results available, the response includes a nextToken field. Use this token in a subsequent request to retrieve the next page of results:

aws simpledbv2 list-exports \
		    --next-token 'AQICAHjER8iQpbgPvrZjCyvsE2xN8rcQnvjivIKJidDDXMn1vQ...'

Data Retention

The list-exports command returns information about exports created within the past 3 months. Older export metadata is automatically removed from the system, although the exported data files remain in your Amazon S3 bucket until you delete them.

Understanding Exported Data in Amazon S3

When an export completes successfully, Amazon SimpleDB creates a structured directory in your Amazon S3 bucket containing the exported data and metadata files.

Directory Structure

The exported data is organized in the following directory structure:

AWSSimpleDB/<exportId>/<domainName>/
		├── _started
		├── data/
		│   ├── dataFile_1_2.json
		│   ├── dataFile_3_4.json
		│   └── ...
		├── manifest-file.json
		└── manifest-summary.json

_started

An empty marker file created at the beginning of the export to verify bucket write access.

data/

Directory containing one or more JSON files with the exported domain data. File names include random partition identifiers.

manifest-file.json

Metadata file listing all data files with their MD5 checksums and item counts.

manifest-summary.json

Summary file containing export metadata and total item count.

Data File Format

Each data file in the data/ directory contains an array of JSON objects, where each object represents a Amazon SimpleDB item. The following example shows the structure:

[
		    {
		        "itemName": "employee1",
		        "attributes": [
		            {"name": "first_name", "values": ["John"]},
		            {"name": "last_name", "values": ["Doe"]},
		            {"name": "department", "values": ["IT"]},
		            {"name": "age", "values": ["30"]}
		        ]
		    },
		    {
		        "itemName": "employee2",
		        "attributes": [
		            {"name": "first_name", "values": ["Jane"]},
		            {"name": "last_name", "values": ["Smith"]},
		            {"name": "department", "values": ["HR"]},
		            {"name": "reportees", "values": ["Jade", "Judith"]}
		        ]
		    }
		]

Each item object contains:

• itemName – The unique identifier for the item in the domain

• attributes – An array of attribute objects, each containing:

  • name – The attribute name

  • values – An array of values (supporting multi-value attributes)

For more information about the Amazon SimpleDB data model, see Data Model.

Manifest Files

The manifest files provide metadata about the export and enable data integrity verification.

manifest-file.json

This file lists all data files in the export with their checksums:

[
		    {
		        "md5Checksum": "ccc3dIp/7887Xhl7+DaEBQ==",
		        "dataFileS3Key": "AWSSimpleDB/3eb4eaed-872b-4e08-b4b6-ff6999a83e01/myDomain/data/dataFile_1_2.json",
		        "dataFileItemCount": 500
		    },
		    {
		        "md5Checksum": "xyz9aKl/3456Pqr8+EbFCR==",
		        "dataFileS3Key": "AWSSimpleDB/3eb4eaed-872b-4e08-b4b6-ff6999a83e01/myDomain/data/dataFile_3_4.json",
		        "dataFileItemCount": 500
		    }
		]

Use the MD5 checksums to verify the integrity of each data file after download.

manifest-summary.json

This file provides a summary of the entire export:

{
    "version":"2025-11-01",
    "exportArn":"arn:aws::sdb:us-east-1:111122223333:domain/myDomain/export/a49f3ffd-4b7e-4720-8f5d-f4536313aaf5",
    "requestedAt":"2026-02-16T16:56:43.659Z",
    "s3BucketName":"myBucket",
    "s3ExportPrefix":"AWSSimpleDB/a49f3ffd-4b7e-4720-8f5d-f4536313aaf5/myDomain",
    "domainName":"myDomain",
    "itemsCount":4650,
    "exportDataCutoffTime":"2026-02-16T16:58:35.009Z",
    "s3SseAlgorithm":null,
    "s3SseKmsKeyId":null,
    "s3BucketOwner":"111122223333"
}

Use the totalItemCount to verify that all items were exported successfully.