Deploying DynamoDB locally on your computer

DynamoDB local is provided as an executable .jar file. The application runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and other platforms that support Java.

Note

DynamoDB local v2.0.0 and greater supports the jakarta.* namespace. If you have application requirements that uses the javax.* namespace in your Java classes, use DynamoDB local v1.20 and greater.
DynamoDB local AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID can contain only letters (A–Z, a–z) and numbers (0–9).

Follow these steps to set up and run DynamoDB v1.x on your computer.

Note

DynamoDB local v1.20 and greater is required for use on M1 and newer Apple processors. DynamoDB local v1.x supports the javax.* namespace. If you have application requirements that uses the jakarta.* namespace in your Java classes, use DynamoDB local v2.0.0 and greater.

To set up DynamoDB v1.x on your computer

Download DynamoDB local v1.x for free from one of the following locations.

Download Links	Checksums
.tar.gz \| .zip	.tar.gz.sha256 \| .zip.sha256

DynamoDB is also available as part of the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse. For more information, see AWS Toolkit for Eclipse.

Important

To run DynamoDB on your computer, you must have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 8.x or newer. The application doesn't run on earlier JRE versions.

After you download the archive, extract the contents and copy the extracted directory to a location of your choice.
To start DynamoDB on your computer, open a command prompt window, navigate to the directory where you extracted DynamoDBLocal.jar, and enter the following command.
```
java -Djava.library.path=./DynamoDBLocal_lib -jar DynamoDBLocal.jar -sharedDb
```
Note
If you're using Windows PowerShell, be sure to enclose the parameter name or the entire name and value like this:
java -D"java.library.path=./DynamoDBLocal_lib" -jar DynamoDBLocal.jar
DynamoDB processes incoming requests until you stop it. To stop DynamoDB, press Ctrl+C at the command prompt.
DynamoDB uses port 8000 by default. If port 8000 is unavailable, this command throws an exception. For a complete list of DynamoDB runtime options, including -port, enter this command.
java -Djava.library.path=./DynamoDBLocal_lib -jar DynamoDBLocal.jar -help
Before you can access DynamoDB programmatically or through the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), you must configure your credentials to enable authorization for your applications. Downloadable DynamoDB requires any credentials to work, as shown in the following example.

Important
DynamoDB local version 1.23.0 and greater AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID can contain only letters (A–Z, a–z) and numbers (0–9).
```
AWS Access Key ID: "fakeMyKeyId" 
AWS Secret Access Key: "fakeSecretAccessKey"
```
You can use the aws configure command of the AWS CLI to set up credentials. For more information, see Using the AWS CLI.
Start writing applications. To access DynamoDB running locally with the AWS CLI, use the --endpoint-url parameter. For example, use the following command to list DynamoDB tables.
```
aws dynamodb list-tables --endpoint-url http://localhost:8000
```

Follow these steps to set up and run DynamoDB v2.x on your computer.

Note

DynamoDB local v1.20 and greater is required for use on M1 and newer Apple processors. DynamoDB local v2.0.0 and greater supports the jakarta.* namespace. If you have application requirements that uses the javax.* namespace in your Java classes, use DynamoDB local v1.20 and greater.

To set up DynamoDB v2.x on your computer

Download DynamoDB local v2.x for free from one of the following locations.

Download Links	Checksums
.tar.gz \| .zip	.tar.gz.sha256 \| .zip.sha256

DynamoDB is also available as part of the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse. For more information, see AWS Toolkit for Eclipse.

Important

To run DynamoDB v2.0.0 or greater on your computer, you must have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 11.x or newer. The application doesn't run on earlier JRE versions.

After you download the archive, extract the contents and copy the extracted directory to a location of your choice.
To start DynamoDB on your computer, open a command prompt window, navigate to the directory where you extracted DynamoDBLocal.jar, and enter the following command.
```
java -Djava.library.path=./DynamoDBLocal_lib -jar DynamoDBLocal.jar -sharedDb
```
Note
If you're using Windows PowerShell, be sure to enclose the parameter name or the entire name and value like this:
java -D"java.library.path=./DynamoDBLocal_lib" -jar DynamoDBLocal.jar
DynamoDB processes incoming requests until you stop it. To stop DynamoDB, press Ctrl+C at the command prompt.
DynamoDB uses port 8000 by default. If port 8000 is unavailable, this command throws an exception. For a complete list of DynamoDB runtime options, including -port, enter this command.
java -Djava.library.path=./DynamoDBLocal_lib -jar DynamoDBLocal.jar -help
Before you can access DynamoDB programmatically or through the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), you must configure your credentials to enable authorization for your applications. Downloadable DynamoDB requires any credentials to work, as shown in the following example.

Important
DynamoDB local version 2.0.0 and greater AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID can contain only letters (A–Z, a–z) and numbers (0–9).
```
AWS Access Key ID: "fakeMyKeyId" 
AWS Secret Access Key: "fakeSecretAccessKey"
```
You can use the aws configure command of the AWS CLI to set up credentials. For more information, see Using the AWS CLI.
Start writing applications. To access DynamoDB running locally with the AWS CLI, use the --endpoint-url parameter. For example, use the following command to list DynamoDB tables.
```
aws dynamodb list-tables --endpoint-url http://localhost:8000
```

The downloadable version of Amazon DynamoDB is available as a Docker image. For more information, see dynamodb-local.

For an example of using DynamoDB local as part of a REST application built on the AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM), see SAM DynamoDB application for managing orders. This sample application demonstrates how to use DynamoDB local for testing.

If you want to run a multi-container application that also uses the DynamoDB local container, use Docker Compose to define and run all the services in your application, including DynamoDB local.

To install and run DynamoDB local with Docker compose:

Download and install Docker desktop.

Copy the following code to a file and save it as docker-compose.yml.


version: '3.8'
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

If you want your application and DynamoDB local to be in separate containers, use the following yaml file.


version: '3.8'
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
 app-node:
   depends_on:
     - dynamodb-local
   image: amazon/aws-cli
   container_name: app-node
   ports:
    - "8080:8080"
   environment:
     AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: 'DUMMYIDEXAMPLE'
     AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: 'DUMMYEXAMPLEKEY'
   command:
     dynamodb describe-limits --endpoint-url http://dynamodb-local:8000 --region us-west-2

This docker-compose.yml script creates an app-node container and a dynamodb-local container. The script runs a command in the app-node container that uses the AWS CLI to connect to the dynamodb-local container and describes the account and table limits.

To use with your own application image, replace the image value in the example below with that of your application.


version: '3.8'
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
 app-node:
   image: location-of-your-dynamodb-demo-app:latest
   container_name: app-node
   ports:
     - "8080:8080"
   depends_on:
     - "dynamodb-local"
   links:
     - "dynamodb-local"
   environment:
     AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: 'DUMMYIDEXAMPLE'
     AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: 'DUMMYEXAMPLEKEY'
     REGION: 'eu-west-1'

Note

The YAML scripts require that you specify an AWS access key and an AWS secret key, but they are not required to be valid AWS keys for you to access DynamoDB local.

Run the following command-line command:
```
docker-compose up
```

Follow these steps to use Amazon DynamoDB in your application as a dependency.

To deploy DynamoDB v1.x as an Apache Maven repository

Download and install Apache Maven. For more information, see Downloading Apache Maven and Installing Apache Maven.
Add the DynamoDB Maven repository to your application's Project Object Model (POM) file.
```

<dependencies>
   <dependency>
      <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
      <artifactId>DynamoDBLocal</artifactId>
      <version>1.24.0</version>
   </dependency>
</dependencies>
```
Note
- You can also use the Maven central repository URL.
- DynamoDB local v1.x supports the javax.* namespace. If you have application requirements that uses the jakarta.* namespace in your Java classes, use DynamoDB local v2.0.0 and greater.

Follow these steps to use Amazon DynamoDB in your application as a dependency.

To deploy DynamoDB v2.x as an Apache Maven repository

Download and install Apache Maven. For more information, see Downloading Apache Maven and Installing Apache Maven.

Add the DynamoDB Maven repository to your application's Project Object Model (POM) file.


<!--Dependency:-->
<dependencies>
   <dependency>
      <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
      <artifactId>DynamoDBLocal</artifactId>
      <version>2.1.0</version>
   </dependency>
</dependencies>

Example template for use with Spring Boot 3 and/or Spring Framework 6:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

<groupId>org.example</groupId>
<artifactId>SpringMavenDynamoDB</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

<properties>
   <spring-boot.version>3.0.1</spring-boot.version>
   <maven.compiler.source>17</maven.compiler.source>
   <maven.compiler.target>17</maven.compiler.target>
   <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>

   <parent>
       <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
       <version>3.0.1</version>
   </parent>

<dependencies>
   <dependency>
       <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
       <artifactId>DynamoDBLocal</artifactId>
       <version>2.0.0</version>
   </dependency>
   <!-- Spring Boot -->
   <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
       <version>${spring-boot.version}</version>
   </dependency>
   <!-- Spring Web -->
   <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
       <version>${spring-boot.version}</version>
   </dependency>
   <!-- Spring Data JPA -->
   <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
       <version>${spring-boot.version}</version>
   </dependency>
   <!-- Other Spring dependencies -->
   <!-- Replace the version numbers with the desired version -->
   <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
       <version>6.0.0</version>
   </dependency>
   <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
       <version>6.0.0</version>
   </dependency>
   <!-- Add other Spring dependencies as needed -->
   <!-- Add any other dependencies your project requires -->
</dependencies>
</project>

Note

You can also use the Maven central repository URL.
DynamoDB local v2.0.0 and greater supports the jakarta.* namespace. If you have application requirements that uses the javax.* namespace in your Java classes, use DynamoDB local v1.20 and greater.

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Document Conventions

Setting up DynamoDB local (downloadable version)

Usage notes