Best practices for global tables - Amazon DynamoDB
VersionDeletion protectionUsing Amazon CloudFormationBackups and Point-in-Time RecoveryDesigning for multi-Region high availability
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Best practices for global tables

The following sections describe best practices for deploying and using global tables.

Version

There are two versions of DynamoDB global tables available: version 2019.11.21 (Current) and version 2017.11.29 (Legacy). You should use version 2019.11.21 (Current) whenever possible.

Deletion protection

You should enable deletion protection on global table replicas you want protected against accidental deletion. You must enable deletion protection on each replica.

Using Amazon CloudFormation

Amazon CloudFormation does not currently support the coordination of multi-Region resources like global tables across stacks. If you define each replica of a global table in a separate Regional stack, you will encounter errors due to detected drift across stacks when performing replica updates. To avoid this issue, you should choose one Region as the reference Region for deploying your global tables and define all of your global table's replicas in that Region's stack.

Important

You cannot convert a resource of type AWS::DynamoDB::Table into a resource of type AWS::DynamoDB::GlobalTable by changing its type in your template. Attempting to convert a single-Region table to a global table by changing its CloudFormation resource type may result in the deletion of your DynamoDB table.

You can use the AWS::DynamoDB::GlobalTable resource to create a table in a single Region. This table will be deployed like any other single-Region table. If you later update the stack to add other Regions to a resource, replicas will be added to the table and it will safely be converted to a global table.

If you have an existing AWS::DynamoDB::Table resource you want to convert to a AWS::DynamoDB::GlobalTable resource, the recommended steps to convert the resource type are:

  1. Set the AWS::DynamoDB::Table deletion policy to retain.

  2. Remove the table from the stack definition.

  3. Add replicas to the single-Region table in the Amazon console, converting it to a global table.

  4. Import the new global table as a new AWS::DynamoDB::GlobalTable resource to the stack.

Backups and Point-in-Time Recovery

Enabling automated backups and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) for one replica in a global table may be sufficient to meet your disaster recovery objectives. Replica backups created with Amazon-Backup can be automatically replicated across Regions for greater resilience. Consider your disaster recovery plan goals in the context of multi-Region high availability when choosing your backup and PITR enablement strategy.

Designing for multi-Region high availability

For prescriptive guidance on deploying global tables, see Best Practices for DynamoDB global table design.