Restoring a DynamoDB table to a point in time - Amazon DynamoDB
Restoring a DynamoDB table to a point in time (console)Restoring a table to a point in time (Amazon CLI)
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Restoring a DynamoDB table to a point in time

Amazon DynamoDB point-in-time recovery (PITR) provides continuous backups of your DynamoDB table data. You can restore a table to a point in time using the DynamoDB console or the Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI). The point-in-time recovery process restores to a new table.

If you want to use the Amazon CLI, you must configure it first. For more information, see Accessing DynamoDB.

Restoring a DynamoDB table to a point in time (console)

The following example demonstrates how to use the DynamoDB console to restore an existing table named Music to a point in time.

Note

This procedure assumes that you have enabled point-in-time recovery. To enable it for the Music table, on the Backups tab, in the Point-in-time recovery (PITR) section, choose Edit and then check the box next to Enable point-in-time-recovery.

To restore a table to a point in time

  1. Sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console and open the DynamoDB console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/dynamodb/.

  2. In the navigation pane on the left side of the console, choose Tables.

  3. In the list of tables, choose the Music table.

  4. On the Backups tab of the Music table, in the Point-in-time recovery (PITR) section, choose Restore.

  5. For the new table name, enter MusicMinutesAgo.

    Note

    You can restore the table to the same Amazon Region or to a different Region from where the source table resides. You can also exclude secondary indexes from being created on the restored table. In addition, you can specify a different encryption mode.

  6. To confirm the restorable time, set the restore date and time to Earliest. Then choose Restore to start the restore process.

    The table that is being restored is shown with the status Restoring. After the restore process is finished, the status of the MusicMinutesAgo table changes to Active.

Restoring a table to a point in time (Amazon CLI)

The following procedure shows how to use the Amazon CLI to restore an existing table named Music to a point in time.

Note

This procedure assumes that you have enabled point-in-time recovery. To enable it for the Music table, run the following command.

aws dynamodb update-continuous-backups \
    --table-name Music \
    --point-in-time-recovery-specification PointInTimeRecoveryEnabled=True

To restore a table to a point in time

  1. Confirm that point-in-time recovery is enabled for the Music table by using the describe-continuous-backups command.

    aws dynamodb describe-continuous-backups \
    --table-name Music

    Continuous backups (automatically enabled on table creation) and point-in-time recovery are enabled.

    {
    "ContinuousBackupsDescription": {
        "PointInTimeRecoveryDescription": {
            "PointInTimeRecoveryStatus": "ENABLED", 
            "EarliestRestorableDateTime": 1519257118.0, 
            "LatestRestorableDateTime": 1520018653.01
        }, 
        "ContinuousBackupsStatus": "ENABLED"
    }
}

  2. Restore the table to a point in time. In this case, the Music table is restored to the LatestRestorableDateTime (~5 minutes ago) to the same Amazon Region.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-name Music \
    --target-table-name MusicMinutesAgo \
    --use-latest-restorable-time
    Note

    You can also restore to a specific point in time. To do this, run the command using the --restore-date-time argument, and specify a timestamp. You can specify any point in time during the last 35 days. For example, the following command restores the table to the EarliestRestorableDateTime.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-name Music \
    --target-table-name MusicEarliestRestorableDateTime \
    --no-use-latest-restorable-time \
    --restore-date-time 1519257118.0

    Specifying the --no-use-latest-restorable-time argument is optional when restoring to a specific point in time.

  3. Restore the table to a point in time with custom table settings. In this case, the Music table is restored to the LatestRestorableDateTime (~5 minutes ago).

    You can specify a different encryption mode for the restored table, as follows.

    Note

    The sse-specification-override parameter takes the same values as the sse-specification-override parameter used in the CreateTable command. To learn more, see Managing encrypted tables in DynamoDB.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-name Music \
    --target-table-name MusicMinutesAgo \
    --use-latest-restorable-time \
    --sse-specification-override Enabled=true,SSEType=KMS,KMSMasterKeyId=abcd1234-abcd-1234-a123-ab1234a1b234

    You can restore the table to a different Amazon Region from where the source table resides.

    Note

    • The sse-specification-override parameter is mandatory for cross-Region restores but optional for restores to the same Region as the source table.

    • The source-table-arn parameter must be provided for cross-Region restores.

    • When performing a cross-Region restore from the command line, you must set the default Amazon Region to the desired destination Region. To learn more, see Command line options in the Amazon Command Line Interface User Guide.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-arn arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/Music \
    --target-table-name MusicMinutesAgo \
    --use-latest-restorable-time \
    --sse-specification-override Enabled=true,SSEType=KMS,KMSMasterKeyId=abcd1234-abcd-1234-a123-ab1234a1b234

    You can override the billing mode and the provisioned throughput for the restored table.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-name Music \
    --target-table-name MusicMinutesAgo \
    --use-latest-restorable-time \
    --billing-mode-override PAY_PER_REQUEST

    You can exclude some or all secondary indexes from being created on the restored table.

    Note

    Restores can be faster and more cost-efficient if you exclude some or all secondary indexes from being created on the new restored table.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-name Music \
    --target-table-name MusicMinutesAgo \
    --use-latest-restorable-time \
    --global-secondary-index-override '[]'

    You can use a combination of different overrides. For example, you can use a single global secondary index and change provisioned throughput at the same time, as follows.

    aws dynamodb restore-table-to-point-in-time \
    --source-table-name Music \
    --target-table-name MusicMinutesAgo \
    --billing-mode-override PROVISIONED \
    --provisioned-throughput-override ReadCapacityUnits=100,WriteCapacityUnits=100 \
    --global-secondary-index-override IndexName=singers-index,KeySchema=["{AttributeName=SingerName,KeyType=HASH}"],Projection="{ProjectionType=KEYS_ONLY}",ProvisionedThroughput="{ReadCapacityUnits=50,WriteCapacityUnits=50}" \
    --sse-specification-override Enabled=true,SSEType=KMS \
    --use-latest-restorable-time

To verify the restore, use the describe-table command to describe the MusicEarliestRestorableDateTime table.

aws dynamodb describe-table --table-name MusicEarliestRestorableDateTime

The table that is being restored is shown with the status Creating and restore in progress as true. After the restore process is finished, the status of the MusicEarliestRestorableDateTime table changes to Active.

Important

While a restore is in progress, don't modify or delete the Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies that grant the IAM entity (for example, user, group, or role) permission to perform the restore. Otherwise, unexpected behavior can result. For example, suppose that you remove write permissions for a table while that table is being restored. In this case, the underlying RestoreTableToPointInTime operation can't write any of the restored data to the table. IAM policies involving source IP restrictions for accessing the target restore table can similarly cause issues.

You can modify or delete permissions only after the restore operation is completed.