Did you know DynamoDB from AWS has a locally downloadable version which you can install on your local machine and use for development and testing purposes.

As a newbie to AWS, I was unable to find any comprehensive guide on how to setup and use DynamoDB locally. So without further ado, let’s start.

Download the DynamoDB Local (Downloadable Version)

There are 3 ways you can download:

1. Standalone jar file
2. Using Docker
3. Using an Apache Maven

I’m using Docker for this tutorial, for instructions on other 2 ways, visit this official AWS site

Please note your application doesn’t have to be a containerized application, we’re just using DynamoDB database as a container, that’s it.

Using Docker

Make sure you have docker up and running. If you’ve not, follow this official instructions

docker run -p 8000:8000 amazon/dynamodb-local

This will download DynamoDB locally from official Docker image and run. If everything is okay, you’d see output something like this:

Initializing DynamoDB Local with the following configuration:
Port:   8000
InMemory:       true
DbPath: null
SharedDb:       false
shouldDelayTransientStatuses:   false
CorsParams:     *

This would run the fully functional DynamoDB instance at http://localhost:8000.

[Bonus] Verify installation using AWS CLI.

If don’t have AWS CLI installed, follow this official guide

Run this command to verify the installation

aws dynamodb list-tables --endpoint-url http://localhost:8000

If you get an error like this:

You must specify a region. You can also configure your region by running "aws configure".

You can run:

aws configure

And you’d be asked to setup follwoing:

AWS Access Key ID:
AWS Secret Access Key :
Default region name [x]:
Default output format [None]:

You can enter any values, as you’re only using DynamoDB locally.

That’s it!

That’s how you can configure AWS DynamoDB on your local machine to develop and test your applications without spending anything.

Happy Coding!