Restore tables in AWS DynamoDB using PITR

Last updated: 10 Apr 2024

This playbook describes how to restore a table using Amazon’s DynamoDB PITR.

We use DynamoDB Point in Time Recovery (PITR) backups to keep 35 days worth of changes to a configured dynamodb table.

Most dynamodb tables - for instance those used for terraform locks, do not include this functionality.

Prerequisites

The procedure for restoring a DynamoDB table using PITR is as follows:

Navigate to DynamoDB > Tables > your table
Select the Backups tab
Click Restore
Choose a name for your table (for example CustomerApiKeys-restored)
Pick either the latest snapshot or specify a date and time where the data was last in a good state
Decide whether you need secondary indexes restored (pick Restore the entire table). This is more expensive but may be necessary if you have a lot of indexed data that is crucial for your application’s performance
Choose Same Region for the region
Choose Owned by Amazon DynamoDB for the encryption keys
Select Restore at the bottom of the form

Once the newly-restored table is available, you will need to configure your application to use it.

We recommend using environment variables to easily update your table names in your ECS application/lambda