Come to this session to learn how Amazon DynamoDB was built as the hyper-scale database for internet-scale applications. In January 2012, Amazon launched DynamoDB, a cloud-based NoSQL database service designed from the ground up to support extreme scale, with the security, availability, performance, and manageability needed to run mission-critical workloads. This session discloses for the first time the underpinnings of DynamoDB, and how we run a fully managed nonrelational database used by more than 100,000 customers. We cover the underlying technical aspects of how an application works with DynamoDB for authentication, metadata, storage nodes, streams, backup, and global replication.

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Amazon DynamoDB Under the Hood:
How We Built a Hyper-Scale Database
Jaso Sorenson
Senior Principal Engineer
AWS/DynamoDB
D A T 3 2 1

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What is the Goal?
Learn about features
Understand tools
Use DynamoDB more effectively

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Agenda
GetItem / PutItem
Auto Scaling
Backup Restore
Streams
Global Tables

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GetItem

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GetItem (Step 1)

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Sample Policy
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"dynamodb:GetItem"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:dynamodb:us-west-2:1234567890:table/customer"
],
"Condition": {
"ForAllValues:StringEquals": {
"dynamodb:LeadingKeys": [
"${www.amazon.com:user_id}"
]
}
}
}
]
}

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GetItem (Step 2)

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PutItem

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DynamoDB evolved from Dynamo

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Paxos

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PutItem

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Heartbeats

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GetItem

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CustID Customer Information
145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
Tables

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Hash
Value
CustID Customer Information
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
Hashing

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Hash
Value
CustID Customer Information
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
Partitioning

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0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}

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0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
PutItem

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Eventual Consistency GetItem

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Storage Nodes

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Storage Nodes

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System Management

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Partition Repair

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Partition Repair

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Hash
Value
Name Projected Attributes
0x7232 Bob { name:“Bob”, …}
0x45B3 Sara { name:“Sara”, …}
0x99A5 Betty { name:“Betty”, …}
0x14C7 James { name:“James”, …}
0xA3B5 Alex { name:“Alex”, …}
0x04CA Val { name:“Val”, …}
0xDA8A Jeff { name:“Jeff”, …}
0x04CA Val { name:“Val”, …}
0x14C7 James { name:“James”, …}
0x45B3 Sara { name:“Sara”, …}
0x7232 Bob { name:“Bob”, …}
0x99A5 Betty { name:“Betty”, …}
0xA3B5 Alex { name:“Alex”, …}
0xDA8A Jeff { name:“Jeff”, …}
Secondary Index

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Secondary Index
IndexBase Table

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Secondary Index
Old Index
New Index
Base Table

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Secondary Indices
Base Table

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Auto Admin
Partition Repair
Create Tables
Table Provisioning
Split Partition
… (DBA for DynamoDB)

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Provisioning Table Capacity

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Provisioning Table Capacity

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Provisioning Trade-off

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Provisioning Example

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0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
Provisioning

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Token Bucket Algorithm

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Token Bucket Capacity

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Full Token Bucket

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Partition Bursting

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Unbalanced Load
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}

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Unbalanced Load
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
50 throttles
per second

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Adaptive Capacity

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Adaptive Capacity

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Adaptive Capacity Active
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}

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PID Controller

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PID Controller

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PID Controller

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Too Much Allowed
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
150 RCU over provisioned

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Partition Bursting

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Throttling
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}
50 Throttled
50 Throttled
50 Throttled

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Auto Scaling

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Auto Scaling

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Auto Scaling
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}

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Auto Scaling

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Auto Scaling
0x12A8 236294 { name:“Sara”, city:”Tampa”, …}
0x3391 445104 { name:“James”, city:”Miami”, …}
0x6134 333363 { name:“Betty”, city:”Madison”, …}
0x9531 145783 { name:“Bob”, city:”London”, …}
0xB082 643145 { name:“Val”, city:”Seattle”, …}
0xEA8A 723342 { name:“Jeff”, city:”Toledo”, …}
0xF355 523422 { name:“Alex”, city:”London”, …}

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Actual Auto-scaled Table

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Provisioning Recap

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Backup and Restore

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Q: Where to durably store backups?

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Q: Where to durably store backups?
A: Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

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Replication Log to Amazon S3

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Replication Log to Amazon S3

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“Snapshot" the B-tree to Amazon S3

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“Snapshot" the B-tree to Amazon S3

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Restore to a Point in Time

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Restore to a Point in Time

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Restore to a Point in Time

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Restore to a Point in Time

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Partition Splits

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Restore to a Point in Time

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On-demand Backups

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On-demand Backups

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Write Logs to Amazon S3

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On-demand backup

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Without PITR enabled

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Without PITR enabled

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Without PITR enabled

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Without PITR enabled

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With PITR enabled

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With PITR enabled

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DynamoDB Streams

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DynamoDB Streams

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Reading from the stream

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Writing to DynamoDB Streams

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Global Tables

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High Level Architecture
Region Region

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Multi-master replication
Region Region

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Multi-region replication
Region
Region
Region

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Multi-region
Region
Region
Region

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“Real” Architecture

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Initial PutItem

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After RepOut

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Conflict Resolution
• aws:rep:deleting
• aws:rep:updatetime
• aws:rep:updateregion

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Areas Covered
GetItem / PutItem
Auto Scaling
Backup Restore
Streams
Global Tables

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Areas Not Covered

111. Thank you!
© 2018, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
James Sorenson a.k.a. Jaso
jaso@amazon.com

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