Connecting to Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a cloud data service. You can use the Amazon DynamoDB data connector to import your organization's DynamoDB data.

Before you start

To connect to DynamoDB, you must gather the following:

• hosting region of your Amazon Web Services
• AWS account access key

• AWS account secret key

For help gathering the connection prerequisites, contact the DynamoDB administrator in your organization. If your administrator cannot help you, you or your administrator should contact DynamoDB Support.

Create a DynamoDB connection

1. From the Analytics main menu, select Import > Database and application.
2. From the New Connections tab, in the ACL Connectors section, select DynamoDB.

   Tip

   You can filter the list of available connectors by entering a search string in the Filter connections box. Connectors are listed alphabetically.

3. In the Data Connection Settings panel, enter the connection settings and at the bottom of the panel, click Save and Connect.

   You can accept the default Connection Name, or enter a new one.

The connection for DynamoDB is saved to the Existing Connections tab. In the future, you can reconnect to DynamoDB from the saved connection.

Once the connection is established, the Data Access window opens to the Staging Area and you can begin importing data. For help importing data from DynamoDB, see Working with the Data Access window.

Connection settings

Basic settings

Setting	Description	Example
Endpoint	Endpoint for the communication. If you are connecting to AWS, then specify the endpoint for the DynamoDB service on AWS. If you are connecting to DynamoDB Local, then specify the IP address of the server.	dynamodb.[Region].amazonaws.com, where [Region] is the AWS region to use for your connection
DynamoDB Local	Specifies whether to connect to a DynamoDB Local server or the DynamoDB service on AWS. DynamoDB Local is a client-side database that supports the complete DynamoDB API, but does not manipulate any tables or data in DynamoDB itself.	Enabled
Port	The number of the TCP port that the DynamoDB Local server uses to listen for client connections. The default port number used by DynamoDB Local is 8000.	8000
Region	The hosting region for your Amazon Web Services.	NORTHERNVIRGINIA
Authentication	Specifies how the driver authenticates connections to DynamoDB: Disabled - The driver authenticates connections to DynamoDB by using an access key and a secret key. Enabled - The driver authenticates connections to DynamoDB by using a profile from a credentials file.	Disabled
Credentials File	The full path and name of the credentials file, where MFA credentials are saved. The default location is %APPDATA%\\CData\\AmazonDynamoDB Data Provider\\CredentialsFile.txt
Profile Name	The name of the profile to use from the AWS credentials file.
Access Key	Your AWS account access key. This value is accessible from your AWS security credentials page.
Secret Key	Your AWS account secret key. This value is accessible from your AWS security credentials page.
Enable Temporary Session	Specifies whether the driver uses temporary credentials: Disabled - The driver does not use temporary credentials. Enabled - The driver authenticates connections to DynamoDB by using temporary credentials. Temporary credentials consist of an access key, a secret key, and a session token, which are only valid for a limited amount of time.
Temporary Session Token	The session token to use when connecting to DynamoDB using temporary security credentials, which are valid only for a limited period of time.	3600

Advanced settings

Setting	Description	Example
Number of Retries	The maximum number of times that the driver should retransmit a request to the DynamoDB database if the request fails from a recoverable error.	10
Limit Throughput	The percentage of the total provisioned read units that the driver is allowed to consume. By default, the driver is allowed to consume up to 30% of the provisioned throughput. Make sure to use a value that is appropriate for the number of client applications that will be using a specific table concurrently. For example, if you set this value to 100, then one client will use all of the provisioned throughput units, preventing any other clients from using the table until more throughput becomes available.	30
Active Metadata Location	Specifies whether to use the schema definition from a Database or Local file.	Database
Database	The name of the database table containing the schema definition that you want the driver to use when connecting to DynamoDB.
Local File	The full path of a local JSON file containing the schema definition that you want the driver to use when connecting to DynamoDB.

Data connector updates

When you upgrade Analytics, the Robots Agent, or AX Server, you should test any of your scripts that import data using one of the Analytics data connectors (ACCESSDATA command).

The possibility exists that changes made by third-party data sources or ODBC driver vendors required updates to one or more of the data connectors. Scripted data connections may need to be updated in order to continue working correctly.

• Re-run the import The easiest way to update a connection is to manually perform an import using the Data Access window in the upgraded version of Analytics. Copy the ACCESSDATA command from the log and use it to update your script.

  Note

  Before connecting to a data source and re-running the import, clear the connector cache to flush the existing set of table names.

  In the Existing Connections tab in the Data Access window, beside the connector name, select > Clear cache.

• Update field specifications You may also need to update field specifications in the script body to align with table schema changes in the data source or ODBC driver. Possible changes include field names, field data types, and field and record lengths.
• Check the results of any filtering You should also check the results of any filtering that you apply as part of the data import. Confirm that the import filtering is including and excluding records correctly.