Set Up Cross-Region Disaster Recovery for DynamoDB Using Global Tables (Step-by-Step Guide)

In today’s cloud-native world, ensuring the continuous availability of data across regions is crucial. Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables offer a powerful, fully managed solution for building active-active cross-region architectures with built-in replication.

In this post, we’ll walk through how to set up a cross-region disaster recovery (DR) strategy for DynamoDB using Global Tables across us-east-1 and ap-south-1, covering setup, replication, and failover validation.

🔧 Use Case

• Architecture: Active-Active (bi-directional replication)

• Primary Region: us-east-1 (US East - N. Virginia)

• Disaster Recovery Region: ap-south-1 (Asia Pacific - Mumbai)

• Objective: Set up Global Tables in DynamoDB to ensure DR-readiness with real-time replication.

  

🛠 Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Create a DynamoDB Table in the Primary Region

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console.

2. Switch Region to US East (N. Virginia) – us-east-1.

3. Navigate to Services > DynamoDB.

4. Click on "Create Table".

5. Enter table details:

   • Table name: test-table

   • Partition key: user-id (String)

6. Leave defaults as-is (On-demand billing recommended).

7. Click "Create Table".

8. Wait until the table status is “Active”.

   

---

Step 2: Add Replica Region (ap-south-1)

1. While still in us-east-1, open the test-table.

2. Go to the "Global Tables" tab.

3. Click "Add region".

4. Select Asia Pacific (Mumbai) – ap-south-1.

5. Click "Create Replica".

6. AWS will provision a replica in ap-south-1 with automatic schema synchronization.

   

---

Step 3: Verify Replication

1. Switch Region to ap-south-1.

2. Go to DynamoDB > Tables.

3. Confirm that test-table appears.

4. Open it and validate that the schema matches the original.

   

Step 4: Test Bi-Directional Replication

A. Insert Data in Primary (us-east-1)

1. Switch back to us-east-1.

2. Open test-table > Explore table items > Create item.

3. Add:

    {
      "UserID": "U001",
      "Name": "Alice"
    }
   

4. Click "Create item".

   

B. Verify in DR Region (ap-south-1)

1. Switch to ap-south-1.

2. Navigate to test-table > Explore table items.

3. Verify that Alice’s record is replicated.

   

C. Insert in DR Region (ap-south-1)

1. In ap-south-1, add:

    {
      "UserID": "U002",
      "Name": "Bob"
    }
   

2. Switch to us-east-1 and verify Bob's entry is available there too.

   

Step 5: Simulate Region Failure (Optional Testing)

To test failover without bringing down the actual AWS region:

1. Block the us-east-1 endpoint locally:

    sudo nano /etc/hosts
   

2. Add the following line:

    127.0.0.1 dynamodb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
   

3. Now perform read/write operations only in ap-south-1.

4. Once done, remove or comment out the line from /etc/hosts.

   

✅ Conclusion

With DynamoDB Global Tables, building a resilient, low-latency, and globally available application becomes straightforward. This architecture is ideal for mission-critical systems that demand real-time DR and global data access. By following this guide, you’ve successfully implemented an active-active cross-region DR strategy using only the AWS Console.

📌 Further Reading

• AWS Docs: DynamoDB Global Tables

• Handling Conflicts in DynamoDB Global Tables

• DynamoDB Pricing

💬 Have you implemented cross-region DR for DynamoDB or other AWS services? Share your setup in the comments!