Best practices for Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables – Part 1: Operational readiness

This article provides best practices for preparing DynamoDB Global Tables for operational readiness and failover scenarios.

• MREC uses asynchronous replication with last-writer-wins conflict resolution; eventual consistency model
• MRSC provides synchronous replication with zero RPO but adds latency to writes
• RPO measures acceptable data loss; RTO measures acceptable recovery time
• Monitor ReplicationLatency metric with alarms at 3,000ms (warning) and 5,000ms (critical)
• Deploy synthetic canaries from separate regions to validate cross-region replication
• Verify replica tables are ACTIVE and capacity can handle full production traffic
• Ensure failover region auto scaling MaximumUnits match primary region peak capacity
• Avoid control plane operations during disruptions; prepare infrastructure before incidents
• Create pre-event checklists and failover runbooks with predetermined thresholds
• Regularly test failover procedures using GameDays and AWS Fault Injection Service

Preparation separates controlled failovers from reactive scrambles. Monitor replication health, verify capacity readiness, document dependencies, and practice failover procedures before incidents occur.