Enable DynamoDB Table Auto Scaling Rule
This rule requires enabling auto scaling for DynamoDB tables to ensure efficient performance and resource utilization.
| Rule | DynamoDB table auto scaling should be enabled |
| Framework | NIST 800-53 Revision 5 |
| Severity | ✔ High |
DynamoDB Table Auto Scaling for NIST 800-53 Revision 5
Description
DynamoDB is a managed NoSQL database service provided by AWS. Auto scaling is a feature that automatically adjusts the capacity of your DynamoDB tables based on the workload. Enabling DynamoDB table auto scaling helps to optimize performance and cost by automatically provisioning additional read and write capacity as needed. This ensures that your application can handle sudden spikes in traffic without manual intervention.
For compliance with NIST 800-53 Revision 5, it is required to enable auto scaling for DynamoDB tables to provide scalability and ensure that the resources are efficiently utilized.
Troubleshooting Steps
If auto scaling is not enabled for DynamoDB tables, you may encounter the following issues:
- 1.Performance degradation: Without auto scaling, your DynamoDB tables may not be able to handle an unexpected increase in workload, leading to performance issues and slower response times.
- 2.Cost inefficiency: Manual provisioning of read and write capacity may result in over-provisioning or under-provisioning, leading to unnecessary costs or degraded performance, respectively.
Remediation Steps
To enable auto scaling for DynamoDB tables, follow the step-by-step guide below:
- 1.Identify the DynamoDB table for which you want to enable auto scaling.
- 2.Log in to the AWS Management Console.
Console:
- 1.Go to the DynamoDB service.
- 2.Click on the desired DynamoDB table.
- 3.In the table details page, click on the "Capacity" tab.
- 4.Under the "Auto Scaling" section, click on "Configure auto scaling".
- 5.In the "Configure auto scaling for table" dialog box, choose the metric you want to scale on (such as "Provisioned Read Capacity Units" or "Provisioned Write Capacity Units").
- 6.Specify the minimum and maximum capacity values for the chosen metric.
- 7.Configure the scaling policy details, such as target utilization percentage and scale-out and scale-in thresholds.
- 8.Click on "Save".
Command Line Interface (CLI):
- 1.Open the AWS CLI or use the AWS SDK to interact with DynamoDB.
- 2.Execute the following AWS CLI command to configure auto scaling for the DynamoDB table:
aws application-autoscaling put-scaling-policy --service-namespace dynamodb --resource-id <your-dynamodb-table-arn> --scalable-dimension dynamodb:table:ReadCapacityUnits --policy-name <your-policy-name> --policy-type TargetTrackingScaling --target-tracking-scaling-policy-configuration file://<path-to-your-scaling-policy-config-file>.json
Replace
<your-dynamodb-table-arn><your-policy-name><path-to-your-scaling-policy-config-file>.jsonConclusion
Enabling auto scaling for DynamoDB tables helps ensure scalability, optimize performance, and reduce unnecessary costs. By automatically adjusting the read and write capacity based on the workload, you can meet the requirements of NIST 800-53 Revision 5 and efficiently handle varying traffic demands on your DynamoDB tables.