How can I create a backup of my AWS DMS task settings using the AWS CLI and jq?

Last updated: 2022-07-28

I want to take a backup of my AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) replication task settings to restore at a later time or to use as a template for other tasks. How can I do this?

Short description

Use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) and jq command-line JSON processor to create a backup of your AWS DMS replication task settings.

Run the AWS CLI describe-replication-tasks command to get your replication task settings.
Use the jq command-line JSON processor to filter and transform the task settings.
Save the JSON.

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when running AWS CLI commands, make sure that you're using the most recent version of the AWS CLI.

Prerequisites

Get the replication task settings

To get your AWS DMS replication task settings, run the describe-replication-tasks command using the AWS CLI and use the --filters flag. By using the filters flag, you return only the task that matches one of these items:

The replication task ID
The replication task ARN

Run this query to get the replication task settings for your AWS DMS task using the replication task ID. Replace <dms_task_id> with your AWS DMS replication task ID.

aws dms describe-replication-tasks --filter Name=replication-task-id,Values=<dms_task_id> --output json

Run this query to get the replication task settings for your AWS DMS task using the replication task ARN. Replace <dms_task_arn> with your AWS DMS replication task ARN.

aws dms describe-replication-tasks --filter Name=replication-task-id,Values=<dms_task_arn> --output json

Filter and transform the JSON output using jq

Next, filter and transform the JSON output from the previous step. You need to filter and transform this JSON to make it compatible for restoring at a later time.

1. Use the jq command-line JSON processor to make these modifications to the output JSON:

Add the key CdcStartPosition, and then set it to RecoveryCheckpoint.
Remove this data:

ReplicationTaskArn
ReplicationTaskStartDate
ReplicationTaskStats
Status
StopReason
ReplicationTaskCreationDate
CloudWatchLogGroup
CloudWatchLogStream
RecoveryCheckpoint

2. Run one of these commands to pipe the output JSON to jq, and then filter and transform the replication task data:

Using the AWS DMS replication task ID:

aws dms describe-replication-tasks --filter Name=replication-task-id,Values=<dms_task_id> --output json | jq '.ReplicationTasks | .[] | .TableMappings |= fromjson | .ReplicationTaskSettings |= fromjson | .["CdcStartPosition"] = .RecoveryCheckpoint | delpaths([
    ["ReplicationTaskArn"],["ReplicationTaskStartDate"],["ReplicationTaskStats"],["Status"],["StopReason"],["ReplicationTaskCreationDate"],["ReplicationTaskSettings","Logging","CloudWatchLogGroup"],["ReplicationTaskSettings","Logging","CloudWatchLogStream"],["RecoveryCheckpoint"]])
    | .TableMappings |= tostring |.ReplicationTaskSettings |= tostring'

Using the AWS DMS replication task ARN:

aws dms describe-replication-tasks --filter Name=replication-task-arn,Values=<dms-task-arn> --output json | jq '.ReplicationTasks | .[] | .TableMappings |= fromjson | .ReplicationTaskSettings |= fromjson | .["CdcStartPosition"] = .RecoveryCheckpoint | delpaths([
    ["ReplicationTaskArn"],["ReplicationTaskStartDate"],["ReplicationTaskStats"],["Status"],["StopReason"],["ReplicationTaskCreationDate"],["ReplicationTaskSettings","Logging","CloudWatchLogGroup"],["ReplicationTaskSettings","Logging","CloudWatchLogStream"],["RecoveryCheckpoint"]])
    | .TableMappings |= tostring |.ReplicationTaskSettings |= tostring'

Save the output to a JSON file

To save the resulting output as a backup, redirect it to a JSON file. For example, this command saves the task settings for an AWS DMS task with the task ID of dms_original_task to a JSON file named task_backup.json:

aws dms describe-replication-tasks --filter Name=replication-task-id,Values=original-dms-task --output json | jq '.ReplicationTasks | .[] | .TableMappings |= fromjson | .ReplicationTaskSettings |= fromjson | .["CdcStartPosition"] = .RecoveryCheckpoint | delpaths([ ["ReplicationTaskArn"],["ReplicationTaskStartDate"],["ReplicationTaskStats"],["Status"],["StopReason"],["ReplicationTaskCreationDate"],["ReplicationTaskSettings","Logging","CloudWatchLogGroup"],["ReplicationTaskSettings","Logging","CloudWatchLogStream"],["RecoveryCheckpoint"]]) | .TableMappings |= tostring |.ReplicationTaskSettings |= tostring' > task_backup.json

The resulting JSON file shows an output similar to this:

{
  "ReplicationTaskIdentifier": "original-dms-task",
  "SourceEndpointArn": "arn:aws:dms:us-east-1:xxxxxxxxxxxx:endpoint:QKMQN2TCULCPYIK3CMGF2CRDC5DIWZ433BCKHZY",
  "TargetEndpointArn": "arn:aws:dms:us-east-1:xxxxxxxxxxxx:endpoint:6LEFAZCDPQD2HWHJIXJYUU4PGMTKA2AKKFN4KCA",
  "ReplicationInstanceArn": "arn:aws:dms:us-east-1:xxxxxxxxxxxx:rep:C4CAB7ANKQU2AU7WFH4BYCJSLPS3YYUGCTHL3UA",
  "MigrationType": "full-load-and-cdc",
  "TableMappings": "{\"rules\":[{\"rule-type\":\"selection\",\"rule-id\":\"293111713\",\"rule-name\":\"293111713\",\"object-locator\":{\"schema-name\":\"%\",\"table-name\":\"%\"},\"rule-action\":\"include\",\"filters\":[]}]}",
  "ReplicationTaskSettings": "{\"Logging\":{\"EnableLogging\":true,\"LogComponents\":[{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"TRANSFORMATION\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"SOURCE_UNLOAD\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"IO\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"TARGET_LOAD\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"PERFORMANCE\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"SOURCE_CAPTURE\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"SORTER\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"REST_SERVER\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"VALIDATOR_EXT\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"TARGET_APPLY\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"TASK_MANAGER\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"TABLES_MANAGER\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"METADATA_MANAGER\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"FILE_FACTORY\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"COMMON\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"ADDONS\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"DATA_STRUCTURE\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"COMMUNICATION\"},{\"Severity\":\"LOGGER_SEVERITY_DEFAULT\",\"Id\":\"FILE_TRANSFER\"}]},\"StreamBufferSettings\":{\"StreamBufferCount\":3,\"CtrlStreamBufferSizeInMB\":5,\"StreamBufferSizeInMB\":8},\"ErrorBehavior\":{\"FailOnNoTablesCaptured\":true,\"ApplyErrorUpdatePolicy\":\"LOG_ERROR\",\"FailOnTransactionConsistencyBreached\":false,\"RecoverableErrorThrottlingMax\":1800,\"DataErrorEscalationPolicy\":\"SUSPEND_TABLE\",\"ApplyErrorEscalationCount\":0,\"RecoverableErrorStopRetryAfterThrottlingMax\":true,\"RecoverableErrorThrottling\":true,\"ApplyErrorFailOnTruncationDdl\":false,\"DataTruncationErrorPolicy\":\"LOG_ERROR\",\"ApplyErrorInsertPolicy\":\"LOG_ERROR\",\"EventErrorPolicy\":\"IGNORE\",\"ApplyErrorEscalationPolicy\":\"LOG_ERROR\",\"RecoverableErrorCount\":-1,\"DataErrorEscalationCount\":0,\"TableErrorEscalationPolicy\":\"STOP_TASK\",\"RecoverableErrorInterval\":5,\"ApplyErrorDeletePolicy\":\"IGNORE_RECORD\",\"TableErrorEscalationCount\":0,\"FullLoadIgnoreConflicts\":true,\"DataErrorPolicy\":\"LOG_ERROR\",\"TableErrorPolicy\":\"SUSPEND_TABLE\"},\"ValidationSettings\":{\"ValidationPartialLobSize\":0,\"PartitionSize\":10000,\"RecordFailureDelayLimitInMinutes\":0,\"SkipLobColumns\":false,\"FailureMaxCount\":10000,\"HandleCollationDiff\":false,\"ValidationQueryCdcDelaySeconds\":0,\"ValidationMode\":\"ROW_LEVEL\",\"TableFailureMaxCount\":1000,\"RecordFailureDelayInMinutes\":5,\"MaxKeyColumnSize\":8096,\"EnableValidation\":true,\"ThreadCount\":5,\"RecordSuspendDelayInMinutes\":30,\"ValidationOnly\":false},\"TTSettings\":{\"TTS3Settings\":null,\"TTRecordSettings\":null,\"EnableTT\":false},\"FullLoadSettings\":{\"CommitRate\":10000,\"StopTaskCachedChangesApplied\":false,\"StopTaskCachedChangesNotApplied\":false,\"MaxFullLoadSubTasks\":8,\"TransactionConsistencyTimeout\":600,\"CreatePkAfterFullLoad\":false,\"TargetTablePrepMode\":\"DROP_AND_CREATE\"},\"TargetMetadata\":{\"ParallelApplyBufferSize\":0,\"ParallelApplyQueuesPerThread\":0,\"ParallelApplyThreads\":0,\"TargetSchema\":\"\",\"InlineLobMaxSize\":0,\"ParallelLoadQueuesPerThread\":0,\"SupportLobs\":true,\"LobChunkSize\":0,\"TaskRecoveryTableEnabled\":false,\"ParallelLoadThreads\":0,\"LobMaxSize\":32,\"BatchApplyEnabled\":false,\"FullLobMode\":false,\"LimitedSizeLobMode\":true,\"LoadMaxFileSize\":0,\"ParallelLoadBufferSize\":0},\"BeforeImageSettings\":null,\"ControlTablesSettings\":{\"historyTimeslotInMinutes\":5,\"HistoryTimeslotInMinutes\":5,\"StatusTableEnabled\":false,\"SuspendedTablesTableEnabled\":false,\"HistoryTableEnabled\":false,\"ControlSchema\":\"\",\"FullLoadExceptionTableEnabled\":false},\"LoopbackPreventionSettings\":null,\"CharacterSetSettings\":null,\"FailTaskWhenCleanTaskResourceFailed\":false,\"ChangeProcessingTuning\":{\"StatementCacheSize\":50,\"CommitTimeout\":1,\"BatchApplyPreserveTransaction\":true,\"BatchApplyTimeoutMin\":1,\"BatchSplitSize\":0,\"BatchApplyTimeoutMax\":30,\"MinTransactionSize\":1000,\"MemoryKeepTime\":60,\"BatchApplyMemoryLimit\":500,\"MemoryLimitTotal\":1024},\"ChangeProcessingDdlHandlingPolicy\":{\"HandleSourceTableDropped\":true,\"HandleSourceTableTruncated\":true,\"HandleSourceTableAltered\":true},\"PostProcessingRules\":null}",
  "CdcStartPosition": "checkpoint:V1#102#00000000/B803EBA0#0#0#*#0#277"
}

You can now edit and restore the JSON file using the create-replication-task AWS CLI command. For example, this command creates an AWS DMS replication task with a task ID of restored-dms-task using the task_backup.json file:

aws dms create-replication-task --replication-task-identifier restored-dms-task --cli-input-json file://task_backup.json

Note: When you include the --replication-task-identifier in the command, then you override the --replication-task-identifier value in the task_backup.json file.

Related information

Specifying task settings for AWS Database Migration Service tasks

Creating tasks for ongoing replication using AWS DMS

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