This week I was evaluating AWS QLDB. Specifically the verifiable history of changes to determine how to simplify present processes that perform auditing via CDC. This is not the first time I have looked at QLDB so there was nothing that new to learn.

What I found was that creating a workable solution with an existing application is hard. Even harder is creating an example to publish in this blog (and the purpose of this post).

First some background.

Using MySQL as the source of information, how can you leverage QLDB? It’s easy to stream data from MySQL Aurora, and it’s easy to stream data from QLDB, but it not that easy to place real-time data into QLDB. AWS DMS is a good way to move data from a source to a target, previously my work has included MySQL to MySQL, MySQL to Redshift, and MySQL to Kinesis, however there is no QLDB target.

Turning the problem upside down, and using QLDB as the source of information, and streaming to MySQL for compatibility seemed a way forward.

After setting up the QLDB Ledger and an example table, it was time to populate with existing data. The documented reference example looked very JSON compatible. Side bar, it is actually Amazon Ion a superset of JSON.

INSERT INTO Person
<< {
    'FirstName' : 'Raul',
    'LastName' : 'Lewis',
    'DOB' : `1963-08-19T`,
    'GovId' : 'LEWISR261LL',
    'GovIdType' : 'Driver License',
    'Address' : '1719 University Street, Seattle, WA, 98109'
},
{
    'FirstName' : 'Brent',
    'LastName' : 'Logan',
    'DOB' : `1967-07-03T`,
    'GovId' : 'LOGANB486CG',
    'GovIdType' : 'Driver License',
    'Address' : '43 Stockert Hollow Road, Everett, WA, 98203'
}

Now, MySQL offers with the X Protocol. This is something that lefred has evangelized for many years, I have seen presented many times, but finally I had a chance to use. The MySQL Shell JSON output looked ideal.

{
    "ID": 1523,
    "Name": "Wien",
    "CountryCode": "AUT",
    "District": "Wien",
    "Info": {
        "Population": 1608144
    }
}
{
    "ID": 1524,
    "Name": "Graz",
    "CountryCode": "AUT",
    "District": "Steiermark",
    "Info": {
        "Population": 240967
    }
}

And now, onto some of the things I learned this week.
Using AWS RDS Aurora MySQL is the first stumbling block, X Protocol is not supported. As this was a example, simple, mysqldump some reference data and load it into a MySQL 8 instance, and extract into JSON, so as to potentially emulate a pipeline.

Here is my experiences of trying to refactor into a demo to write up.

Launch a MySQL Docker container as per my standard notes. Harmless, right?

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="$(date | md5sum | cut -c1-20)#"
echo $MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD
docker run --name=qldb-mysql -p3306:3306 -v mysql-volume:/var/lib/mysql -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD -d mysql/mysql-server:latest
docker logs qldb-mysql
docker exec -it qldb-mysql /bin/bash

As it's a quick demo, I shortcut credentials to make using the mysql client easier. NOTE: as I always generate a new password each container, it's included here.

# echo "[mysql]
user=root
password='ab6ea7b0436cbc0c0d49#' > .my.cnf

# mysql 
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

What the? Did I make a mistake, I test manually and check

# mysql -u root -p

# cat .my.cnf

Nothing wrong there. Next check

# pwd
/
bash-4.2# grep root /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
operator:x:11:0:operator:/root:/sbin/nologin

And there is the first Dockerism. I don't live in Docker, so these 101 learnings would be known. First I really thing using "root" by default is a horrible idea. And when you shell in, you are not dropped into the home directory? Solved, we move on.

# mv /.my.cnf /root/.my.cnf

Mock and example as quickly as I can think.

# mysql

mysql> create schema if not exists demo;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> use demo;
Database changed
mysql> create table sample(id int unsigned not null auto_increment, name varchar(30) not null, location varchar(30) not null, domain varchar(50) null, primary key(id));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.03 sec)
mysql> show create table sample;

mysql> insert into sample values (null,'Demo Row','USA',null), (null,'Row 2','AUS','news.com.au'), (null,'Kiwi','NZ', null);
Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 3  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from sample;
+----+----------+----------+-------------+
| id | name     | location | domain      |
+----+----------+----------+-------------+
|  1 | Demo Row | USA      | NULL        |
|  2 | Row 2    | AUS      | news.com.au |
|  3 | Kiwi     | NZ       | NULL        |
+----+----------+----------+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Cool, now to look at it in Javascript using MySQL Shell. Hurdle 2.

# mysqlsh
MySQL Shell 8.0.22

Copyright (c) 2016, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

 MySQL  JS > var session=mysqlx.getSession('root:ab6ea7b0436cbc0c0d49#@localhost')
mysqlx.getSession: Argument #1: Invalid URI: Illegal character [#] found at position 25 (ArgumentError)

What the, it doesn't like the password format. I'm not a Javascript person, and well this is an example for blogging, which is not what was actually setup, so do it the right way, create a user.

# mysql

mysql> create user demo@localhost identified by 'qldb';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> grant ALL ON sample.* to demo@localhost;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.01 sec)

mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR demo@localhost;
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for demo@localhost                                |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO `demo`@`localhost`                 |
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `sample`.* TO `demo`@`localhost` |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Back into the MySQL Shell, and hurdle 3.

MySQL  JS > var session=mysqlx.getSession('demo:qldb@localhost')
mysqlx.getSession: Access denied for user 'demo'@'127.0.0.1' (using password: YES) (MySQL Error 1045)

Did I create the creds wrong, verify. No my password is correct.

#  mysql -udemo -pqldb -e "SELECT NOW()"
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
+---------------------+
| NOW()               |
+---------------------+
| 2021-03-06 23:15:26 |
+---------------------+

I don't have time to debug this, User take 2.

mysql> drop user demo@localhost;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> create user demo@'%' identified by 'qldb';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> grant all on demo.* to demo@'%'
    -> ;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> show grants;
+--
| Grants for root@localhost                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
+---
| GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, RELOAD, SHUTDOWN, PROCESS, FILE, REFERENCES, INDEX, ALTER, SHOW DATABASES, SUPER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES, EXECUTE, REPLICATION SLAVE, REPLICATION CLIENT, CREATE VIEW, SHOW VIEW, CREATE ROUTINE, ALTER ROUTINE, CREATE USER, EVENT, TRIGGER, CREATE TABLESPACE, CREATE ROLE, DROP ROLE ON *.* TO `root`@`localhost` WITH GRANT OPTION                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| GRANT APPLICATION_PASSWORD_ADMIN,AUDIT_ADMIN,BACKUP_ADMIN,BINLOG_ADMIN,BINLOG_ENCRYPTION_ADMIN,CLONE_ADMIN,CONNECTION_ADMIN,ENCRYPTION_KEY_ADMIN,FLUSH_OPTIMIZER_COSTS,FLUSH_STATUS,FLUSH_TABLES,FLUSH_USER_RESOURCES,GROUP_REPLICATION_ADMIN,INNODB_REDO_LOG_ARCHIVE,INNODB_REDO_LOG_ENABLE,PERSIST_RO_VARIABLES_ADMIN,REPLICATION_APPLIER,REPLICATION_SLAVE_ADMIN,RESOURCE_GROUP_ADMIN,RESOURCE_GROUP_USER,ROLE_ADMIN,SERVICE_CONNECTION_ADMIN,SESSION_VARIABLES_ADMIN,SET_USER_ID,SHOW_ROUTINE,SYSTEM_USER,SYSTEM_VARIABLES_ADMIN,TABLE_ENCRYPTION_ADMIN,XA_RECOVER_ADMIN ON *.* TO `root`@`localhost` WITH GRANT OPTION |
| GRANT PROXY ON ''@'' TO 'root'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
+---
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> show grants for demo@'%';
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for demo@%                                |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO `demo`@`%`                 |
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `demo`.* TO `demo`@`%`   |
+--------------------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Right, initially I showed grants of not new user, but note to self, I should checkout the MySQL 8 Improved grants. I wonder how RDS MySQL 8 handles these, and how Aurora MySQL 8 will (when it ever drops, that's another story).

Third try is a charm, so nice to also see queries with 0.0000 execution granularity.

 MySQL  JS > var session=mysqlx.getSession('demo:qldb@localhost')
 MySQL  JS > var sql='SELECT * FROM demo.sample'
 MySQL  JS > session.sql(sql)
+----+----------+----------+-------------+
| id | name     | location | domain      |
+----+----------+----------+-------------+
|  1 | Demo Row | USA      | NULL        |
|  2 | Row 2    | AUS      | news.com.au |
|  3 | Kiwi     | NZ       | NULL        |
+----+----------+----------+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.0006 sec)

Get that now in JSON output. NOTE: There are 3 different JSON formats, this matched what I needed.

bash-4.2# mysqlsh
MySQL Shell 8.0.22

Copyright (c) 2016, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Type '\help' or '\?' for help; '\quit' to exit.
 MySQL  JS > var session=mysqlx.getSession('demo:qldb@localhost')
 MySQL  JS > var sql='SELECT * FROM demo.sample'
 MySQL  JS > shell.options.set('resultFormat','json/array')
 MySQL  JS > session.sql(sql)
[
{"id":1,"name":"Demo Row","location":"USA","domain":null},
{"id":2,"name":"Row 2","location":"AUS","domain":"news.com.au"},
{"id":3,"name":"Kiwi","location":"NZ","domain":null}
]
3 rows in set (0.0006 sec)

Ok, that works in interactive interface, I need it scripted.

# vi
bash: vi: command not found
# yum install vi
Loaded plugins: ovl
http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-connectors-community/el/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden
Trying other mirror.
...

And another downer of Docker containers, other tools or easy ways to install them, again I want to focus on the actual example, and not all this preamble, so

# echo "var session=mysqlx.getSession('demo:qldb@localhost')
var sql='SELECT * FROM demo.sample'
shell.options.set('resultFormat','json/array')
session.sql(sql)" > dump.js


# mysqlsh < dump.js

What the? Hurdle 4. Did I typo this as well, I check the file, and cut/paste it and get what I expect.

# cat dump.js
var session=mysqlx.getSession('demo:qldb@localhost')
var sql='SELECT * FROM demo.sample'
shell.options.set('resultFormat','json/array')
session.sql(sql)
# mysqlsh
MySQL Shell 8.0.22

Copyright (c) 2016, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Type '\help' or '\?' for help; '\quit' to exit.
 MySQL  JS > var session=mysqlx.getSession('demo:qldb@localhost')
 MySQL  JS > var sql='SELECT * FROM demo.sample'
 MySQL  JS > shell.options.set('resultFormat','json/array')
 MySQL  JS > session.sql(sql)
[
{"id":1,"name":"Demo Row","location":"USA","domain":null},
{"id":2,"name":"Row 2","location":"AUS","domain":"news.com.au"},
{"id":3,"name":"Kiwi","location":"NZ","domain":null}
]
3 rows in set (0.0022 sec)

This is getting crazy.

# echo '[
> {"id":1,"name":"Demo Row","location":"USA","domain":null},
> {"id":2,"name":"Row 2","location":"AUS","domain":"news.com.au"},
> {"id":3,"name":"Kiwi","location":"NZ","domain":null}
> ]' > sample.json
bash-4.2# jq . sample.json
bash: jq: command not found

Oh the docker!!!!. Switching back to my EC2 instance now.

$ echo '[
> {"id":1,"name":"Demo Row","location":"USA","domain":null},
> {"id":2,"name":"Row 2","location":"AUS","domain":"news.com.au"},
> {"id":3,"name":"Kiwi","location":"NZ","domain":null}
> ]' > sample.json
$ jq . sample.json
[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Demo Row",
    "location": "USA",
    "domain": null
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Row 2",
    "location": "AUS",
    "domain": "news.com.au"
  },
  {
    "id": 3,
    "name": "Kiwi",
    "location": "NZ",
    "domain": null
  }
]

I am now way of the time I would like to spend on this weekly post, and it's getting way to long, and I'm nowhere near showing what I actually want. Still we trek on.

Boy, this stock EC2 image uses version 1, we need I'm sure V2, and well command does not work!!!!

$  aws qldb list-ledgers
ERROR:
$ aws --version

$ curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
$ unzip awscliv2.zip
$ sudo ./aws/install
$ export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
$ aws --version

Can I finally get a ledger now.

$ aws qldb create-ledger --name demo --tags JIRA=DEMO-5826,Owner=RonaldBradford --permissions-mode ALLOW_ALL --no-deletion-protection
 
{
    "Name": "demo",
    "Arn": "arn:aws:qldb:us-east-1:999:ledger/demo",
    "State": "CREATING",
    "CreationDateTime": "2021-03-06T22:46:41.760000+00:00",
    "DeletionProtection": false
}

$  aws qldb list-ledgers

{
    "Ledgers": [
        {
            "Name": "xx",
            "State": "ACTIVE",
            "CreationDateTime": "2021-03-05T20:12:44.611000+00:00"
        },
        {
            "Name": "demo",
            "State": "ACTIVE",
            "CreationDateTime": "2021-03-06T22:46:41.760000+00:00"
        }
    ]
}

$ aws qldb describe-ledger --name demo
{
    "Name": "demo",
    "Arn": "arn:aws:qldb:us-east-1:999:ledger/demo",
    "State": "ACTIVE",
    "CreationDateTime": "2021-03-06T22:46:41.760000+00:00",
    "DeletionProtection": false
}

Oh the Python 2, and the lack of user packaging, more crud of getting an example.

$ pip install pyqldb==3.1.0
ERROR

$ echo "alias python=python3
alias pip=pip3" >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile
$ pip --version
pip 9.0.3 from /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages (python 3.6)

$ python --version
Python 3.6.8

$ pip install pyqldb==3.1.0

ERROR

$ sudo pip install pyqldb==3.1.0

Yeah!, after all that, my example code works and data is inserted.

$ cat demo.py
from pyqldb.config.retry_config import RetryConfig
from pyqldb.driver.qldb_driver import QldbDriver

# Configure retry limit to 3
retry_config = RetryConfig(retry_limit=3)

# Initialize the driver
print("Initializing the driver")
qldb_driver = QldbDriver("demo", retry_config=retry_config)


def create_table(transaction_executor, table):

    print("Creating table {}".format(table))
    transaction_executor.execute_statement("Create TABLE {}".format(table))

def create_index(transaction_executor, table, column):
    print("Creating index {}.{}".format(table, column))
    transaction_executor.execute_statement("CREATE INDEX ON {}({})".format(table,column))


def insert_record(transaction_executor, table, values):
    print("Inserting into {}".format(table))
    transaction_executor.execute_statement("INSERT INTO {} ?".format(table),  values)


table="sample"
column="id"
qldb_driver.execute_lambda(lambda executor: create_table(executor, table))
qldb_driver.execute_lambda(lambda executor: create_index(executor, table, column))


record1 = { 'id': "1",
            'name': "Demo Row",
            'location': "USA",
            'domain':  ""
        }

qldb_driver.execute_lambda(lambda x: insert_record(x, table, record1))

$ python demo.py
Initializing the driver
Creating table sample
Creating index sample.id
Inserting into sample

One vets in the AWS Console, but you cannot show that in text in this blog, so goes to find a simple client and there is qldbshell

What the? I installed it and it complains about pyqldb.driver.pooled_qldb_driver. I literally used that in the last example.

$ pip3 install qldbshell
Collecting qldbshell
  Downloading PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/amazon.ion-0.7.0-py3.6-nspkg.pth' -> '/tmp/pip-p8j4d45d-uninstall/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/amazon.ion-0.7.0-py3.6-nspkg.pth'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/basecommand.py", line 215, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/commands/install.py", line 365, in run
    strip_file_prefix=options.strip_file_prefix,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/req/req_set.py", line 783, in install
    requirement.uninstall(auto_confirm=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/req/req_install.py", line 754, in uninstall
    paths_to_remove.remove(auto_confirm)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/req/req_uninstall.py", line 115, in remove
    renames(path, new_path)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/utils/__init__.py", line 267, in renames
    shutil.move(old, new)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/shutil.py", line 565, in move
    os.unlink(src)
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/amazon.ion-0.7.0-py3.6-nspkg.pth'
[centos@ip-10-204-101-224] ~
$ sudo pip3 install qldbshell
WARNING: Running pip install with root privileges is generally not a good idea. Try `pip3 install --user` instead.
Collecting qldbshell
Requirement already satisfied: urllib3<1.27,>=1.25.4 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from botocore<1.21.0,>=1.20.21->boto3>=1.9.237->qldbshell)
Installing collected packages: amazon.ion, qldbshell
  Found existing installation: amazon.ion 0.7.0
    Uninstalling amazon.ion-0.7.0:
      Successfully uninstalled amazon.ion-0.7.0
  Running setup.py install for amazon.ion ... done
  Running setup.py install for qldbshell ... done
Successfully installed amazon.ion-0.5.0 qldbshell-1.2.0


$ sudo pip3 install qldbshell

$ qldbshell
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/qldbshell", line 11, in 
    load_entry_point('qldbshell==1.2.0', 'console_scripts', 'qldbshell')()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 476, in load_entry_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2700, in load_entry_point
    return ep.load()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2318, in load
    return self.resolve()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2324, in resolve
    module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/qldbshell/__main__.py", line 25, in 
    from pyqldb.driver.pooled_qldb_driver import PooledQldbDriver
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyqldb.driver.pooled_qldb_driver'
$ pip list qldbshell
DEPRECATION: The default format will switch to columns in the future. You can use --format=(legacy|columns) (or define a format=(legacy|columns) in your pip.conf under the [list] section) to disable this warning.
amazon.ion (0.5.0)
boto3 (1.17.21)
botocore (1.20.21)
ionhash (1.1.0)
jmespath (0.10.0)
pip (9.0.3)
prompt-toolkit (3.0.16)
pyqldb (3.1.0)
python-dateutil (2.8.1)
qldbshell (1.2.0)
s3transfer (0.3.4)
setuptools (39.2.0)
six (1.15.0)
urllib3 (1.26.3)

So, uninstalled and re-installed and voila, my data.

$ qldbshell
usage: qldbshell [-h] [-v] [-s QLDB_SESSION_ENDPOINT] [-r REGION] [-p PROFILE]
                 -l LEDGER
qldbshell: error: the following arguments are required: -l/--ledger
$ qldbshell -l demo

Welcome to the Amazon QLDB Shell version 1.2.0
Use 'start' to initiate and interact with a transaction. 'commit' and 'abort' to commit or abort a transaction.
Use 'start; statement 1; statement 2; commit; start; statement 3; commit' to create transactions non-interactively.
Use 'help' for the help section.
All other commands will be interpreted as PartiQL statements until the 'exit' or 'quit' command is issued.

qldbshell >

qldbshell > SELECT * FROM sample;                                                                                                                           
INFO:
{
 id: "1",
 name: "Demo Row",
 location: "USA",
 domain: ""
}
INFO: (0.1718s)

qldbshell > \q                                                                                                                                              
WARNING: Error while executing query: An error occurred (BadRequestException) when calling the SendCommand operation: Lexer Error: at line 1, column 1: invalid character at, '\' [U+5c];
INFO: (0.1134s)
qldbshell > exit                                                                                                                                            
Exiting QLDB Shell

Right \q is a mysqlism of the client, need to rewire myself.

Now, I have a ledger, I created an example table, mocked a row of data and verified. Now I can just load my sample data in JSON I created earlier right? Wrong!!!

$ cat load.py
import json
from pyqldb.config.retry_config import RetryConfig
from pyqldb.driver.qldb_driver import QldbDriver

# Configure retry limit to 3
retry_config = RetryConfig(retry_limit=3)

# Initialize the driver
print("Initializing the driver")
qldb_driver = QldbDriver("demo", retry_config=retry_config)

def insert_record(transaction_executor, table, values):
  print("Inserting into {}".format(table))
  transaction_executor.execute_statement("INSERT INTO {} ?".format(table),  values)


table="sample"

with open('sample.json') as f:
  data=json.load(f)

qldb_driver.execute_lambda(lambda x: insert_record(x, table, data))

$ python load.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "load.py", line 2, in 
    from pyqldb.config.retry_config import RetryConfig
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyqldb'
[centos@ip-10-204-101-224] ~

Oh sweet, I'd installed that, and used it, and re-installed it.

$ pip list | grep pyqldb
DEPRECATION: The default format will switch to columns in the future. You can use --format=(legacy|columns) (or define a format=(legacy|columns) in your pip.conf under the [list] section) to disable this warning.
[centos@ip-10-204-101-224] ~
$ sudo pip3 install pyqldb
WARNING: Running pip install with root privileges is generally not a good idea. Try `pip3 install --user` instead.
Collecting pyqldb
Requirement already satisfied: boto3<2,>=1.16.56 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: botocore<2,>=1.19.56 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: ionhash<2,>=1.1.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: six in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from amazon.ion<1,>=0.7.0->pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: s3transfer<0.4.0,>=0.3.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from boto3<2,>=1.16.56->pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: jmespath<1.0.0,>=0.7.1 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from boto3<2,>=1.16.56->pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: python-dateutil<3.0.0,>=2.1 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from botocore<2,>=1.19.56->pyqldb)
Requirement already satisfied: urllib3<1.27,>=1.25.4 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from botocore<2,>=1.19.56->pyqldb)
Installing collected packages: amazon.ion, pyqldb
  Found existing installation: amazon.ion 0.5.0
    Uninstalling amazon.ion-0.5.0:
      Successfully uninstalled amazon.ion-0.5.0
  Running setup.py install for amazon.ion ... done
  Running setup.py install for pyqldb ... done
Successfully installed amazon.ion-0.7.0 pyqldb-3.1.0

Load one more time.

$ cat load.py
import json
from pyqldb.config.retry_config import RetryConfig
from pyqldb.driver.qldb_driver import QldbDriver

# Configure retry limit to 3
retry_config = RetryConfig(retry_limit=3)

# Initialize the driver
print("Initializing the driver")
qldb_driver = QldbDriver("demo", retry_config=retry_config)

def insert_record(transaction_executor, table, values):
  print("Inserting into {}".format(table))
  transaction_executor.execute_statement("INSERT INTO {} ?".format(table),  values)


table="sample"

with open('sample.json') as f:
  data=json.load(f)

qldb_driver.execute_lambda(lambda x: insert_record(x, table, data))

$ python load.py
Initializing the driver
Inserting into sample

And done, I've got my JSON extracted MySQL 8 data in QLDB. I go to vett it in the client, and boy, didn't expect yet another package screw up. Clearly, these 2 AWS python packages are incompatible. That's a venv need, but I'm now at double my desired time to show this.

$ qldbshell -l demo
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/qldbshell", line 11, in 
    load_entry_point('qldbshell==1.2.0', 'console_scripts', 'qldbshell')()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 476, in load_entry_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2700, in load_entry_point
    return ep.load()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2318, in load
    return self.resolve()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2324, in resolve
    module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/qldbshell/__main__.py", line 25, in 
    from pyqldb.driver.pooled_qldb_driver import PooledQldbDriver
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyqldb.driver.pooled_qldb_driver'
[centos@ip-10-204-101-224] ~
$ pip list | grep qldbshell
DEPRECATION: The default format will switch to columns in the future. You can use --format=(legacy|columns) (or define a format=(legacy|columns) in your pip.conf under the [list] section) to disable this warning.
qldbshell (1.2.0)


$ sudo pip uninstall qldbshell pyqldb

$ sudo pip install qldbshell
WARNING: Running pip install with root privileges is generally not a good idea. Try `pip3 install --user` instead.
Collecting qldbshell
  Downloading Requirement already satisfied: boto3>=1.9.237 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: amazon.ion<0.6.0,>=0.5.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: prompt_toolkit<3.1.0,>=3.0.5 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: ionhash~=1.1.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: s3transfer<0.4.0,>=0.3.0 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from boto3>=1.9.237->qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: botocore<1.21.0,>=1.20.21 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from boto3>=1.9.237->qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: jmespath<1.0.0,>=0.7.1 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from boto3>=1.9.237->qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: six in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from amazon.ion<0.6.0,>=0.5.0->qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: wcwidth in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from prompt_toolkit<3.1.0,>=3.0.5->qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: python-dateutil<3.0.0,>=2.1 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from botocore<1.21.0,>=1.20.21->boto3>=1.9.237->qldbshell)
Requirement already satisfied: urllib3<1.27,>=1.25.4 in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages (from botocore<1.21.0,>=1.20.21->boto3>=1.9.237->qldbshell)
Installing collected packages: qldbshell
  Running setup.py install for qldbshell ... done
Successfully installed qldbshell-1.2.0

Can I see my data now

$ qldbshell -l demo

Welcome to the Amazon QLDB Shell version 1.2.0
Use 'start' to initiate and interact with a transaction. 'commit' and 'abort' to commit or abort a transaction.
Use 'start; statement 1; statement 2; commit; start; statement 3; commit' to create transactions non-interactively.
Use 'help' for the help section.
All other commands will be interpreted as PartiQL statements until the 'exit' or 'quit' command is issued.

qldbshell > select * from sample;                                                                                                                           
INFO:
{
 id: 1,
 name: "Demo Row",
 location: "USA",
 domain: null
},
{
 id: 1,
 name: "Demo Row",
 location: "USA",
 domain: null
},
{
 id: "1",
 name: "Demo Row",
 location: "USA",
 domain: ""
},
{
 id: 3,
 name: "Kiwi",
 location: "NZ",
 domain: null
},
{
 id: 2,
 name: "Row 2",
 location: "AUS",
 domain: "news.com.au"
},
{
 id: 3,
 name: "Kiwi",
 location: "NZ",
 domain: null
},
{
 id: 2,
 name: "Row 2",
 location: "AUS",
 domain: "news.com.au"
}
INFO: (0.0815s)

And yes, data, I see it's duplicated, so I must have in between the 10 steps run twice. This does highlight a known limitation of QLDB, no unique constraints.

But wait, that data is not really correct, I don't want null. Goes back to the JSON to see the MySQL shell gives that.

$ jq . sample.json
[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Demo Row",
    "location": "USA",
    "domain": null
  },
...

At some point I also got this load error, but by now I've given up documenting how to do something, in order to demonstrate something.

NameError: name 'null' is not defined

One has to wrap the only nullable column with IFNULL(subdomain,'') as subdomain and redo all those steps again. This is not going to be practical having to wrap all columns in a wider table with IFNULL.

However, having exhausted all this time for what was supposed to be a quiet weekend few hours, my post is way to long, and I've learned "Creating examples can be hard".