# Connect to existing DynamoDB table

**URL:** <https://forum.serverless.com/t/connect-to-existing-dynamodb-table/2149>\
**Category:** Serverless Framework\
**Created:** [June 27, 2017, 7:55am UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/connect-to-existing-dynamodb-table/2149 "2017-06-27T07:55:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@tango](https://forum.serverless.com/u/tango)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 7:55am UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/connect-to-existing-dynamodb-table/2149/1 "2017-06-27T07:55:39Z")

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Hi,

Im playing with my 1st service & was wondering how to connect to an existing table instead of having code in the yml file that wants to create a new table every time I deploy.

Ive just received an error message when attempting deploy that says table already exists.

Thanks in advance

Todd

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**Author:** ![DavidWells](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.serverless.com/davidwells/32/201_2.png) [@DavidWells](https://forum.serverless.com/u/DavidWells)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 3:48pm UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/connect-to-existing-dynamodb-table/2149/2 "2017-06-27T15:48:46Z")

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Hey Todd,

If you are connecting to an existing table you will just need to use the SDK and make dynamo calls from your code. Also make sure to provide the function correct IAM access to your existing table like [https://github.com/serverless/examples/blob/master/aws-node-rest-api-with-dynamodb/serverless.yml#L10-L19](https://github.com/serverless/examples/blob/master/aws-node-rest-api-with-dynamodb/serverless.yml#L10-L19)

No need to define the table again in your serverless.yml

Or you can create a new table, migrate the data from existing one into that new table created from serverless.yml resources