# How does serverless offline start local dynamodb?

**URL:** <https://forum.serverless.com/t/how-does-serverless-offline-start-local-dynamodb/3171>\
**Category:** Serverless Framework\
**Created:** [November 23, 2017, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/how-does-serverless-offline-start-local-dynamodb/3171 "2017-11-23T04:07:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bill](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.serverless.com/bill/32/1072_2.png) [@bill](https://forum.serverless.com/u/bill)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/how-does-serverless-offline-start-local-dynamodb/3171/1 "2017-11-23T04:07:57Z")

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If I start local dynamodb first (`sls dynamodb start -p 8000 --migrate true &`), then start serverless offline, it always complains the port 8000 is used.

Seems serverless offline wants to take care local dynamodb starting.

But if I start serverless offline directly (sls offline start), it starts local dynamodb, but ignore the option `--migrate true`.

I confirm I have put the custom variables in `serverless.yml` already:

```auto
custom:
  dynamodb:
      start:
        migrate: true

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dbeckwith01](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.serverless.com/dbeckwith01/32/1948_2.png) [@dbeckwith01](https://forum.serverless.com/u/dbeckwith01)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/how-does-serverless-offline-start-local-dynamodb/3171/2 "2018-06-07T21:48:42Z")

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@bill Did you ever solve this? I have the same issue.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dbeckwith01](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.serverless.com/dbeckwith01/32/1948_2.png) [@dbeckwith01](https://forum.serverless.com/u/dbeckwith01)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/how-does-serverless-offline-start-local-dynamodb/3171/3 "2018-06-08T20:45:37Z")

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With [serverless-offline](https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline) v3.25.4 and [serverless-dynamodc-local](https://github.com/99xt/serverless-dynamodb-local) v0.2.30 the DynamoDB table specified in the `resources` section will be migrated on `serverless offline start’ with the following addition in your serverless.yml file.

```
custom:
  dynamodb:
    start:
      port: 8000
      inMemory: true
      migrate: true
```