Learn How to Use New S3 Table Buckets and Build Iceberg Tables on EMR 7.5 | Hands-On Labs
Amazon S3 has introduced a game-changing feature called S3 Table Buckets, optimized for storing tabular data at massive scale. This enhancement can significantly streamline data storage for analytics workloads, especially when working with data formats like Apache Iceberg. If you're working with large datasets—whether it's daily transactions, streaming sensor data, or ad impressions—this feature can help you improve both query performance and operational efficiency. In this blog post, we'll guide you through how to use these new S3 Table Buckets and build Iceberg Tables on EMR 7.5. So, let's dive in!
What Are S3 Table Buckets?
Amazon S3 Table Buckets are a new way to store and manage tabular data directly in Amazon S3, optimized for analytics workloads. When using these buckets, your data can be stored in formats like Apache Iceberg, which provides high performance for large-scale queries, especially when querying across billions of files and petabytes of data.
S3 Table Buckets are designed for storage that is highly optimized for query engines like Amazon Athena, Amazon EMR, and Apache Spark. These buckets provide up to 3x faster query performance and up to 10x more transactions per second compared to traditional self-managed table storage. And since this is a fully managed service, you don't have to worry about the operational overhead—Amazon takes care of the heavy lifting.
Why Apache Iceberg?
Apache Iceberg is a high-performance table format used to manage large datasets, often stored as Parquet files. It supports ACID transactions, schema evolution, and time travel, which makes it perfect for building reliable and efficient data lakes. Iceberg has become one of the most popular ways to manage Parquet files, enabling organizations to query massive amounts of data without compromising on performance.
With Amazon S3 Table Buckets, you can seamlessly integrate Iceberg into your data architecture, using familiar tools like Spark and Athena, without the need for self-managed infrastructure.
Hands-On Labs: Setting Up S3 Table Buckets and Iceberg Tables
Let's walk through the process of setting up an S3 Table Bucket and using it to build an Iceberg Table on Amazon EMR 7.5.
VIdeo Guides
Step 1: Create an S3 Table Bucket from the AWS Management Console
Step 2: Launch an EMR Cluster on EC2 7.5 or Higher
Now, let’s set up an Amazon EMR cluster to interact with the Iceberg table in your S3 Table Bucket.
Step 3: Start a PySpark Shell and Configure It
After setting up your EMR cluster, it's time to configure the PySpark environment and start interacting with the S3 Table Bucket.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Launch the PySpark shell with the required dependencies for Iceberg:
This command will start PySpark with the necessary libraries to interact with S3 Table Buckets and Iceberg.
Step 4: Interact with S3 Table Buckets and Create Iceberg Tables
Once you're inside the PySpark shell, you can start building your Iceberg tables. Here’s a simple workflow:
Create a SparkSession:
Create a Namespace in your Iceberg catalog:
Create an Iceberg Table and Insert Data
Query it
Benefits of Using S3 Table Buckets and Iceberg
Code snippets
Conclusion
Amazon's new S3 Table Buckets feature, combined with Apache Iceberg, provides a powerful solution for managing and querying tabular data at scale. By following the steps outlined above, you can create optimized, high-performance tables with minimal operational overhead, all within the AWS ecosystem. Whether you're managing transactional data, streaming data, or other analytics workloads, S3 Table Buckets and Iceberg are a great combination for improving query performance and efficiency.
Now it's your turn to experiment with this powerful feature! Happy coding and data querying!