Design and Manage Amazon Athena Databases with DbSchema
Build a clearer workflow for Amazon Athena: reverse engineer existing schemas into interactive ER diagrams, model changes visually, and generate reviewed SQL scripts before deployment.
DbSchema is built for visual modeling, schema documentation, and deployment. Keep an offline model in Git, collaborate across teams, and publish documentation that developers, analysts, and stakeholders can navigate in minutes.
Download DbSchema See Amazon Athena Features Download Amazon Athena JDBC Driver
What happens after you download?
Get to your first Amazon Athena schema diagram in minutes. No account, no credit card.
Install in minutes
Download the installer for Windows, macOS, or Linux and launch DbSchema. No signup required.
Connect to Amazon Athena or open a sample
Reverse engineer an existing Amazon Athena database or open a sample model to explore tables, relationships, and indexes.
Design, document, and deploy
Edit schema visually, generate documentation, and prepare reviewed migration scripts for safer releases.
Visualizing the AWS Glue Data Catalog with DbSchema
Amazon Athena is a serverless query engine that reads data directly from S3, using the AWS Glue Data Catalog as its metadata store. Unlike traditional databases, there is no persistent cluster — Athena's schema is the set of Glue databases and tables that point to S3 paths and file formats such as Parquet, ORC, and CSV. DbSchema connects via the Simba Athena JDBC driver and renders these Glue-cataloged tables as an interactive ER diagram, providing a visual representation of the data lake schema that is otherwise only accessible through the Athena console or the Glue API.
Download DbSchema Free See Amazon Athena Features
Build and Run SQL Queries on S3-Backed Data
DbSchema's visual query builder generates Presto-compatible SQL for Athena, letting analysts join Glue catalog tables and set filter conditions without writing SQL. Queries execute asynchronously via the Athena API and results are retrieved from the configured S3 output location and displayed in the data grid.
Browse Data Lake Table Contents
The data explorer fetches rows from Athena tables by issuing SELECT queries through the JDBC driver. Use it to inspect file-backed table contents, verify partition data, or sample rows from Parquet and ORC datasets stored in S3 — without returning to the Athena console for each lookup.
Document the Data Lake Schema
DbSchema generates HTML schema documentation from Athena's Glue catalog metadata, embedding ER diagrams and table definitions for every database in the catalog. This makes the data lake schema shareable and accessible to data consumers and stakeholders who do not have Athena console access.
Connecting DbSchema to Amazon Athena
Download the Simba Athena JDBC driver from the AWS documentation page and register it in DbSchema's driver manager. The JDBC URL format is jdbc:awsathena://AwsRegion=us-east-1;S3OutputLocation=s3://bucket/prefix/. Authenticate using an IAM user's Access Key ID and Secret Key provided in the connection dialog, or configure the AWS default credentials chain on the host machine for credential-free setup. The IAM principal must have athena:StartQueryExecution and s3:PutObject permissions on the S3 output bucket — without write access to the output location, all queries will fail at execution time.
Why Teams Use DbSchema with Amazon Athena
- Visualize Glue Data Catalog databases and tables as a navigable ER diagram
- Run Presto-SQL queries on S3-backed data through a visual query builder
- Inspect partitioned table data without opening the Athena console
- Generate schema documentation for the data lake catalog
- Share the Glue catalog schema with stakeholders who lack AWS console access