def METHOD_NAME(self, expect_shutdown: bool = False, print_error: bool = False) -> None:
    """Checks if DynamoDB server is up"""
    out = None
    try:
        self.wait_is_up()
        out = connect_externally_to(endpoint_url=self.url).dynamodb.list_tables()
    except Exception:
        if print_error:
            LOG.exception("DynamoDB health check failed")
    if expect_shutdown:
        assert out is None
    else:
        assert isinstance(out["TableNames"], list)