MongoDB

Administer, optimize, and secure MongoDB NoSQL databases in development and production environments.

When to Use

• You need a document-oriented database with flexible schemas.
• Your data is semi-structured or heavily nested (JSON-like documents).
• You need horizontal scaling through sharding.
• Your application benefits from rich querying and aggregation pipelines.

Prerequisites

• Linux server (Debian/Ubuntu or RHEL-based) or Docker.
• Root or sudo access for package installation.
• MongoDB 7.x recommended for production (6.x still supported).

Installation and Setup

# Debian / Ubuntu — MongoDB 7
curl -fsSL https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-7.0.asc | \
  sudo gpg -o /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg --dearmor
echo "deb [ signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg ] \
  https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu jammy/mongodb-org/7.0 multiverse" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-7.0.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y mongodb-org

# Start and enable
sudo systemctl enable --now mongod

# Verify
mongosh --eval "db.version()"

Initial User Setup

// Connect without auth first
// mongosh

use admin

// Create admin user
db.createUser({
  user: "admin",
  pwd: "strong_admin_password",
  roles: [
    { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" },
    { role: "readWriteAnyDatabase", db: "admin" },
    { role: "clusterAdmin", db: "admin" }
  ]
})

// Create an application-scoped user
use mydb
db.createUser({
  user: "myapp",
  pwd: "strong_app_password",
  roles: [{ role: "readWrite", db: "mydb" }]
})

Enable authentication in /etc/mongod.conf:

security:
  authorization: enabled

sudo systemctl restart mongod
# Now connect with credentials
mongosh -u myapp -p strong_app_password --authenticationDatabase mydb

mongosh Commands Reference

// Show databases and collections
show dbs
use mydb
show collections

// Insert documents
db.users.insertOne({ name: "Alice", email: "alice@example.com", age: 30 })
db.users.insertMany([
  { name: "Bob", email: "bob@example.com", age: 25 },
  { name: "Carol", email: "carol@example.com", age: 35 }
])

// Query documents
db.users.find({ age: { $gte: 25 } }).sort({ name: 1 }).limit(10)
db.users.findOne({ email: "alice@example.com" })
db.users.countDocuments({ age: { $gte: 30 } })

// Update
db.users.updateOne(
  { email: "alice@example.com" },
  { $set: { age: 31 }, $currentDate: { updatedAt: true } }
)
db.users.updateMany(
  { age: { $lt: 30 } },
  { $set: { tier: "junior" } }
)

// Delete
db.users.deleteOne({ email: "bob@example.com" })
db.users.deleteMany({ tier: "junior" })

Indexing

// Single-field index
db.users.createIndex({ email: 1 }, { unique: true })

// Compound index
db.orders.createIndex({ userId: 1, createdAt: -1 })

// Text index for search
db.articles.createIndex({ title: "text", body: "text" })
db.articles.find({ $text: { $search: "mongodb scaling" } })

// TTL index — auto-delete documents after 30 days
db.sessions.createIndex({ createdAt: 1 }, { expireAfterSeconds: 2592000 })

// List indexes
db.users.getIndexes()

// Drop an index
db.users.dropIndex("email_1")

// Explain a query to verify index usage
db.orders.find({ userId: 42 }).explain("executionStats")

Aggregation Pipeline Examples

// Revenue per status
db.orders.aggregate([
  { $group: {
      _id: "$status",
      totalRevenue: { $sum: "$total" },
      count: { $sum: 1 }
  }},
  { $sort: { totalRevenue: -1 } }
])

// Top 5 customers by order value (with a join)
db.orders.aggregate([
  { $group: {
      _id: "$userId",
      spent: { $sum: "$total" },
      orderCount: { $sum: 1 }
  }},
  { $sort: { spent: -1 } },
  { $limit: 5 },
  { $lookup: {
      from: "users",
      localField: "_id",
      foreignField: "_id",
      as: "user"
  }},
  { $unwind: "$user" },
  { $project: {
      _id: 0,
      name: "$user.name",
      email: "$user.email",
      spent: 1,
      orderCount: 1
  }}
])

// Daily signup trend
db.users.aggregate([
  { $group: {
      _id: { $dateToString: { format: "%Y-%m-%d", date: "$createdAt" } },
      signups: { $sum: 1 }
  }},
  { $sort: { _id: 1 } },
  { $limit: 30 }
])

Replica Set Setup

A replica set requires a minimum of three members (or two data-bearing nodes plus an arbiter).

Configuration File for Each Member

# /etc/mongod.conf (adjust port and dbPath per member)
storage:

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