How To Install MongoDB from the Default APT Repositories on Ubuntu 20.04

Introduction

MongoDB is a free and open-source NoSQL document database used commonly in modern web applications.

In this tutorial you’ll install MongoDB, manage its service, and optionally enable remote access.

Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you will need:

• One Ubuntu 20.04 server set up by following this initial server setup tutorial, including a non-root user with administrative privileges and a firewall configured with UFW.

Step 1 — Installing MongoDB

Ubuntu’s official package repositories include MongoDB, which means we can install the necessary packages using apt. As mentioned in the introduction, the version available from the default repositories is not the latest one. To install the latest version of Mongo, please follow this tutorial instead.

First, update the packages list to have the most recent version of the repository listings:

sudo apt update

Now install the MongoDB package itself:

sudo apt install mongodb

This command will prompt you to confirm that you want to install the mongodb package and its dependencies. To do so, press Y and then ENTER.

This command installs several packages containing a stable version of MongoDB, along with helpful management tools for the MongoDB server. The database server is automatically started after installation.

Next, let’s verify that the server is running and works correctly.

Step 2 — Checking the Service and Database

The installation process started MongoDB automatically, but let’s verify that the service is started and that the database is working.

First, check the service’s status:

sudo systemctl status mongodb

You’ll see this output:

Output
● mongodb.service - An object/document-oriented database
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mongodb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-10-08 14:23:22 UTC; 49s ago
       Docs: man:mongod(1)
   Main PID: 2790 (mongod)
      Tasks: 23 (limit: 2344)
     Memory: 42.2M
     CGroup: /system.slice/mongodb.service
             └─2790 /usr/bin/mongod --unixSocketPrefix=/run/mongodb --config /etc/mongodb.conf

According to this output, the MongoDB server is up and running.

We can verify this further by actually connecting to the database server and executing the following diagnostic command. This will output the current database version, the server address and port, and the output of the status command:

mongo --eval 'db.runCommand({ connectionStatus: 1 })'

Output
MongoDB shell version v3.6.8
connecting to: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017
Implicit session: session { "id" : UUID("e3c1f2a1-a426-4366-b5f8-c8b8e7813135") }
MongoDB server version: 3.6.8
{
	"authInfo" : {
		"authenticatedUsers" : [ ],
		"authenticatedUserRoles" : [ ]
	},
	"ok" : 1
}

A value of 1 for the ok field in the response indicates that the server is working properly.

Next, we’ll look at how to manage the server instance.

Step 3 — Managing the MongoDB Service

The installation process outlined in Step 1 configures MongoDB as a systemd service, which means that you can manage it using standard systemctl commands alongside all other system services in Ubuntu.

To verify the status of the service, type:

sudo systemctl status mongodb

You can stop the server at any time by typing:

sudo systemctl stop mongodb

To start the server when it is stopped, type:

sudo systemctl start mongodb

You can also restart the server with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart mongodb

By default, MongoDB is configured to start automatically with the server. If you wish to disable the automatic startup, type:

sudo systemctl disable mongodb

You can re-enable automatic startup any time with the following command:

sudo systemctl enable mongodb

Next, let’s adjust the firewall settings for our MongoDB installation.

Step 4 — Adjusting the Firewall (Optional)

Assuming you have followed the initial server setup tutorial instructions to enable the firewall on your server, the MongoDB server will be inaccessible from the internet.

If you intend to use the MongoDB server only locally with applications running on the same server, this is the recommended and secure setting. However, if you would like to be able to connect to your MongoDB server from the internet, you have to allow the incoming connections by adding a UFW rule.

To allow access to MongoDB on its default port 27017 from everywhere, you could run sudo ufw allow 27017. However, enabling internet access to MongoDB server on a default installation gives anyone unrestricted access to the database server and its data.

In most cases, MongoDB should be accessed only from certain trusted locations, such as another server hosting an application. To only allow access to MongoDB’s default port by another trusted server, you can specify the remote server’s IP address in the ufw command. This way, only that machine will be explicitly allowed to connect:

sudo ufw allow from trusted_server_ip/32 to any port 27017  

You can verify the change in firewall settings with ufw:

sudo ufw status

You should see traffic to port 27017 allowed in the output. Note that if you have decided to allow only a certain IP address to connect to MongoDB server, the IP address of the allowed location will be listed instead of Anywhere in this command’s output:

Output
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
27017                      ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
27017 (v6)                 ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

You can find more advanced firewall settings for restricting access to services in UFW Essentials: Common Firewall Rules and Commands.

Even though the port is open, MongoDB will still only be listening on the local address 127.0.0.1. To allow remote connections, add your server’s publicly-routable IP address to the mongodb.conf file.

Open the MongoDB configuration file in your preferred text editor. This example command uses nano:

sudo nano /etc/mongodb.conf

Add your MongoDB server’s IP address to the bindIP value. Be sure to place a comma between the existing IP address and the one you added:

...
logappend=true

bind_ip = 127.0.0.1,your_server_ip
#port = 27017

...

Save the file and exit the editor. If you used nano to edit the file, do so by pressing CTRL + X, Y, then ENTER.

Then, restart the MongoDB service:

sudo systemctl restart mongodb

MongoDB is now listening for remote connections, but anyone can access it. Follow How To Secure MongoDB on Ubuntu 20.04 to add an administrative user and lock things down further.

Conclusion

You can find more in-depth tutorials on how to configure and use MongoDB in these DigitalOcean community articles. The official MongoDB documentation is also a great resource on the possibilities that MongoDB provides.