Tutorial
How to Install MongoDB on Ubuntu 16.04
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Introduction
MongoDB is a free and open-source NoSQL document database used commonly in modern web applications. This tutorial will help you set up MongoDB on your server for a production application environment.
Prerequisites
To follow this tutorial, you will need:
- One Ubuntu 16.04 server set up by following this initial server setup tutorial, including a sudo non-root user and a firewall.
Step 1 — Adding the MongoDB Repository
MongoDB is already included in Ubuntu package repositories, but the official MongoDB repository provides most up-to-date version and is the recommended way of installing the software. In this step, we will add this official repository to our server.
Ubuntu ensures the authenticity of software packages by verifying that they are signed with GPG keys, so we first have to import they key for the official MongoDB repository.
- wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.4.asc | sudo apt-key add -
After successfully importing the key, you will see:
OK
Next, we have to add the MongoDB repository details so apt will know where to download the packages from.
Issue the following command to create a list file for MongoDB.
- echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 ] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu xenial/mongodb-org/4.4 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.4.list
After adding the repository details, we need to update the packages list.
- sudo apt-get update
Step 2 — Installing and Verifying MongoDB
Now we can install the MongoDB package itself.
- sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org
This command will install several packages containing latest stable version of MongoDB along with helpful management tools for the MongoDB server.
Next, start MongoDB with systemctl.
- sudo systemctl start mongod
You can also use systemctl to check that the service has started properly.
- sudo systemctl status mongod
● mongodb.service - High-performance, schema-free document-oriented database
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/mongodb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2016-04-25 14:57:20 EDT; 1min 30s ago
Main PID: 4093 (mongod)
Tasks: 16 (limit: 512)
Memory: 47.1M
CPU: 1.224s
CGroup: /system.slice/mongodb.service
└─4093 /usr/bin/mongod --quiet --config /etc/mongod.conf
The last step is to enable automatically starting MongoDB when the system starts.
- sudo systemctl enable mongod
The MongoDB server is now configured and running, and you can manage the MongoDB service using the systemctl command (e.g. sudo systemctl stop mongod, sudo systemctl start mongod).
Step 3 — Adjusting the Firewall (Optional)
Assuming you have followed the initial server setup tutorial instructions to enable the firewall on your server, 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, it is a recommended and secure setting. However, if you would like to be able to connect to your MongoDB server from the internet, we have to allow the incoming connections in ufw.
To allow access to MongoDB on its default port 27017 from everywhere, you could use sudo ufw allow 27017. However, enabling internet access to MongoDB server on a default installation gives unrestricted access to the whole database server.
in most cases, MongoDB should be accessed only from certain trusted locations, such as another server hosting an application. To accomplish this task, you can allow access on MongoDB’s default port while specifying the IP address of another server that will be explicitly allowed to connect.
- sudo ufw allow from your_other_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 27017 port allowed in the output.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 the output.
Status: active
To Action From
-- ------ ----
27017 ALLOW Anywhere
OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere
27017 (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
More advanced firewall settings for restricting access to services are described in UFW Essentials: Common Firewall Rules and Commands.
Conclusion
You can find more in-depth instructions regarding MongoDB installation and configuration in these DigitalOcean community articles.
Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.
author
Software Engineer, CTO @Makimo
Creating bespoke software ◦ CTO & co-founder at Makimo. I’m a software enginner & a geek. I like making impossible things possible. And I need tea.
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In my case I get this error.
After startin mongodb I get:
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Die 2016-09-06 21:38:05 CEST; 22s ago Process: 20153 ExecStart=/usr/bin/mongod --quiet --config /etc/mongod.conf (code=exited, status=14) Main PID: 20153 (code=exited, status=14)
Sep 06 21:38:05 machina8 systemd[1]: Started High-performance, schema-free document-oriented database. Sep 06 21:38:05 machina8 systemd[1]: mongodb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=14/n/a Sep 06 21:38:05 machina8 systemd[1]: mongodb.service: Unit entered failed state. Sep 06 21:38:05 machina8 systemd[1]: mongodb.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Perhaps i missed it, but if you want to be able to connect to this mongo instance externally, you’ll need to add your ip address (the same one you added in the ufw settings) to the mongodb configuration file (/etc/mongod.conf) like so:
Just a minor error in the otherwise great tutorial:
“The MongoDB server now configured and running, and you can manage the MongoDB service using the
systemctlcommand (e.g.sudo systemctl mongodb stop,sudo systemctl mongodb start).”The
mongodb stopandmongodb startshould be another way around, like:“The MongoDB server now configured and running, and you can manage the MongoDB service using the
systemctlcommand (e.g.sudo systemctl stop mongodb,sudo systemctl start mongodb).”Otherwise the following error is produced:
@mati @hazelnut The official tutorial says to create the service file at
/lib/systemd/system/mongod.service(which already exists for me) whereas this tutorial says to create it at/etc/systemd/system/mongodb.service(which doesn’t exist for me). Note that besides thelib/etcdifference, there’s alsomongodvsmongodb. Perhaps things have changed since this tutorial was written? Just thought I’d let you know. CheersEdit: I just read this forum post which might be relevant:
There is an error above;
should be
I get an error message that says:
when I run:
If I just run:
it works
Having followed the steps in the above tutorial mongodb will connect to 127.0.0.1:27017 in the droplet but when i try same in docker container i get the error message:
MongoDB shell version: 2.6.10 connecting to: test 2018-10-08T07:01:52.685+0000 warning: Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1:27017, reason: errno:111 Connection refused 2018-10-08T07:01:52.686+0000 Error: couldn’t connect to server 127.0.0.1:27017 (127.0.0.1), connection attempt failed at src/mongo/shell/mongo.js:146 exception: connect failed
when i try systemctl start mongod in the container i get:
Failed to connect to bus: No such file or directory
help gratefully received
The inconsistencies between “mongod” and “mongodb” are catching me every time! Plus, Ubuntu defaults to “/var/lib/mongodb”, whereas MongoDB’s default is “/data/db”.
I’m having a heck of a time getting Mongo to start again after upgrading from 3.2 to 3.4. It’s just refusing to start, and I have no idea why.
Can anybody shed light on why MongoDB installations are so inconsistent with regards to “mongod” vs “mongodb” in relation to systemctl’s service configuration? Frustrating…
If you get
Status: inactiveafter doingsudo ufw statusthen just dosudo ufw enable