What is MongoDB?

MongoDB is a cross-platform document-oriented database. Classified as a NoSQL database, MongoDB eschews the traditional table-based relational database structure in favor of JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas, making the integration of data in certain types of applications easier and faster.

TLDR

docker run --name mongodb bitnami/mongodb:latest

Docker Compose

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    ports:
      - "27017:27017"

Get this image

The recommended way to get the Bitnami MongoDB Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/mongodb:latest

To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the list of available versions in the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/mongodb:[TAG]

If you wish, you can also build the image yourself.

docker build -t bitnami/mongodb:latest https://github.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-mongodb.git

Persisting your database

If you remove the container all your data and configurations will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

Note! If you have already started using your database, follow the steps on backing up and restoring to pull the data from your running container down to your host.

The image exposes a volume at /bitnami/mongodb for the MongoDB data and configurations. For persistence you can mount a directory at this location from your host. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run.

docker run -v /path/to/mongodb-persistence:/bitnami/mongodb bitnami/mongodb:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    ports:
      - "27017:27017"
    volumes:
      - /path/to/mongodb-persistence:/bitnami/mongodb

Connecting to other containers

Using Docker container networking, a MongoDB server running inside a container can easily be accessed by your application containers.

Containers attached to the same network can communicate with each other using the container name as the hostname.

Using the Command Line

In this example, we will create a MongoDB client instance that will connect to the server instance that is running on the same docker network as the client.

Step 1: Create a network

$ docker network create app-tier --driver bridge

Step 2: Launch the MongoDB server instance

Use the --network app-tier argument to the docker run command to attach the MongoDB container to the app-tier network.

$ docker run -d --name mongodb-server \
    --network app-tier \
    bitnami/mongodb:latest

Step 3: Launch your MongoDB client instance

Finally we create a new container instance to launch the MongoDB client and connect to the server created in the previous step:

$ docker run -it --rm \
    --network app-tier \
    bitnami/mongodb:latest mongo --host mongodb-server

Using Docker Compose

When not specified, Docker Compose automatically sets up a new network and attaches all deployed services to that network. However, we will explicitly define a new bridge network named app-tier. In this example we assume that you want to connect to the MongoDB server from your own custom application image which is identified in the following snippet by the service name myapp.

version: '2'

networks:
  app-tier:
    driver: bridge

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    networks:
      - app-tier
  myapp:
    image: 'YOUR_APPLICATION_IMAGE'
    networks:
      - app-tier

IMPORTANT:

1. Please update the YOUR_APPLICATION_IMAGE_ placeholder in the above snippet with your application image
2. In your application container, use the hostname mongodb to connect to the MongoDB server

Launch the containers using:

$ docker-compose up -d

Configuration

Setting the root password on first run

Passing the MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD environment variable when running the image for the first time will set the password of the root user to the value of MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD and enabled authentication on the MongoDB server.

docker run --name mongodb \
  -e MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD=password123 bitnami/mongodb:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    ports:
      - "27017:27017"
    environment:
      - MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD=password123

The root user is configured to have full administrative access to the MongoDB server. When MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD is not specified the server allows unauthenticated and unrestricted access.

Creating a user and database on first run

You can create a user with restricted access to a database while starting the container for the first time. To do this, provide the MONGODB_USERNAME, MONGO_PASSWORD and MONGODB_DATABASE environment variables.

docker run --name mongodb \
  -e MONGODB_USERNAME=my_user -e MONGODB_PASSWORD=password123 \
  -e MONGODB_DATABASE=my_database bitnami/mongodb:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    ports:
      - "27017:27017"
    environment:
      - MONGODB_USERNAME=my_user
      - MONGODB_PASSWORD=password123
      - MONGODB_DATABASE=my_database

Note! Creation of a user enables authentication on the MongoDB server and as a result unauthenticated access by any user is not permitted.

Setting up a replication

A replication cluster can easily be setup with the Bitnami MongoDB Docker Image using the following environment variables:

• MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE: The replication mode. Possible values primary/secondary/arbiter. No defaults.
• MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_NAME: MongoDB replica set name. Default: replicaset
• MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST: MongoDB primary host. No defaults.
• MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT: MongoDB primary port. Default: 27017

Only for authentication:

• MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_KEY: MongoDB replica set key. Length should be greater than 5 characters and should not contain any special characters. Required for all nodes. No default.
• MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD: MongoDB root password. No defaults. Only for primary node.
• MONGODB_PRIMARY_ROOT_PASSWORD: MongoDB primary root password. No defaults. Only for secondaries and aribters nodes.

In a replication cluster you can have one primary node, zero or more secondary nodes and zero or one arbiter node.

Note: The total number of nodes on a replica set sceneraio cannot be higher than 8 (1 primary, 6 secondaries and 1 arbiter)

Step 1: Create the replication primary

The first step is to start the MongoDB primary.

docker run --name mongodb-primary \
  -e MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=primary \
   bitnami/mongodb:latest

In the above command the container is configured as the primary using the MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE parameter.

Step 2: Create the replication secondary node

Next we start a MongoDB secondary container.

docker run --name mongodb-secondary \
  --link mongodb-primary:primary \
  -e MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=secondary \
  -e MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST=primary \
  -e MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT=27017 \
  bitnami/mongodb:latest

In the above command the container is configured as a secondary using the MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE parameter. The MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST and MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT parameters are used connect and with the MongoDB primary.

Step 3: Create a replication arbiter node

Finally we start a MongoDB arbiter container.

docker run --name mongodb-arbiter \
  --link mongodb-primary:primary \
  -e MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=arbiter \
  -e MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST=primary \
  -e MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT=27017 \
  bitnami/mongodb:latest

In the above command the container is configured as a arbiter using the MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE parameter. The MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST and MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT parameters are used connect and with the MongoDB primary.

You now have a three node MongoDB replication cluster up and running which can be scaled by adding/removing secondarys.

With Docker Compose the primary/secondary/arbiter replication can be setup using:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb-primary:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    environment:
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=primary
    volumes:
      - 'mongodb_master_data:/bitnami/mongodb'

  mongodb-secondary:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    depends_on:
      - mongodb-primary
    environment:
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=secondary
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST=mongodb-primary
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT=27017

  mongodb-arbiter:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    depends_on:
      - mongodb-primary
    environment:
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=arbiter
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST=mongodb-primary
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT=27017

volumes:
  mongodb_master_data:
    driver: local

Or in case you want to set up the replica set with authentication you can use the following file:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb-primary:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    environment:
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=primary
      - MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD=password123
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_KEY=replicasetkey123
    volumes:
      - 'mongodb_master_data:/bitnami/mongodb'

  mongodb-secondary:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    depends_on:
      - mongodb-primary
    environment:
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=secondary
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST=mongodb-primary
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT=27017
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_ROOT_PASSWORD=password123
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_KEY=replicasetkey123

  mongodb-arbiter:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    depends_on:
      - mongodb-primary
    environment:
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE=arbiter
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_HOST=mongodb-primary
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_PORT=27017
      - MONGODB_PRIMARY_ROOT_PASSWORD=password123
      - MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_KEY=replicasetkey123

volumes:
  mongodb_master_data:
    driver: local

Scale the number of secondary nodes using:

docker-compose scale mongodb-primary=1 mongodb-secondary=3 mongodb-arbiter=1

The above command scales up the number of secondary nodes to 3. You can scale down in the same way.

Note: You should not scale up/down the number of primary nodes. Always have only one primary node running.

Configuration file

The image looks for configuration in the conf/ directory of /bitnami/mongodb. As as mentioned in Persisting your database you can mount a volume at this location and copy your own configurations in the conf/ directory. The default configuration will be copied to the conf/ directory if it's empty.

Step 1: Run the MongoDB image

Run the MongoDB image, mounting a directory from your host.

docker run --name mongodb -v /path/to/mongodb-persistence:/bitnami/mongodb bitnami/mongodb:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    ports:
      - "27017:27017"
    volumes:
      - /path/to/mongodb-persistence:/bitnami/mongodb

Step 2: Edit the configuration

Edit the configuration on your host using your favorite editor.

vi /path/to/mongodb-persistence/conf/mongodb.conf

Step 3: Restart MongoDB

After changing the configuration, restart your MongoDB container for changes to take effect.

docker restart mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose restart mongodb

Further Reading:

• Configuration File Options

Logging

The Bitnami MongoDB Docker image sends the container logs to the stdout. To view the logs:

docker logs mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs mongodb

You can configure the containers logging driver using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

Maintenance

Backing up your container

To backup your data, configuration and logs, follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Stop the currently running container

docker stop mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose stop mongodb

Step 2: Run the backup command

We need to mount two volumes in a container we will use to create the backup: a directory on your host to store the backup in, and the volumes from the container we just stopped so we can access the data.

docker run --rm \
  -v /path/to/mongodb-backups:/backups \
  --volumes-from mongodb busybox \
    cp -a /bitnami/mongodb:latest /backups/latest

or using Docker Compose:

docker run --rm \
  -v /path/to/mongodb-backups:/backups \
  --volumes-from `docker-compose ps -q mongodb` busybox \
    cp -a /bitnami/mongodb:latest /backups/latest

Restoring a backup

Restoring a backup is as simple as mounting the backup as volumes in the container.

docker run \
  -v /path/to/mongodb-backups/latest:/bitnami/mongodb bitnami/mongodb:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  mongodb:
    image: 'bitnami/mongodb:latest'
    ports:
      - "27017:27017"
    volumes:
      - /path/to/mongodb-backups/latest:/bitnami/mongodb

Upgrade this image

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of MongoDB, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container.

Step 1: Get the updated image

docker pull bitnami/mongodb:latest

or if you're using Docker Compose, update the value of the image property to bitnami/mongodb:latest.

Step 2: Stop and backup the currently running container

Before continuing, you should backup your container's data, configuration and logs.

Follow the steps on creating a backup.

Step 3: Remove the currently running container

docker rm -v mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose rm -v mongodb

Step 4: Run the new image

Re-create your container from the new image, restoring your backup if necessary.

docker run --name mongodb bitnami/mongodb:latest

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose start mongodb

Notable Changes

3.2.7-r5

• MONGODB_USER parameter has been renamed to MONGODB_USERNAME.

3.2.6-r0

• All volumes have been merged at /bitnami/mongodb. Now you only need to mount a single volume at /bitnami/mongodb for persistence.
• The logs are always sent to the stdout and are no longer collected in the volume.

Contributing

We'd love for you to contribute to this container. You can request new features by creating an issue, or submit a pull request with your contribution.

Issues

If you encountered a problem running this container, you can file an issue. For us to provide better support, be sure to include the following information in your issue:

• Host OS and version
• Docker version (docker version)
• Output of docker info
• Version of this container (echo $BITNAMI_IMAGE_VERSION inside the container)
• The command you used to run the container, and any relevant output you saw (masking any sensitive information)

License

Copyright (c) 2015-2016 Bitnami

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.