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

Docker Compose

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb

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.

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

Persisting your database

If you remove the container all your data 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 MongoDB image exposes a volume at /bitnami/mongodb/data, you can mount a directory from your host to serve as the data store. If the directory you mount is empty, the database will be initialized.

docker run -v /path/to/data:/bitnami/mongodb/data bitnami/mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  volumes:
    - /path/to/data:/bitnami/mongodb/data

Linking

If you want to connect to your MongoDB server inside another container, you can use the linking system provided by Docker.

Connecting a Mongo client container to the MongoDB server container

Step 1: Run the MongoDB image with a specific name

The first step is to start our MongoDB server.

Docker's linking system uses container ids or names to reference containers. We can explicitly specify a name for our MongoDB server to make it easier to connect to other containers.

docker run --name mongodb bitnami/mongodb

Step 2: Run MongoDB as a Mongo client and link to our server

Now that we have our MongoDB server running, we can create another container that links to it by giving Docker the --link option. This option takes the id or name of the container we want to link it to as well as a hostname to use inside the container, separated by a colon. For example, to have our MongoDB server accessible in another container with server as it's hostname we would pass --link mongodb:server to the Docker run command.

The Bitnami MongoDB Docker Image also ships with a Mongo client, but by default it will start a server. To start the client instead, we can override the default command Docker runs by stating a different command to run after the image name.

docker run --rm -it --link mongodb:server bitnami/mongodb mongo --host server

We started the Mongo client passing in the --host option that allows us to specify the hostname of the server, which we set to the hostname we created in the link.

Note! You can also run the Mongo client in the same container the server is running in using the Docker exec command.

docker exec -it mongodb mongo

Linking with Docker Compose

Step 1: Add a MongoDB entry in your docker-compose.yml

Copy the snippet below into your docker-compose.yml to add MongoDB to your application.

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb

Step 2: Link it to another container in your application

Update the definitions for containers you want to access your MongoDB server from to include a link to the mongodb entry you added in Step 1.

myapp:
  image: myapp
  links:
    - mongodb:mongodb

Inside myapp, use mongodb as the hostname for the MongoDB server.

Configuration

Setting the root password on first run

Passing the MONGODB_PASSWORD environment variable when running the image for the first time will set the password of the root user to the value of MONGODB_PASSWORD.

docker run --name mongodb -e MONGODB_PASSWORD=password123 bitnami/mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  environment:
    - MONGODB_PASSWORD=password123

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

Note! The MONGODB_PASSWORD enables authentication on the MongoDB server at runtime. Ensure that this parameter is always specified to ensure that authentication is enabled each time the container is started.

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_USER, MONGO_PASSWORD and MONGODB_DATABASE environment variables.

Warning! In this case, a root user will not be created, and your restricted user will not have permissions to create a new database.

docker run --name mongodb -e MONGODB_USER=my_user -e MONGODB_PASSWORD=password123 -e MONGODB_DATABASE=my_database bitnami/mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  environment:
    - MONGODB_USER=my_user
    - MONGODB_PASSWORD=password123
    - MONGODB_DATABASE=my_database

Note! When MONGODB_PASSWORD is specified along with MONGODB_USER, the value specified in MONGODB_PASSWORD is set as the password of the newly created user specified in MONGODB_USER.

Command-line options

The simplest way to configure your MongoDB server is to pass custom command-line options when running the image.

docker run -it --rm bitnami/mongodb --maxConns=1000

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  command: --maxConns=1000

Further Reading:

• MongoDB Server Command Options
• MongoDB Server Parameters
• Caveats

Configuration file

This image looks for the configuration in /bitnami/mongodb/conf. You can mount a volume there with your own configuration, or the default configuration will be copied to your volume if it is 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/conf:/bitnami/mongodb/conf bitnami/mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  volumes:
    - /path/to/mongodb/conf:/bitnami/mongodb/conf

Step 2: Edit the configuration

Edit the configuration on your host using your favorite editor.

vi /path/to/mongodb/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
• Caveats

Caveats

The following options should not be modified, to ensure that the image runs correctly.

--config /opt/bitnami/mongodb/conf/mongodb.conf
--dbpath /opt/bitnami/mongodb/data

Logging

The Bitnami MongoDB Docker Image supports two different logging modes: logging to stdout, and logging to a file.

Logging to stdout

The default behavior is to log to stdout, as Docker expects. These will be collected by Docker, converted to JSON and stored in the host, to be accessible via the docker logs command.

docker logs mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs mongodb

This method of logging has the downside of not being easy to manage. Without an easy way to rotate logs, they could grow exponentially and take up large amounts of disk space on your host.

Logging to file

To log to file, run the MongoDB image, mounting a directory from your host at /bitnami/mongodb/logs. This will instruct the container to send logs to a mongodb.log file in the mounted volume.

docker run --name mongodb -v /path/to/mongodb/logs:/bitnami/mongodb/logs bitnami/mongodb

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  volumes:
    - /path/to/mongodb/logs:/bitnami/mongodb/logs

To perform operations (e.g. logrotate) on the logs, mount the same directory in a container designed to operate on log files, such as logstash.

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/backups:/backups --volumes-from mongodb busybox \
  cp -a /bitnami/mongodb /backups/latest

or using Docker Compose:

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

Note! If you only need to backup database data, or configuration, you can change the first argument to cp to /bitnami/mongodb/data or /bitnami/mongodb/conf respectively.

Restoring a backup

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

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

or using Docker Compose:

mongodb:
  image: bitnami/mongodb
  volumes:
    - /path/to/backups/latest/data:/bitnami/mongodb/data
    - /path/to/backups/latest/conf:/bitnami/mongodb/conf
    - /path/to/backups/latest/logs:/bitnami/mongodb/logs

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

Testing

This image is tested for expected runtime behavior, using the Bats testing framework. You can run the tests on your machine using the bats command.

bats test.sh

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_APP_VERSION inside the container)
• The command you used to run the container, and any relevant output you saw (masking any sensitive information)

License

Copyright 2015 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.