Install MongoDB Community Edition on Red Hat Enterprise or CentOS Linux

Install MongoDB Community Edition on Red Hat Enterprise or CentOS Linux

On this page

• Overview
• Packages
• Install MongoDB Community Edition
• Run MongoDB Community Edition
• Uninstall MongoDB Community Edition

Overview

Use this tutorial to install MongoDB Community Edition on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS Linux, or Oracle Linux [1] versions 6 and 7 using .rpm packages.

This installation guide only supports 64-bit systems. See Supported Platforms for more information.

WINDOWS SUBSYSTEM FOR LINUX (WSL) - UNSUPPORTED

MongoDB does not support WSL, and users on WSL have encountered various issues installing on WSL. For examples, see:

• https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/3286
• https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/796

PRODUCTION NOTES

Before deploying MongoDB in a production environment, consider the Production Notes document.

[1]	MongoDB only supports Oracle Linux running the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK). MongoDB does not support the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK).

Packages

MongoDB provides officially supported packages in their own repository:

Package Name	Description
mongodb-org	A metapackage that will automatically install the four component packages listed below.
mongodb-org-server	Contains the mongod daemon, associated init script, and a configuration file(/etc/mongod.conf). You can use the initialization script to start mongod with the configuration file. For details, see Run MongoDB Community Edition.
mongodb-org-mongos	Contains the mongos daemon.
mongodb-org-shell	Contains the mongo shell.
mongodb-org-tools	Contains the following MongoDB tools: mongoimport bsondump, mongodump, mongoexport, mongofiles, mongorestore, mongostat, and mongotop.

Install MongoDB Community Edition

NOTE

To install a different version of MongoDB, please refer to that version’s documentation. To install the previous version, see the tutorial for version 3.6.

This installation guide only supports 64-bit systems. See Supported Platforms for more information.

NOTE

You can also spin up MongoDB on AWS, Azure, or GCP using Atlas, our fully-managed database-as-a-service. Atlas enables you to configure anything from a free sandbox environment to a globally sharded production cluster. Set up a free cluster now.

Using .rpm Packages (Recommended)

1

Configure the package management system (yum).

Create a /etc/yum.repos.d/mongodb-org-4.0.repo file so that you can install MongoDB directly using yum:

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[mongodb-org-4.0]
name=MongoDB Repository
baseurl=https://repo.mongodb.org/yum/redhat/$releasever/mongodb-org/4.0/x86_64/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.0.asc

NOTE

You can find .repo files for each release in the repository itself. Odd-numbered minor release versions (e.g. 3.5) are development versions and are unsuitable for production use.

2

Install the MongoDB packages.

To install the latest stable version of MongoDB, issue the following command:

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sudo yum install -y mongodb-org

To install a specific release of MongoDB, specify each component package individually and append the version number to the package name, as in the following example:

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sudo yum install -y mongodb-org-4.0.10 mongodb-org-server-4.0.10 mongodb-org-shell-4.0.10 mongodb-org-mongos-4.0.10 mongodb-org-tools-4.0.10

You can specify any available version of MongoDB. However yum upgrades the packages when a newer version becomes available. To prevent unintended upgrades, pin the package. To pin a package, add the following exclude directive to your /etc/yum.conf file:

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exclude=mongodb-org,mongodb-org-server,mongodb-org-shell,mongodb-org-mongos,mongodb-org-tools

Using Tarballs

Prerequisites

MongoDB .tar.gz tarballs require installing the following dependencies:

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yum install libcurl openssl

Procedure

1

Download the MongoDB .tar.gz tarball.

Download the tarball for your system from the MongoDB Download Center.

2

Extract the files from the downloaded archive.

For example, from a system shell, you can extract using the tar command:

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tar -zxvf mongodb-linux-*-4.0.10.tgz

3

Ensure the binaries are in a directory listed in your PATH environment variable.

The MongoDB binaries are in the bin/ directory of the tarball. You must either:

• Copy these binaries into a directory listed in your PATH variable such as /usr/local/bin,
• Create symbolic links to each of these binaries from a directory listed in your PATH variable, or
• Modify your user’s PATH environment variable to include this directory.

For example, you can add the following line to your shell’s initialization script (e.g. ~/.bashrc):

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export PATH=<mongodb-install-directory>/bin:$PATH

Replace <mongodb-install-directory> with the path to the extracted MongoDB archive.

Run MongoDB Community Edition

Prerequisites

ulimit

Most Unix-like operating systems limit the system resources that a session may use. These limits may negatively impact MongoDB operation. See UNIX ulimit Settings for more information.

Directory Paths

To Use Default Directories

By default, MongoDB runs using the mongod user account and uses the following default directories:

• /var/lib/mongo (the data directory)
• /var/log/mongodb (the log directory)

➤ If you installed via the package manager,

The default directories are created, and the owner and group for these directories are set to mongod.

➤ If you installed by downloading the tarballs,

The default MongoDB directories are not created. To create the MongoDB data and log directories:

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Depending on your user permission, you may need to use sudo to perform these operations.

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mkdir -p /var/lib/mongo
mkdir -p /var/log/mongodb

By default, MongoDB runs using the mongod user account. Once created, set the owner and group of these directories to mongod:

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chown -R mongod:mongod <directory>

To Use Non-Default Directories

To use a data directory and/or log directory other than the default directories:

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Depending on your user permission, you may need to use sudo to perform these operations.

1. Create the new directory or directories.

2. Edit the the configuration file /etc/mongod.conf and modify the following fields accordingly:

   • storage.dbPath to specify a new data directory path (e.g. /some/data/directory)
   • systemLog.path to specify a new log file path (e.g. /some/log/directory/mongod.log)

3. Ensure that the user running MongoDB has access to the directory or directories:

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   chown -R mongod:mongod <directory>
   

   If you change the user that runs the MongoDB process, you must give the new user access to these directories.

4. Configure SELinux if enforced. See Configure SELinux.

Configure SELinux

IMPORTANT

If SELinux is in enforcing mode, you must configure SELinux for MongoDB if:

• You are not using the default MongoDB directories (for RHEL 7.0), and/or
• You are not using default MongoDB ports.

Non-Default MongoDB Directory Path(s)

1. Update the SELinux policy to allow the mongod service to use the new directory:

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   semanage fcontext -a -t <type> </some/MongoDB/directory.*>
   

   where specify one of the following types as appropriate:

   • mongod_var_lib_t for data directory
   • mongod_log_t for log file directory
   • mongod_var_run_t for pid file directory

   NOTE

   Be sure to include the .* at the end of the directory.

2. Update the SELinux user policy for the new directory:

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   chcon -Rv -u system_u -t <type> </some/MongoDB/directory>
   

   where specify one of the following types as appropriate:

   • mongod_var_lib_t for data directory
   • mongod_log_t for log directory
   • mongod_var_run_t for pid file directory

3. Apply the updated SELinux policies to the directory:

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   restorecon -R -v </some/MongoDB/directory>
   

For examples:

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• Depending on your user permission, you may need to use sudo to perform these operations.
• Be sure to include the .* at the end of the directory for the semanage fcontext operations.

• If using a non-default MongoDB data path of /mongodb/data:

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  semanage fcontext -a -t mongod_var_lib_t '/mongodb/data.*'
  chcon -Rv -u system_u -t mongod_var_lib_t '/mongodb/data'
  restorecon -R -v '/mongodb/data'
  

• If using a non-default MongoDB log directory of /mongodb/log (e.g. if the log file path is /mongodb/log/mongod.log):

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  semanage fcontext -a -t mongod_log_t '/mongodb/log.*'
  chcon -Rv -u system_u -t mongod_log_t '/mongodb/log'
  restorecon -R -v '/mongodb/log'
  

Non-Default MongoDB Ports

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Depending on your user permission, you may need to use sudo to perform the operation.

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semanage port -a -t mongod_port_t -p tcp <portnumber>

Optional. Suppress FTDC Warnings

The current SELINUX Policy does not allow the MongoDB process to open and read /proc/net/netstatfor Diagnostic Parameters (FTDC). As such, the audit log may include numerous messages regarding lack of access to this path.

To track the proposed fix, see https://github.com/fedora-selinux/selinux-policy-contrib/pull/79.

Optionally, as a temporary fix, you can manually adjust the SELinux Policy:

1. Create a policy file mongodb_proc_net.te:

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   cat > mongodb_proc_net.te <<EOF
   module mongodb_proc_net 1.0;
   
   require {
       type proc_net_t;
       type mongod_t;
       class file { open read };
   }
   
   #============= mongod_t ==============
   allow mongod_t proc_net_t:file { open read };
   EOF
   

2. Once created, compile and load the custom policy module

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   Depending on your user permission, you may need to use sudo to perform the semoduleoperation.

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   checkmodule -M -m -o mongodb_proc_net.mod mongodb_proc_net.te
   semodule_package -o mongodb_proc_net.pp -m mongodb_proc_net.mod
   semodule -i mongodb_proc_net.pp
   

Procedure

1

Start MongoDB.

You can start the mongod process by issuing the following command:

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sudo service mongod start

2

Verify that MongoDB has started successfully

You can verify that the mongod process has started successfully by checking the contents of the log file at/var/log/mongodb/mongod.log for a line reading

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[initandlisten] waiting for connections on port <port>

where <port> is the port configured in /etc/mongod.conf, 27017 by default.

You can optionally ensure that MongoDB will start following a system reboot by issuing the following command:

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sudo chkconfig mongod on

3

Stop MongoDB.

As needed, you can stop the mongod process by issuing the following command:

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sudo service mongod stop

4

Restart MongoDB.

You can restart the mongod process by issuing the following command:

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sudo service mongod restart

You can follow the state of the process for errors or important messages by watching the output in the /var/log/mongodb/mongod.log file.

5

Begin using MongoDB.

Start a mongo shell on the same host machine as the mongod. You can run the mongo shell without any command-line options to connect to a mongod that is running on your localhost with default port 27017:

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mongo

For more information on connecting using the mongo shell, such as to connect to a mongod instance running on a different host and/or port, see The mongo Shell.

To help you start using MongoDB, MongoDB provides Getting Started Guides in various driver editions. See Getting Started for the available editions.

Uninstall MongoDB Community Edition

To completely remove MongoDB from a system, you must remove the MongoDB applications themselves, the configuration files, and any directories containing data and logs. The following section guides you through the necessary steps.

WARNING

This process will completely remove MongoDB, its configuration, and all databases. This process is not reversible, so ensure that all of your configuration and data is backed up before proceeding.

1

Stop MongoDB.

Stop the mongod process by issuing the following command:

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sudo service mongod stop

2

Remove Packages.

Remove any MongoDB packages that you had previously installed.

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sudo yum erase $(rpm -qa | grep mongodb-org)

3

Remove Data Directories.

Remove MongoDB databases and log files.

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sudo rm -r /var/log/mongodb
sudo rm -r /var/lib/mongo

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