How to Install and Configure MongoDB on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

MongoDB is a NoSQL database that offers a high performance, high availability, and automatic scaling enterprise database. MongoDB is a NoSQL database, so you can't use SQL (Structured Query Language) to insert and retrieve data, and it does not store data in tables like MySQL or Postgres. Data is stored in a "document" structure in JSON format (in MongoDB called BSON). MongoDB was first introduced in 2009 and is currently developed by the company MongoDB Inc.

"MongoDB only provides packages for 64-bit LTS (long-term support) Ubuntu releases. For example, 12.04 LTS (precise), 14.04 LTS (trusty), 16.04 LTS (xenial), and so on."  mongodb site.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu Server 16.04 - 64 bit
• Root privileges

What we will do in this tutorial:

1. Install MongoDB
2. Configure MongoDB
3. Conclusion

Install MongoDB on Ubuntu 16.04

Step 1 - Importing the Public Key

GPG keys of the software distributor are required by the Ubuntu package manager apt (Advanced Package Tool) to ensure package consistency and authenticity. Run this command to import MongoDB keys to your server.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv EA312927

Step 2 - Create source list file MongoDB

Create a MongoDB list file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ with this command:

echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu "$(lsb_release -sc)"/mongodb-org/3.2 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.2.list

Step 3 - Update the repository

update the repository with the apt command:

sudo apt-get update

Step 4 - Install MongoDB

Now you can install MongoDB by typing this command:

sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org

We have to create a new MongoDB systemd service file in the '/lib/systemd/system' directory. Go to that directory and create the new MongoDB service file 'mongod.service' with vim editor.

cd /lib/systemd/system/
vim mongod.service

Paste script below:

[Unit]
Description=High-performance, schema-free document-oriented database
After=network.target
Documentation=https://docs.mongodb.org/manual

[Service]
User=mongodb
Group=mongodb
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mongod --quiet --config /etc/mongod.conf

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file and exit.

Now update the systemd service with the command below:

systemctl daemon-reload

Start MongoDB and add it as a service to be started at boot time:

systemctl start mongod
systemctl enable mongod

Now check that MongoDB has been started on port 27017 with the netstat command.

netstat -plntu

Configure MongoDB username and password

When the MongoDB packages are installed you can configure username and password for the database server:

Step 1 - Open mongo shell

Before you set up a username and password for MongoDB, you need to open the MongoDB shell on your server. You can login by typing:

mongo

If you get error Failed global initialization: BadValue Invalid or no user locale set. Please ensure LANG and/or LC_* environment variables are set correctly, try the command:

export LC_ALL=C
mongo

Step 2 - Switch to the database admin

Once you`re in the MongoDB shell, switch to the database named admin:

use admin

Step 3 - Create the root user

Create the root user with this command :

db.createUser({user:"admin", pwd:"admin123", roles:[{role:"root", db:"admin"}]})

Desc: Create user admin with password admin123 and have the permission/role as root and the database is admin.

Now type exit to exit from MongoDB shell.

Step 4 - Enable mongodb authentication

Edit the mongodb service file '/lib/systemd/system/mongod.service' with your editor.

vim /lib/systemd/system/mongod.service

On the 'ExecStart' line 9, add the new option '--auth'.

ExecStart=/usr/bin/mongod --quiet --auth --config /etc/mongod.conf

Save the service file and exit vim.

Reload the systemd service:

systemd daemon-reload

Step 5 - Restart MongoDB and try to connect

Now restart MongoDB and connect with the user created.

sudo service mongod restart

and connect to the MongoDB shell with this command:

mongo -u admin -p admin123 --authenticationDatabase admin

and you will see the output like this:

Conclusion

A well-known NoSQL database that offers high performance, high availability, and automatic scaling is MongoDB. It is different from the RDBMS such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite as it does not use SQL to set and retrieve data. MongoDB stores data in `documents` called BSON (binary representation of JSON with additional types of information). MongoDB is only available for 64-bit Long Term Support Ubuntu Release.