Install MongoDB Community Edition on Debian

Overview

Use this tutorial to install MongoDB 4.2 Community Edition from .deb packages onDebian.

Note

To install a different version of MongoDB, please refer to thatversion’s documentation. To install the previous version, seethe tutorial for version 4.0.

Considerations

Production Notes

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

Platform Support

MongodDB 4.2 supports:

• Debian 10 “Buster” (Starting in version 4.2.1)
• Debian 9 “Stretch”

MongoDB only provides packages for the 64-bit builds of these releases.See Supported Platforms for more information.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) - Unsupported

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

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

Install MongoDB Community Edition

Important

The mongodb-org package is officially maintained and supported byMongoDB Inc. and kept up-to-date with the most recent MongoDBreleases. This installation procedure uses the mongodb-orgpackage.

The mongodb package provided by Debian is notmaintained by MongoDB Inc. and conflicts with themongodb-org package. To check if Debian’s mongodb package isinstalled on the system, run sudo apt list —installed |grep mongodb. You can use sudo apt remove mongodb and sudoapt purge mongodb to remove and purge the mongodbpackage before attempting this procedure.

The Debian package management tools (i.e. dpkg and apt) ensurepackage consistency and authenticity by requiring that distributorssign packages with GPG keys.

Import the public key used by the package management system.

From a terminal, issue the following command to import theMongoDB public GPG Key from https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.2.asc:

wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.2.asc | sudo apt-key add -

The operation should respond with an OK.

However, if you receive an error indicating that gnupg is notinstalled, you can:

• Install gnupg and its required libraries using the following command:

sudo apt-get install gnupg

• Once installed, retry importing the key:

wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.2.asc | sudo apt-key add -

Create a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.2.list file for MongoDB.

Create the list file using the command appropriate for your versionof Debian:

• Debian 10 "Buster"
• Debian 9 "Stretch"

echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian buster/mongodb-org/4.2 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.2.list

echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian stretch/mongodb-org/4.2 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.2.list

Reload local package database.

Issue the following command to reload the local package database:

sudo apt-get update

Install the MongoDB packages.

You can install either the latest stable version of MongoDB or aspecific version of MongoDB.

• Install the latest version of MongoDB.
• Install a specific release of MongoDB.

To install the latest stable version, issue the following

sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org

To install a specific release, you must specify each component packageindividually along with the version number, as in thefollowing example:

sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org=4.2.1 mongodb-org-server=4.2.1 mongodb-org-shell=4.2.1 mongodb-org-mongos=4.2.1 mongodb-org-tools=4.2.1

If you only install mongodb-org=4.2.1 and do not include thecomponent packages, the latest version of each MongoDB package will beinstalled regardless of what version you specified.

Optional. Although you can specify any available version of MongoDB,apt-get will upgrade the packages when a newer version becomesavailable. To prevent unintended upgrades, you can pin the packageat the currently installed version:

echo "mongodb-org hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "mongodb-org-server hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "mongodb-org-shell hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "mongodb-org-mongos hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "mongodb-org-tools hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

See also

The recommended procedure to install is through the package manager,as detailed on this page. However, if you choose to install bydirectly downloading the .tgz file, seeInstall MongoDB Community on Debian Using .tgz Tarball.

Run MongoDB Community Edition

• Production Notes
• Before deploying MongoDB in a production environment, consider theProduction Notes document.
• ulimit Considerations
• Most Unix-like operating systems limit the system resources that asession may use. These limits may negatively impact MongoDB operation.See UNIX ulimit Settings for more information.

• Directories

• By default, MongoDB instance stores:

  • its data files in /var/lib/mongodb
  • its log files in /var/log/mongodbIf you installed via the package manager, the directories are createdduring the installation.

If you installed manually by downloading the tarballs, you can createthe directories using mkdir -p <directory> or sudo mkdir -p<directory> depending on the user that will run MongoDB. (See yourlinux man pages for information on mkdir and sudo.)

By default, MongoDB runs using the mongodb user account. If youchange the user that runs the MongoDB process, you must also modifythe permission to the /var/lib/mongodb and /var/log/mongodbdirectories to give this user access to these directories.

To specify a different log file directory and data file directory, editthe systemLog.path and storage.dbPath settings inthe /etc/mongod.conf. Ensure that the user running MongoDB hasaccess to these directories.

Note

The following instructions assume that you have downloaded theofficial MongoDB mongodb-org packages, and not the unofficialmongodb package provided by Debian, and are using the defaultsettings.

Start MongoDB.

Issue the following command to start mongod:

sudo service mongod start

Verify that MongoDB has started successfully

Verify that the mongod process has startedsuccessfully:

sudo service mongod status

You can also check the log file for the current status of themongod process, located at:/var/log/mongodb/mongod.log by default. A runningmongod instance will indicate that it is ready forconnections with the following line:

[initandlisten] waiting for connections on port 27017

Stop MongoDB.

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

sudo service mongod stop

Restart MongoDB.

Issue the following command to restart mongod:

sudo service mongod restart

Begin using MongoDB.

Start a mongo shell on the same host machine as themongod. You can run the mongo shellwithout any command-line options to connect to amongod that is running on your localhost with defaultport 27017:

mongo

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

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

Uninstall MongoDB Community Edition

To completely remove MongoDB from a system, you must remove the MongoDBapplications themselves, the configuration files, and any directories containingdata 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 yourconfiguration and data is backed up before proceeding.

Stop MongoDB.

Stop the mongod process by issuing the following command:

sudo service mongod stop

Remove Packages.

Remove any MongoDB packages that you had previously installed.

sudo apt-get purge mongodb-org*

Remove Data Directories.

Remove MongoDB databases and log files.

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

Additional Information

Packages

MongoDB provides officially supported packages in their own repository: