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MongoDB

Overview

OpenShift Container Platform provides a container image for running MongoDB. This image can provide database services based on username, password, and database name settings provided via configuration.

Versions

Currently, OpenShift Container Platform provides versions 2.4, 2.6, and 3.2 of MongoDB.

Images

These images come in two flavors, depending on your needs:

  • RHEL 7

  • CentOS 7

RHEL 7 Based Images

The RHEL 7 images are available through the Red Hat Registry:

$ docker pull registry.access.redhat.com/openshift3/mongodb-24-rhel7
$ docker pull registry.access.redhat.com/rhscl/mongodb-26-rhel7
$ docker pull registry.access.redhat.com/rhscl/mongodb-32-rhel7

CentOS 7 Based Images

These images are available on Docker Hub:

$ docker pull openshift/mongodb-24-centos7
$ docker pull centos/mongodb-26-centos7
$ docker pull centos/mongodb-32-centos7

To use these images, you can either access them directly from these registries or push them into your OpenShift Container Platform Docker registry. Additionally, you can create an ImageStream that points to the image, either in your Docker registry or at the external location. Your OpenShift Container Platform resources can then reference the ImageStream. You can find example ImageStream definitions for all the provided OpenShift Container Platform images.

Configuration and Usage

Initializing the Database

You can configure MongoDB with an ephemeral volume or a persistent volume. The first time you use the volume, the database is created along with the database administrator user. Afterwards, the MongoDB daemon starts up. If you are re-attaching the volume to another container, then the database, database user, and the administrator user are not created, and the MongoDB daemon starts.

The following command creates a new database pod with MongoDB running in a container with an ephemeral volume:

$ oc new-app \
    -e MONGODB_USER=<username> \
    -e MONGODB_PASSWORD=<password> \
    -e MONGODB_DATABASE=<database_name> \
    -e MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<admin_password> \
    registry.access.redhat.com/rhscl/mongodb-26-rhel7

Running MongoDB Commands in Containers

OpenShift Container Platform uses Software Collections (SCLs) to install and launch MongoDB. If you want to execute a MongoDB command inside of a running container (for debugging), you must invoke it using bash.

To do so, first identify the name of the running MongoDB pod. For example, you can view the list of pods in your current project:

$ oc get pods

Then, open a remote shell session to the desired pod:

$ oc rsh <pod>

When you enter the container, the required SCL is automatically enabled.

You can now run mongo commands from the bash shell to start a MongoDB interactive session and perform normal MongoDB operations. For example, to switch to the sampledb database and authenticate as the database user:

bash-4.2$ mongo -u $MONGODB_USER -p $MONGODB_PASSWORD $MONGODB_DATABASE
MongoDB shell version: 2.4.9
connecting to: sampledb
>

When you are finished, press CTRL+D to leave the MongoDB session.

Environment Variables

The MongoDB user name, password, database name, and admin password must be configured with the following environment variables:

Table 1. MongoDB Environment Variables
Variable Name Description

MONGODB_USER

User name for MongoDB account to be created.

MONGODB_PASSWORD

Password for the user account.

MONGODB_DATABASE

Database name.

MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD

Password for the admin user.

You must specify the user name, password, database name, and admin password. If you do not specify all four, the pod will fail to start and OpenShift Container Platform will continuously try to restart it.

The administrator user name is set to admin and you must specify its password by setting the MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD environment variable. This process is done upon database initialization.

MongoDB settings can be configured with the following environment variables:

Table 2. Additional MongoDB Settings
Variable Name Description Default

MONGODB_NOPREALLOC

Disable data file preallocation.

true

MONGODB_SMALLFILES

Set MongoDB to use a smaller default data file size.

true

MONGODB_QUIET

Runs MongoDB in a quiet mode that attempts to limit the amount of output.

true

MONGODB_TEXT_SEARCH_ENABLED

(MongoDB version 2.4 only) Enables the text search feature.

false

Text search is enabled by default in MongoDB versions 2.6 and higher, and therefore has no configurable parameter.

Volume Mount Points

The MongoDB image can be run with mounted volumes to enable persistent storage for the database:

  • /var/lib/mongodb/data - This is the database directory where MongoDB stores database files.

Changing Passwords

Passwords are part of the image configuration, therefore the only supported method to change passwords for the database user (MONGODB_USER) and admin user is by changing the environment variables MONGODB_PASSWORD and MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD, respectively.

You can view the current passwords by viewing the pod or deployment configuration in the web console or by listing the environment variables with the CLI:

$ oc set env pod <pod_name> --list

Changing database passwords directly in MongoDB causes a mismatch between the values stored in the variables and the actual passwords. Whenever a database container starts, it resets the passwords to the values stored in the environment variables.

To change these passwords, update one or both of the desired environment variables for the related deployment configuration(s) using the oc set env command. If multiple deployment configurations utilize these environment variables, for example in the case of an application created from a template, you must update the variables on each deployment configuration so that the passwords are in sync everywhere. This can be done all in the same command:

$ oc set env dc <dc_name> [<dc_name_2> ...] \
  MONGODB_PASSWORD=<new_password> \
  MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<new_admin_password>

Depending on your application, there may be other environment variables for passwords in other parts of the application that should also be updated to match. For example, there could be a more generic DATABASE_USER variable in a front-end pod that should match the database user’s password. Ensure that passwords are in sync for all required environment variables per your application, otherwise your pods may fail to redeploy when triggered.

Updating the environment variables triggers the redeployment of the database server if you have a configuration change trigger. Otherwise, you must manually start a new deployment in order to apply the password changes.

To verify that new passwords are in effect, first open a remote shell session to the running MongoDB pod:

$ oc rsh <pod>

From the bash shell, verify the database user’s new password:

bash-4.2$ mongo -u $MONGODB_USER -p <new_password> $MONGODB_DATABASE --eval "db.version()"

If the password was changed correctly, you should see output like this:

MongoDB shell version: 2.6.9
connecting to: sampledb
2.6.9

To verify the admin user’s new password:

bash-4.2$ mongo -u admin -p <new_admin_password> admin --eval "db.version()"

If the password was changed correctly, you should see output like this:

MongoDB shell version: 2.4.9
connecting to: admin
2.4.9

Creating a Database Service from a Template

OpenShift Container Platform provides a template to make creating a new database service easy. The template provides parameter fields to define all the mandatory environment variables (user, password, database name, etc) with predefined defaults including auto-generation of password values. It will also define both a deployment configuration and a service.

The MongoDB templates should have been registered in the default openshift project by your cluster administrator during the initial cluster setup. See Loading the Default Image Streams and Templates for more details, if required.

There are two templates available:

  • mongodb-ephemeral is for development/testing purposes only because it uses ephemeral storage for the database content. This means that if the database pod is restarted for any reason, such as the pod being moved to another node or the deployment configuration being updated and triggering a redeploy, all data will be lost.

  • mongodb-persistent uses a persistent volume store for the database data which means the data will survive a pod restart. Using persistent volumes requires a persistent volume pool be defined in the OpenShift Container Platform deployment. Cluster administrator instructions for setting up the pool are located here.

You can find instructions for instantiating templates by following these instructions.

Once you have instantiated the service, you can copy the user name, password, and database name environment variables into a deployment configuration for another component that intends to access the database. That component can then access the database via the service that was defined.

Using MongoDB Replication

Enabling clustering for database images is currently in Technology Preview and not intended for production use.

Red Hat provides a proof-of-concept template for MongoDB replication (clustering); you can obtain the example template from GitHub.

For example, to upload the example template into the current project’s template library:

$ oc create -f \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/mongodb/master/2.4/examples/replica/mongodb-clustered.json

The example template does not use persistent storage. When you lose all members of the replication set, your data will be lost.

The following sections detail the objects defined in the example template and describe how they work together to start a cluster of MongoDB servers implementing master-slave replication and automated failover. This is the recommended replication strategy for MongoDB.

Creating the Deployment Configuration

To set up MongoDB replication, a deployment configuration is defined in the example template that defines a replication controller. The replication controller manages the members of the MongoDB cluster.

To tell a MongoDB server that the member will be part of the cluster, additional environment variables are provided for the container defined in the replication controller pod template:

Variable Name Description Default

MONGODB_REPLICA_NAME

Specifies the name of the replication set.

rs0

MONGODB_KEYFILE_VALUE

See: Generate a Key File

generated
Example 1. Deployment Configuration Object Definition in the Example Template
kind: DeploymentConfig
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: "${MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME}"
spec:
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
    resources: {}
  triggers:
    - type: ConfigChange
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    name: mongodb-replica
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        name: mongodb-replica
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: member
          image: openshift/mongodb-24-centos7
          env:
            - name: MONGODB_USER
              value: "${MONGODB_USER}"
            - name: MONGODB_PASSWORD
              value: "${MONGODB_PASSWORD}"
            - name: MONGODB_DATABASE
              value: "${MONGODB_DATABASE}"
            - name: MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD
              value: "${MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD}"
            - name: MONGODB_REPLICA_NAME
              value: "${MONGODB_REPLICA_NAME}"
            - name: MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME
              value: "${MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME}"
            - name: MONGODB_KEYFILE_VALUE
              value: "${MONGODB_KEYFILE_VALUE}"
          ports:
            - containerPort: 27017
              protocol: TCP
  restartPolicy: Never
  dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst

After the deployment configuration is created and the pods with MongoDB cluster members are started, they will not be initialized. Instead, they start as part of the rs0 replication set, as the value of MONGODB_REPLICA_NAME is set to rs0 by default.

Creating the Service Pod

To initialize members created by the deployment configuration, the pods are started with the initiate argument, which instructs the startup script to behave slightly differently than a regular, stand-alone MongoDB database.

Example 2. Deployment Configuration Object Definition in the Example Template
- kind: DeploymentConfig
  apiVersion: v1
  metadata:
    name: "${MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME}"
  spec:
    strategy:
      type: Recreate
      recreateParams:
        post:
          failurePolicy: Retry
          execNewPod:
            command: ["run-mongod","initiate"]
            containerName: mongodb
            env:
            - name: MONGODB_INITIAL_REPLICA_COUNT
              value: '3'
    triggers:
    - type: ConfigChange
    replicas: 3
    selector:
      name: mongodb-replica
    template:
      metadata:
        labels:
          name: mongodb-replica
      spec:
        containers:
        - name: mongodb
          image: openshift/mongodb-24-centos7
          readinessProbe:
            tcpSocket:
              port: 27017
            initialDelaySeconds: 15
            timeoutSeconds: 1
          env:
          - name: MONGODB_USER
            value: "${MONGODB_USER}"
          - name: MONGODB_PASSWORD
            value: "${MONGODB_PASSWORD}"
          - name: MONGODB_DATABASE
            value: "${MONGODB_DATABASE}"
          - name: MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD
            value: "${MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD}"
          - name: MONGODB_REPLICA_NAME
            value: "${MONGODB_REPLICA_NAME}"
          - name: MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME
            value: "${MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME}"
          - name: MONGODB_KEYFILE_VALUE
            value: "${MONGODB_KEYFILE_VALUE}"
          ports:
          - containerPort: 27017

Creating a Headless Service

The initiate argument in the container specification above instructs the container to first discover all running member pods within the MongoDB cluster. To achieve this, a headless service is defined named mongodb in the example template.

To have a headless service, the portalIP parameter in the service definition is set to None. Then you can use a DNS query to get a list of the pod IP addresses that represents the current endpoints for this service.

Example 3. Headless Service Object Definition in the Example Template
kind: "Service"
apiVersion: "v1"
metadata:
  name: "${MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME}"
  labels:
    name: "${MONGODB_SERVICE_NAME}"
spec:
  ports:
    - protocol: "TCP"
      port: 27017
      targetPort: 27017
      nodePort: 0
  selector:
    name: "mongodb-replica"
  portalIP: "None"
  type: "ClusterIP"
  sessionAffinity: "None"
status:
  loadBalancer: {}

Creating the Final Replication Set

When the script that runs as the container entrypoint has the IP addresses of all running MongoDB members, it creates a MongoDB replication set configuration where it lists all member IP addresses. It then initiates the replication set using rs.initiate(config). The script waits until MongoDB elects the PRIMARY member of the cluster.

Once the PRIMARY member has been elected, the entrypoint script starts creating MongoDB users and databases.

Clients can then start using the MongoDB instance by sending the queries to the mongodb service. As this service is a headless service, they do not need to provide the IP address. Clients can use mongodb:27017 for connections. The service then sends the query to one of the members in the replication set.

Scaling the MongoDB Replication Set

To increase the number of members in the cluster:

$ oc scale rc mongodb-1 --replicas=<number>

This tells the replication controller to create a new MongoDB member pod. When a new member is created, the member entrypoint first attempts to discover other running members in the cluster. It then chooses one and adds itself to the list of members. Once the replication configuration is updated, the other members replicate the data to a new pod and start a new election.