Exercise - Install MongoDB

  • 5 minutes

Many applications require a database. Here you'll install MongoDB, the "M" in the MEAN stack. It's a popular NoSQL database solution that's free and open source. A NoSQL database doesn't require data to be structured in a predefined way like it would with a relational database like SQL Server or MySQL.

MongoDB stores its data in JSON-like documents that don't require rigid data structures. You interact with MongoDB using queries and commands sent using JavaScript Object Notation, or JSON.

What MongoDB editions are available?

MongoDB provides two editions:

  • MongoDB Community Server
  • MongoDB Enterprise Server

Here you'll install MongoDB Community Server. Later, you'll use MongoDB to store information about books.

How do I install MongoDB?

You can install MongoDB on Linux, macOS, and Windows. For learning purposes, here you'll install MongoDB on Ubuntu using Ubuntu's apt package manager.

The installation process varies depending on your operating system. If you're not familiar with Ubuntu, you can still follow along to get a sense for how things work.

Later, you can check out the installation guide to learn more.

Install MongoDB

Here, you'll install MongoDB with just a few commands. You'll work from the SSH connection to the Ubuntu VM that you created in the previous unit.

Note

The update can take up to 10 minutes.

  1. First, we'll make sure all current packages are up to date:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

    Note

    The sudo part means that we want to run the command with administrative privileges.

  2. Install the MongoDB package:

    sudo apt-get install -y mongodb

  3. After the installation completes, the service should automatically start up. Let's confirm this by running the following command:

    sudo systemctl status mongodb

    You should see the service running:

    azureuser@MeanStack:~$ sudo systemctl status mongodb
● mongodb.service - An object/document-oriented database
  Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mongodb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Active: active (running) since Thu 2019-08-22 16:46:30 UTC; 9s ago
    Docs: man:mongod(1)
Main PID: 18360 (mongod)
  CGroup: /system.slice/mongodb.service
          └─18360 /usr/bin/mongod --config /etc/mongodb.conf

Aug 22 16:46:30 MeanStack systemd[1]: Started An object/document-oriented database.

  4. Run mongod --version to verify the installation.

    mongod --version

Keep your SSH connection open for the next part.