How to Setup MongoDB on Linux Server – Easy Guide

To set up MongoDB on a Linux server, add MongoDB’s official repository to your distro, install the mongodb-org package, start and enable the mongod service, secure it with authentication, configure bindIp and firewall rules, and verify connections with mongosh. The steps below cover Ubuntu/Debian and RHEL/AlmaLinux/Rocky/Amazon Linux with production-ready settings.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to setup MongoDB on Linux server from scratch—covering installation, configuration, security, performance tuning, backups, and troubleshooting. I’ll share practical, battle‑tested advice based on 12+ years supporting databases on VPS, cloud, and bare-metal servers, so beginners can follow along confidently.

What You’ll Learn

• Install MongoDB using the official repository on Ubuntu/Debian and RHEL-based distros
• Start, enable, and verify the mongod service
• Configure bindIp, ports, TLS/SSL, and authentication
• Secure the server firewall (UFW/firewalld) and handle SELinux
• Apply production best practices (THP, ulimits, file system)
• Back up and restore with mongodump/mongorestore
• Monitor performance and fix common errors

Prerequisites and Planning

• Linux: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy), Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal), Debian 11 (Bullseye), RHEL 8/9, AlmaLinux/Rocky 8/9, or Amazon Linux 2
• Root or sudo access
• 2+ CPU cores, 4–8 GB RAM minimum for small workloads (more for production)
• Disk: SSD recommended; file system XFS preferred for WiredTiger
• Open ports: 27017/TCP (MongoDB) restricted to trusted IPs only
• Time synchronized (systemd-timesyncd or chrony)

Note: MongoDB supports specific distro versions per release line. Check the official docs if your OS differs. This guide demonstrates commonly deployed, supported combinations.

Quick Install Cheat‑Sheet by Distro

Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy) – MongoDB 8.0 Example

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y curl gnupg

# Import MongoDB GPG key
curl -fsSL https://pgp.mongodb.com/server-8.0.asc | \
  sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-8.0.gpg

# Add official repo
echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-8.0.gpg ] \
https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu jammy/mongodb-org/8.0 multiverse" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-8.0.list

# Install
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org

# Start and enable
sudo systemctl enable --now mongod

# Check status and logs
systemctl status mongod --no-pager
sudo journalctl -u mongod -e --no-pager

If you’re on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) or a newer LTS, replace “jammy” with your codename and “8.0” with the latest stable line supported by MongoDB for your OS.

Debian 11 (Bullseye) – MongoDB 7.0 Example

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y curl gnupg

curl -fsSL https://pgp.mongodb.com/server-7.0.asc | \
  sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg

echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg ] \
https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian bullseye/mongodb-org/7.0 main" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-7.0.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org
sudo systemctl enable --now mongod

Debian support varies by MongoDB version. Use the latest supported server line for your Debian release from MongoDB’s official docs.

RHEL 8/9, AlmaLinux 8/9, Rocky 8/9 – MongoDB 8.0 Example

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mongodb-org-8.0.repo >/dev/null <<'EOF'
[mongodb-org-8.0]
name=MongoDB Repository
baseurl=https://repo.mongodb.org/yum/redhat/$releasever/mongodb-org/8.0/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://pgp.mongodb.com/server-8.0.asc
EOF

sudo dnf clean all
sudo dnf -y install mongodb-org
sudo systemctl enable --now mongod
sudo systemctl status mongod --no-pager

Amazon Linux 2 – MongoDB 7.0 Example

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mongodb-org-7.0.repo >/dev/null <<'EOF'
[mongodb-org-7.0]
name=MongoDB Repository
baseurl=https://repo.mongodb.org/yum/amazon/2/mongodb-org/7.0/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://pgp.mongodb.com/server-7.0.asc
EOF

sudo yum clean all
sudo yum -y install mongodb-org
sudo systemctl enable --now mongod

Why not use the distro’s default mongodb package? It’s often outdated. The official mongodb-org repository provides current, security-patched releases.

Initial Verification

# Confirm mongod is running
sudo systemctl status mongod --no-pager

# Connect with MongoDB Shell (mongosh)
mongosh --host 127.0.0.1 --port 27017

# Check server build info
db.runCommand({ buildInfo: 1 })

Secure Configuration (Critical for Production)

Edit mongod.conf to restrict network exposure and enable authentication. On most distros, the file is at /etc/mongod.conf.

sudo nano /etc/mongod.conf

Recommended baseline:

# /etc/mongod.conf
storage:
  dbPath: /var/lib/mongo
  journal:
    enabled: true

net:
  port: 27017
  bindIp: 127.0.0.1,10.0.0.5   # Replace 10.0.0.5 with your private server IP

security:
  authorization: enabled

processManagement:
  timeZoneInfo: /usr/share/zoneinfo

setParameter:
  diagnosticDataCollectionEnabled: true

TLS/SSL (strongly recommended for remote clients):

net:
  tls:
    mode: requireTLS
    certificateKeyFile: /etc/ssl/mongodb.pem   # PEM with cert + key
    CAFile: /etc/ssl/ca.pem

Restart to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart mongod

Create the First Admin User

If you just enabled authorization, first ensure you can still connect locally. Create an admin in the admin database, then use that account going forward.

mongosh --host 127.0.0.1 --port 27017

use admin
db.createUser({
  user: "siteAdmin",
  pwd: passwordPrompt(),
  roles: [ { role: "root", db: "admin" } ]
})
exit

Create an app-specific user with limited privileges:

mongosh --host 127.0.0.1 --port 27017 -u siteAdmin -p --authenticationDatabase admin

use myapp
db.createUser({
  user: "myappUser",
  pwd: passwordPrompt(),
  roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "myapp" } ]
})
exit

Firewall and SELinux

UFW (Ubuntu/Debian)

# Allow only your trusted IP(s)
sudo ufw allow from 203.0.113.10 to any port 27017 proto tcp
# Or allow internal VPC subnet
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/24 to any port 27017 proto tcp
sudo ufw reload

firewalld (RHEL/Alma/Rocky/Amazon)

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" \
source address="203.0.113.10" port protocol="tcp" port="27017" accept'
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

SELinux: default port 27017 works without changes. If you change the port, label it:

sudo semanage port -a -t mongod_port_t -p tcp 27018
sudo systemctl restart mongod

Performance and Production Best Practices

• File system: Prefer XFS on SSD; avoid ext4 for heavy OLTP workloads.
• Disable Transparent Huge Pages (THP) and NUMA for predictable latency.
• Set ulimits: allow higher open files and processes.
• Memory: WiredTiger cache uses ~50% of RAM by default; ensure headroom.
• Swap: Keep minimal but not zero; set vm.swappiness=1–10.
• Backups and monitoring from day one (see sections below).

Disable THP (temporary, until reboot)

echo never | sudo tee /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled
echo never | sudo tee /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag

Persist THP settings via systemd or rc.local according to your distro’s best practice.

ULimits (example)

echo "mongod soft nofile 64000
mongod hard nofile 64000" | sudo tee /etc/security/limits.d/99-mongodb.conf

Backups and Restores

Logical backups work everywhere; filesystem snapshots are faster for large datasets. Always test restores.

mongodump / mongorestore

# Backup all databases
mongodump --username siteAdmin --password --authenticationDatabase admin \
  --out /backups/mongo-$(date +%F)

# Restore a specific database
mongorestore --username siteAdmin --password --authenticationDatabase admin \
  --db myapp /backups/mongo-2025-01-10/myapp

LVM/Cloud Snapshots (hot backup pattern)

• Ensure journaling is enabled (default).
• fsfreeze the volume, snapshot, then thaw; or use cloud volume snapshots.
• Keep oplog entries (in replica sets) to cover snapshot time.

Monitoring and Observability

• Logs: /var/log/mongodb/mongod.log (journalctl -u mongod -f)
• mongostat and mongotop for quick health checks
• Enable slow query profiling for tuning

# Quick metrics
mongostat --rowcount 5
mongotop 5

# Enable slow query profiling (level 1)
mongosh -u siteAdmin -p --authenticationDatabase admin --eval \
  'db.setProfilingLevel(1, { slowms: 100 })'

Optional: Basic Replica Set Initialization

For high availability, run three nodes and initiate a replica set. Use private networking and TLS with keyfiles or x.509 auth.

# In /etc/mongod.conf on each node
replication:
  replSetName: rs0

# Then on the primary candidate
mongosh -u siteAdmin -p --authenticationDatabase admin --host 10.0.0.5
rs.initiate({
  _id: "rs0",
  members: [
    { _id: 0, host: "10.0.0.5:27017" },
    { _id: 1, host: "10.0.0.6:27017" },
    { _id: 2, host: "10.0.0.7:27017" }
  ]
})
rs.status()

Troubleshooting Common Errors

• Port already in use: Another process bound to 27017. Run sudo lsof -i :27017 and stop/disable the conflicting service or change MongoDB port consistently across config, firewall, and SELinux.
• Failed to connect: Check bindIp (must include your client’s IP or 0.0.0.0 for testing only), firewall rules, and TLS settings.
• Permission denied on dbPath: Ensure mongod owns /var/lib/mongo and /var/log/mongodb; run sudo chown -R mongod:mongod <path>.
• Authentication failed: Confirm the correct auth database (usually admin) and user role. Try mongosh -u user -p –authenticationDatabase admin.
• High I/O or slow queries: Review indexes (db.collection.getIndexes()), enable slow-query profiling, and confirm THP is disabled.

Real-World Tips from Hosting Experience

• Keep MongoDB and OS security patches current via the official repo.
• Separate data volume (e.g., /var/lib/mongo on dedicated SSD) to simplify snapshotting and scaling.
• Use private networking between app and DB; never expose 27017 to the public internet.
• Test restores quarterly; a backup you haven’t restored is a hope, not a plan.
• For steady growth, schedule compactions/maintenance during low-traffic windows.

Don’t want to manage all this yourself? YouStable’s managed VPS and cloud servers can provision MongoDB with hardened defaults, offsite backups, and 24×7 monitoring—so you focus on shipping features, not tuning THP and firewall rules.

With these steps, you now know how to setup MongoDB on Linux server the right way—from installation and security to performance and maintenance. If you prefer a managed path, YouStable can deploy and maintain a production-grade MongoDB stack tailored to your workload.

FAQs: How to Setup MongoDB on Linux Server