Making the Most of Monitoring MongoDB

Rezwan Khan
September 4, 2019
#monitoring

When you've got your application up and running and you are ready to let the world enjoy your work, before the launch celebrations begin, don't forget that you'll want to keep an eye on how well your database is performing. Monitoring your database is an essential part of being production-ready and it's easy to forget it in the run-up to a release.

Don't worry, MongoDB has you covered and we'll show you how you can quickly get monitoring your database, whether locally installed or managed in the cloud with MongoDB Atlas. Let's start with what you can get for free.

Free on Atlas

Every MongoDB Atlas cluster comes with monitoring. If you're not using Atlas, you can get a free M0 tier replica set here and investigate for yourself the dashboard we're about to talk about. Here's a snapshot of the metrics dashboard from a free M0 tier replica set.

The M0 tier Metrics Dashboard

What we can see here are graphs from the three nodes in the replica set. All the activity in this example is on the first, primary node. Above the metrics are controls for which time range we are viewing with an adjustable granularity. Run your pointer over a graph and you'll get the precise data for that particular time.

The first row of graphs show the total number of operations being performed on each node; that chart can be broken down into the different operation counters by selecting the check box "Display opcounters on separate charts". The row below that displays information about the number of connections over time.

Scrolling down, we see more charts. This time for the size of the deployment (something we only see like this on smaller clusters and replica sets) and the number of network connections.

More metrics from the M0 tier Metrics Dashboard

You can also toggle the rows or nodes in or out of visibility depending on what you are interested in. This is your essential set of metrics and as we'll show later, as you scale up your Atlas clusters, Atlas automatically gathers more data for you.

Free for Local MongoDB

You may, of course, be developing and using MongoDB locally; MongoDB is the database that you can run anywhere. The good news is we have a free monitoring solution for you and better still, you already have it, built into your MongoDB server. By running db.enableFreeMonitoring() on your local server, you can get your metrics delivers to our free monitoring service where you can browse the last 24 hours of activity in a chart rich environment. The command itself will return you a URL where you can view your metrics:

Enabling Free Monitoring

You'll also see the URL when you use mongo shell to log into your local database, in case you forget it. Keep that URL safe if you want to keep your metrics private.

Here's a screenshot of a local MongoDB as I was importing a dataset of NYC taxi cabs. You can see CPU usage, the time commands are taking to run and disk utilization.

The Free Monitoring Metrics Dashboard

Immediately we can see that we are predominantly writing, and we're steadily filling a drive with a 650MB dataset. Execution times for these writes are also pretty steady. If we scroll down we'll see more metrics:

Document, memory and traffic metric

Now we can see on this system we're inserting around 30,000 documents a second, memory usage, both resident and virtual, and there's been an associated burst of network traffic (on the local interface of course as this instance of MongoDB is only being accessed locally). Scrolling down further, we can see metrics for operations, replication, and query efficiency:

Opcounters and Targeting metrics

There's no replication going on and we aren't currently querying the database, so the latter two metrics are at 0. With a more typical workload, there's plenty of performance insight to be had there. Another scroll and finally, we get to queues and CPU stats for the system:

Queues and CPU usage broken down

Notice how we can get the breakdown for any particular point in time by moving the cursor over that time on the graph.

So, that's plenty of information about your local MongoDB. Unlike Atlas, free monitoring only holds 24 hours of data on your database, so it's really best used for examining the immediate state of performance on your database.

It's also easy to turn off with db.disableFreeMonitoring().

Command-line monitoring

Another set of monitoring tools are available, if you're happy with working at the MongoDB command line. The mongostat and mongotop commands offer up a range of performance data, displaying it in the terminal. There are also functions in MongoDB to get metric data such as db.ServerStatus(), db.stats() and the replSetGetStatus admin command.

For all of these though, you'll have to gather and manage the data from them yourself, or find a third-party tool, to implement historical monitoring that you can use for visualization. Also, don't forget your logs; MongoDB server logs are packed with information about your system's performance, allowing you to pinpoint the source of slow queries.

Premium on Atlas

We can't move on without mentioning the rest of the available monitoring on MongoDB Atlas. The free tier monitoring on Atlas is the smallest set of essential monitoring metrics. As you move onto paid clusters, so the number of metrics increases. For example, on an M10 cluster you can see all these:

Atlas Premium Selected Metrics

Not only the database metrics, but also a range of metrics for the underlying hardware and operating system, giving you a full picture of the status of your Atlas cluster. This is all built from logged historical data.

Sometimes, you want to get more immediate information. On Atlas you can get access to the Real Time tab on your Cluster view to get the immediate information on the behavior of your cluster. That includes CPU and disk utilization along with which collections are most active, query execution times and number of operations being run. Think of it as a stethoscope for your database's heartbeat.

Realtime metrics in Atlas

Both the deep historical metrics and the real time snapshots come with a larger cluster, all automatically as part of deploying.

So, we have free monitoring on MongoDB Atlas, free monitoring and tools and MongoDB Atlas's premium monitoring tools with real time browsing. Which one to pick? We recommend the one that offers you the most information with the least configuration.

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Building a Culture of Growth: SVP Simon Eid on MongoDB's Massive Opportunity in APAC

Simon Eid is Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific (APAC) at MongoDB and leads the sales teams across Australia and New Zealand, India, ASEAN, and Japan. Simon's go-to-market organisation in APAC is growing rapidly and has nearly tripled in size in the past three years. They are hiring in all regions . In this article, Simon discusses MongoDB’s opportunity in APAC and how he builds a culture of growth and accountability. Simon Eid, SVP APAC, MongoDB (left) and Anoop Dhankar, RVP ANZ, MongoDB (right) MongoDB's opportunity in Asia-Pacific Out of the top 13 economies by GDP in the world , five of them are located in APAC: China, Japan, Australia, India, and South Korea. And that's to say nothing of the ASEAN countries which alone have more than 650 million inhabitants. Combine this with the worldwide database market, one of the largest markets in the software industry. IDC estimates that it will grow to $137B in 2027, and MongoDB has just reached $1B in ARR. This gives you a sense of the massive market opportunity we have globally. Regardless of industry, product, or service, almost every company is becoming a technology company, which means that every company is becoming a data company. We believe MongoDB is the Developer Data Platform that is best placed to support and accelerate that trend. We’ve already captured thousands of customers around the globe, but it’s important to keep in mind that our world is still in the early stages of shifting to the cloud and changing how applications are built and run. Compared to other software, what's special about the market we play in is that the database is not a “nice-to-have”; it’s mission-critical for organisations. As our world continues to undergo this digital transformation, we have the opportunity to transform how our customers use software and data to innovate, create, and disrupt industries. For example, look at Cathay Pacific , Hong Kong's home airline carrier operating in more than 60 destinations worldwide. The company's digital team turned to MongoDB on their journey to become one of the first airlines to create a truly paperless flight deck. Flight Folder, their application built on MongoDB, consolidates dozens of different information sources into one place. Since the Flight Folder launch, Cathay Pacific has completed more than 340,000 flights with full digital integration in the flight deck. Their innovation is enabled by MongoDB. Building a team across regions and cultures Our team in APAC is unique because of the different markets and cultures within the region. What this means is that we go to market differently in India than we do in Australia, in Singapore than we do in South Korea, and so on. Each market is completely different, but within all of them, there is a huge opportunity. Different from many of our peers, in APAC we've established business leaders who run regionalized teams in India, ASEAN, and ANZ with all functions reporting to them. These teams essentially operate as their own business and implement local best practices into their strategy. But, it doesn’t mean they’re operating in a silo. At the leadership level, there is an immense amount of collaboration and sharing of experiences to identify what’s working and what isn’t within each region. We also have a fantastic global sales organisation that rolls out extensive training and best practices to help enable our local teams to best help our customers and grow the business. Members of our APAC team at a recent offsite in Phuket Culture The most important thing is culture. We have a very high standard around everything we do and how we interact with each other. We don’t entertain politics. You can teach someone new skills and coach them on how to be successful in a new role, but if they’re not aligned with the culture, they will not be a fit. It’s a non-negotiable for me and why the most important aspect of the hiring process is the cultural aspect. If you get the culture right, everything else starts to fall into place. What I hear at MongoDB and from the teams I've built at other companies is that this is the kind of culture they can really thrive and grow. At MongoDB, our culture is defined and shaped by six core values . One of the values that’s most important to my team is “Embrace the Power of Differences”. Within APAC, there are a variety of cultural identities and nuances that can often be difficult to navigate, whether it is cultural values, beliefs, or go-to-market strategy. It’s important that everyone who joins my team is respectful of each other’s regional culture. What we’ve done within the APAC region, and with teams across the globe, is take everyone on a journey to understand and embrace these cultural differences. Our role as leaders is to develop our teams, from the bottom all the way up, which is part of MongoDB’s BDR to CRO career development initiative. We need to develop the next wave of leaders so that they’re prepared to step up when the time comes. For APAC, this means that regardless of where someone is from, each team member has been coached and developed on the cultural nuances so that they can lead people and go to market in each of the different regions. It’s also important that each team member contributes to a culture of psychological safety. Being part of a high-growth tech company requires taking risks and making mistakes. We have a high standard and we hold each other accountable, but it never comes at the cost of creating an environment where people are afraid to fail. When someone faces setbacks, I encourage them to share those experiences so that we can collectively learn. Through mutual support, we foster a stronger team capable of delivering exceptional results. The future of MongoDB in Asia-Pacific For any organisation to be successful, I believe it’s critically important for the entire ecosystem to act as one. As I mentioned earlier, at MongoDB the whole country ecosystem is aligned around one set of goals, so it's not a case of different teams running off in different directions. The teams are willing to lean in and do what's required to help each other build a great business. I can confidently say that in APAC, we are one team. This means sales, marketing, customer success, solutions consulting, and professional services all working together to focus on three things: making customers successful, building technical champions, and driving new workloads. As we continue to grow our team and MongoDB’s footprint in the region, these are the three things that will drive our success. As I mentioned earlier, there's a huge opportunity for MongoDB in APAC. Despite hiring slowing down or stopping completely at many other organisations, we're continuing to invest heavily in the region. To give you a sense of that - we've nearly tripled the size of our APAC go-to-market team in the past three years, and we've got more open roles across the different functions and regions. If you want to be part of this journey, there are three things I want to reiterate: First, we are extremely passionate about our culture, from the field level up to the leadership level. As a team, this is the brand we bring to the market. Second, the opportunity here is massive based on the total addressable market and our current share. And third, we place critical importance on development. By joining this team, I can promise that you’ll be provided with countless opportunities to develop your career and make an impact. I’m confident in my team and the leadership we have in place who are ready to take MongoDB APAC to the next level. Join us !

September 28, 2023