Connecting a remote server to Compass?

[Kushagra_Kesav]

Hi @mj69,

Welcome to the MongoDB Community forums

@mj69

A. What if my website’s end users want to add or remove data to and from my in-server database? Will the server keep the mongod command active even if I don’t do that? Is such a thing even necessary in this scenario?

If you start MongoDB as a service on Ubuntu, it will be running in the background and your web server will have access to the database until you shut it down manually - Reference

@mj69

B. Is this URI string correct for connecting Compass to the remote server DB:

mongodb://<IP address of ubuntu server>:27017/?tls=true

I used this URI string in my app when using the MongoDB cluster:
mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<some address>.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority

If you are open to using a managed service, I recommend that you consider using MongoDB Atlas before deploying a database manually, as an improperly configured database may pose security risks.

@mj69

C. Where is the username and password when MongoDB is installed on a remote server? Do I have to create them in Mongo shell on the remote server? If yes, then how?

You need to configure security and access control - Please refer to the MongoDB Security Checklist. You should enable authentication, configure a Role-Based Access Control, and configure network encryption with TLS.

@mj69

D. Does creating a user on the in-server database change the URI string for Compass? Does it have something to do with the Authentication Method section in Compass?

This depends on whether you wish to use Compass as a different user. In some cases, you might not want to run Compass as a super user on a regular basis. For this purpose, it would be necessary to create a user with limited permissions and use that user as part of the Compass connection string.

@mj69

E. In absence of the such a user, can Compass access the in-server DB directly?

MongoDB Compass can connect to local or remote deployments.

To gain a deeper understanding of MongoDB, I would recommend you take these courses from MongoDB University.

• M001 - MongoDB Basic
• M103 - Basic Cluster Administration
• M150 - Authorisation and Authentication

I hope it helps!

Thanks,
Kushagra