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Install MongoDB on Linux Systems

Overview

Compiled versions of MongoDB for Linux provide a simple option for installing MongoDB for other Linux systems without supported packages.

Considerations

For production deployments, always run MongoDB on 64-bit systems.

Install MongoDB

MongoDB provides archives for both 64-bit and 32-bit Linux. Follow the installation procedure appropriate for your system.

Install for 64-bit Linux

1

Download the binary files for the desired release of MongoDB.

The downloads-distro.mongodb.org host has been decommissioned. To get the binaries for MongoDB 2.6 (which has reached end of life on October 2016):

For example, to download the latest release through the shell, issue the following:

curl -O http://downloads.mongodb.org/linux/mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.12.tgz
2

Extract the files from the downloaded archive.

For example, from a system shell, you can extract through the tar command:

tar -zxvf mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.12.tgz
3

Copy the extracted archive to the target directory.

Copy the extracted folder to the location from which MongoDB will run.

mkdir -p mongodb
cp -R -n mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.12/ mongodb
4

Ensure the location of the binaries is in the PATH variable.

The MongoDB binaries are in the bin/ directory of the archive. To ensure that the binaries are in your PATH, you can modify your PATH.

For example, you can add the following line to your shell’s rc file (e.g. ~/.bashrc):

export PATH=<mongodb-install-directory>/bin:$PATH

Replace <mongodb-install-directory> with the path to the extracted MongoDB archive.

Install for 32-bit Linux

1

Download the binary files for the desired release of MongoDB.

The downloads-distro.mongodb.org host has been decommissioned. To get the binaries for MongoDB 2.6 (which has reached end of life on October 2016):

For example, to download the latest release through the shell, issue the following:

curl -O http://downloads.mongodb.org/linux/mongodb-linux-i686-2.6.12.tgz
2

Extract the files from the downloaded archive.

For example, from a system shell, you can extract through the tar command:

tar -zxvf mongodb-linux-i686-2.6.12.tgz
3

Copy the extracted archive to the target directory.

Copy the extracted folder to the location from which MongoDB will run.

mkdir -p mongodb
cp -R -n mongodb-linux-i686-2.6.12/ mongodb
4

Ensure the location of the binaries is in the PATH variable.

The MongoDB binaries are in the bin/ directory of the archive. To ensure that the binaries are in your PATH, you can modify your PATH.

For example, you can add the following line to your shell’s rc file (e.g. ~/.bashrc):

export PATH=<mongodb-install-directory>/bin:$PATH

Replace <mongodb-install-directory> with the path to the extracted MongoDB archive.

Run MongoDB

1

Create the data directory.

Before you start MongoDB for the first time, create the directory to which the mongod process will write data. By default, the mongod process uses the /data/db directory. If you create a directory other than this one, you must specify that directory in the dbpath option when starting the mongod process later in this procedure.

The following example command creates the default /data/db directory:

mkdir -p /data/db
2

Set permissions for the data directory.

Before running mongod for the first time, ensure that the user account running mongod has read and write permissions for the directory.

3

Run MongoDB.

To run MongoDB, run the mongod process at the system prompt. If necessary, specify the path of the mongod or the data directory. See the following examples.

Run without specifying paths

If your system PATH variable includes the location of the mongod binary and if you use the default data directory (i.e., /data/db), simply enter mongod at the system prompt:

mongod

Specify the path of the mongod

If your PATH does not include the location of the mongod binary, enter the full path to the mongod binary at the system prompt:

<path to binary>/mongod

Specify the path of the data directory

If you do not use the default data directory (i.e., /data/db), specify the path to the data directory using the --dbpath option:

mongod --dbpath <path to data directory>
4

Begin using MongoDB.

To begin using MongoDB, see Getting Started with MongoDB. Also consider the Production Notes document before deploying MongoDB in a production environment.

Later, to stop MongoDB, press Control+C in the terminal where the mongod instance is running.