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Merge Chunks in a Sharded Cluster

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Overview

The mergeChunks command allows you to combine continuous chunks on the same shard into a single chunk. This tutorial explains how to merge neighboring chunks in a sharded cluster.

Procedure

Note

Examples in this procedure use a members collection in the test database, using the username field as the shard key.

Identify Chunk Ranges

In the mongo shell, identify the chunk ranges with the following operation:

sh.status()

In the output, the chunk ranges appear after the chunk counts for each sharded collection, as in the following example:

--- Sharding Status ---
  sharding version: {
     "_id" : 1,
     "minCompatibleVersion" : 5,
     "currentVersion" : 6,
     "clusterId" : ObjectId("5ebf0bfd3eeb6037ec7cbba9")
  }
  shards:
        {  "_id" : "shardA",  "host" : "shardA/shardA-m1.example.net:27018,shardA-m2.example.net:27018,shardA-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
        {  "_id" : "shardB",  "host" : "shardB/shardB-m1.example.net:27018,shardB-m2.example.net:27018,shardB-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
  active mongoses:
        "4.2.7" : 1
  autosplit:
        Currently enabled: yes
  balancer:
        Currently enabled:  yes
        Currently running:  no
        Failed balancer rounds in last 5 attempts:  0
        Migration Results for the last 24 hours:
                520 : Success
   databases:
        {  "_id" : "config",  "primary" : "config",  "partitioned" : true }
                config.system.sessions
                        shard key: { "_id" : 1 }
                        unique: false
                        balancing: true
                        chunks:
                                shardA       512
                                shardB       512
                        too many chunks to print, use verbose if you want to force print
        {  "_id" : "test",  "primary" : "shardA",  "partitioned" : true,  "version" : {  "uuid" : UUID("22c042fc-7e3d-4c6d-992d-f3d714759781"),  "lastMod" : 1 } }
                test.members
                        shard key: { "username" : 1 }
                        unique: false
                        balancing: true
                        chunks:
                                shardA   7
                                shardB   7
                        { "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shardB Timestamp(13, 0)
                        { "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shardB Timestamp(16, 0)
                        { "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shardB Timestamp(17, 0)
                        { "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shardB Timestamp(18, 0)
                        { "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shardB Timestamp(19, 0)
                        { "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shardB Timestamp(20, 0)
                        { "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shardB Timestamp(21, 0)
                        { "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(21, 1)
                        { "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(10, 1)
                        { "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shardA Timestamp(11, 1)
                        { "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shardA Timestamp(12, 1)
                        { "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shardA Timestamp(14, 1)
                        { "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 1)
                        { "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 2)

The chunk ranges appear after the chunk counts for each sharded collection. For example, the following are the chunk ranges for the test.members collection:

{ "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shardB Timestamp(13, 0)
{ "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shardB Timestamp(16, 0)
{ "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shardB Timestamp(17, 0)
{ "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shardB Timestamp(18, 0)
{ "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shardB Timestamp(19, 0)
{ "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shardB Timestamp(20, 0)
{ "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shardB Timestamp(21, 0)
{ "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(21, 1)
{ "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(10, 1)
{ "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shardA Timestamp(11, 1)
{ "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shardA Timestamp(12, 1)
{ "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shardA Timestamp(14, 1)
{ "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 1)
{ "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 2)

Merge Chunks

Merge contiguous chunks on the same shard.

For example, consider the following chunk ranges on shardA:

Note

The chunks to be merged are highlighted.

{ "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(21, 1)
{ "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(10, 1)
{ "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shardA Timestamp(11, 1)
{ "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shardA Timestamp(12, 1)
{ "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shardA Timestamp(14, 1)
{ "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 1)
{ "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 2)

To merge the highlighted contiguous chunks, issue the mergeChunks command against the admin database:

db.adminCommand( {
   mergeChunks: "test.members",
   bounds: [ { "username" : "user69816" },
             { "username" : "user96401" } ]
} )

On success, mergeChunks produces the following output:

{
   "ok" : 1,
   "operationTime" : Timestamp(1589580356, 14),
   "$clusterTime" : {
      "clusterTime" : Timestamp(1589580356, 14),
      "signature" : {
         "hash" : BinData(0,"up5VKd49G/uPCq1iger2nOtfIHw="),
         "keyId" : NumberLong("6827188741371592725")
      }
   }
}

On any failure condition, mergeChunks returns a document where the value of the ok field is 0.

View Merged Chunks Ranges

After merging the identified chunks, confirm the new chunk, as follows:

sh.status()

The output of sh.status() should resemble:

--- Sharding Status ---
  sharding version: {
     "_id" : 1,
     "minCompatibleVersion" : 5,
     "currentVersion" : 6,
     "clusterId" : ObjectId("5ebef5447fa151d4bd79dd72")
  }
  shards:
        {  "_id" : "shardA",  "host" : "shardA/shardA-m1.example.net:27018,shardA-m2.example.net:27018,shardA-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
        {  "_id" : "shardB",  "host" : "shardB/shardB-m1.example.net:27018,shardB-m2.example.net:27018,shardB-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
  active mongoses:
        "4.2.7" : 1
  autosplit:
        Currently enabled: yes
  balancer:
        Currently enabled:  yes
        Currently running:  no
        Failed balancer rounds in last 5 attempts:  0
        Migration Results for the last 24 hours:
                519 : Success
 databases:
       {  "_id" : "config",  "primary" : "config",  "partitioned" : true }
               config.system.sessions
                       shard key: { "_id" : 1 }
                       unique: false
                       balancing: true
                       chunks:
                               shardA   512
                               shardB   512
                      too many chunks to print, use verbose if you want to force print
       {  "_id" : "test",  "primary" : "shardA",  "partitioned" : true,  "version" : {  "uuid" : UUID("22c042fc-7e3d-4c6d-992d-f3d714759781"),  "lastMod" : 1 } }
               test.members
                       shard key: { "username" : 1 }
                       unique: false
                       balancing: true
                       chunks:
                               shardA        5
                               shardB        6
                       { "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shardA Timestamp(22, 0)
                       { "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shardB Timestamp(22, 1)
                       { "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shardB Timestamp(17, 0)
                       { "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shardB Timestamp(18, 0)
                       { "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shardB Timestamp(19, 0)
                       { "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shardB Timestamp(20, 0)
                       { "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shardB Timestamp(21, 0)
                       { "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(21, 1)
                       { "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(10, 1)
                       { "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(21, 2)
                       { "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(15, 2)

After the merge, the balancer may migrate chunks across shards to ensure a more even distribution of chunks.