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Install MongoDB Community on Red Hat or CentOS using .tgz Tarball

On this page

  • Overview
  • Considerations
  • Install MongoDB Community Edition
  • Run MongoDB Community Edition
  • Additional Information

Note

MongoDB Atlas

MongoDB Atlas is a hosted MongoDB service option in the cloud which requires no installation overhead and offers a free tier to get started.

Use this tutorial to manually install MongoDB 6.0 Community Edition on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS Linux, or Oracle Linux [1] using a downloaded .tgz tarball.

This tutorial installs MongoDB 6.0 Community Edition. To install a different version of MongoDB Community, use the version drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of this page to select the documentation for that version.

While MongoDB can be installed manually via a downloaded .tgz tarball as described in this document, it is recommended to use the yum package manager on your system to install MongoDB if possible. Using a package manager automatically installs all needed dependencies, provides an example mongod.conf file to get you started, and simplifies future upgrade and maintenance tasks.

➤ See Install MongoDB using the yum Package Manager for instructions.

When you use the .tgz package to install the server, you need to follow the mongosh installation instructions to download and install mongosh separately.

Note

EOL Notice

  • MongoDB 5.0 Community Edition removes support for RHEL / CentOS / Oracle 6 on x86_64

  • MongoDB 5.0 Community Edition removes support for RHEL / CentOS / Oracle 7 on s390x

MongoDB 6.0 Community Edition supports the following 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS Linux, Oracle Linux [1], Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux [2] on x86_64 architecture:

  • RHEL / CentOS / Oracle / Rocky / AlmaLinux 9 (Starting in MongoDB 6.0.4)

  • RHEL / CentOS / Oracle / Rocky / AlmaLinux 8

  • RHEL / CentOS / Oracle 7

MongoDB 6.0 Community Edition also supports the ARM64 architecture on RHEL / CentOS / Oracle / Rocky / AlmaLinux 8.

See Platform Support for more information.

[1](1, 2) MongoDB only supports Oracle Linux running the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK). MongoDB does not support the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK).
[2] MongoDB on-premises products released for RHEL version 8.0+ are compatible with and supported on Rocky Linux version 8.0+ and AlmaLinux version 8.0+, contingent upon those distributions meeting their obligation to deliver full RHEL compatibility.

Before deploying MongoDB in a production environment, consider the Production Notes for Self-Managed Deployments document which offers performance considerations and configuration recommendations for production MongoDB deployments.

Use the following command to install the dependencies required for the MongoDB Community .tgz tarball:

sudo yum install libcurl openssl xz-libs

Follow these steps to manually install MongoDB Community Edition from the .tgz.

1

After you have installed the required prerequisite packages, download the MongoDB Community tgz tarball from the following link:

➤ MongoDB Download Center

  1. In the Version dropdown, select the version of MongoDB to download.

  2. In the Platform dropdown, select your operating system version and architecture.

  3. In the Package dropdown, select tgz.

  4. Click Download.

2

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

tar -zxvf mongodb-linux-*-6.0.17.tgz
3

The MongoDB binaries are in the bin/ directory of the tarball. You can either:

  • Copy the binaries into a directory listed in your PATH variable, such as /usr/local/bin (Update /path/to/the/mongodb-directory/ with your installation directory as appropriate)

    sudo cp /path/to/the/mongodb-directory/bin/* /usr/local/bin/
  • Create symbolic links to the binaries from a directory listed in your PATH variable, such as /usr/local/bin (Update /path/to/the/mongodb-directory/ with your installation directory as appropriate):

    sudo ln -s /path/to/the/mongodb-directory/bin/* /usr/local/bin/
4

Install mongosh then use the MongoDB Shell to connect to your deployment.

Download the package for the version of mongosh you need from the MongoDB Download Center and uncompress the package.

Most Unix-like operating systems limit the system resources that a process may use. These limits may negatively impact MongoDB operation, and should be adjusted. See UNIX ulimit Settings for Self-Managed Deployments for the recommended settings for your platform.

Note

If the ulimit value for number of open files is under 64000, MongoDB generates a startup warning.

By default, MongoDB runs using the mongod user account and uses the following default directories:

  • /var/lib/mongo (the data directory)

  • /var/log/mongodb (the log directory)

Create the MongoDB data and log directories:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/mongo
sudo mkdir -p /var/log/mongodb

By default, MongoDB runs using the mongod user account. Create a mongod and a mongodb group. Ensure that the mongod belongs to the group then set the owner and group of these directories to mongod:

sudo chown -R mongod:mongod /var/lib/mongo
sudo chown -R mongod:mongod /var/log/mongodb

To use a data directory and/or log directory other than the default directories:

  1. Create the new directory or directories.

  2. Edit the configuration file /etc/mongod.conf and modify the following fields accordingly:

    • storage.dbPath to specify a new data directory path (e.g. /some/data/directory)

    • systemLog.path to specify a new log file path (e.g. /some/log/directory/mongod.log)

  3. Ensure that the user running MongoDB has access to the directory or directories:

    sudo chown -R mongod:mongod <directory>

    If you change the user that runs the MongoDB process, you must give the new user access to these directories.

  4. Configure SELinux if enforced. See Configure SELinux.

Warning

An improperly configured SELinux policy might be insecure or may stop your mongod instance from working.

If SELinux is in enforcing mode, you must customize your SELinux policy for MongoDB to

  • Permit Access to cgroup

  • Permit Access to netstat

The current SELinux Policy does not allow the MongoDB process to access /sys/fs/cgroup, which is required to determine the available memory on your system. If you intend to run SELinux in enforcing mode, you will need to make the following adjustment to your SELinux policy:

  1. Ensure your system has the checkpolicy package installed:

    sudo yum install checkpolicy
  2. Create a custom policy file mongodb_cgroup_memory.te:

    cat > mongodb_cgroup_memory.te <<EOF
    module mongodb_cgroup_memory 1.0;
    require {
    type cgroup_t;
    type mongod_t;
    class dir search;
    class file { getattr open read };
    }
    #============= mongod_t ==============
    allow mongod_t cgroup_t:dir search;
    allow mongod_t cgroup_t:file { getattr open read };
    EOF
  3. Once created, compile and load the custom policy module by running these three commands:

    checkmodule -M -m -o mongodb_cgroup_memory.mod mongodb_cgroup_memory.te
    semodule_package -o mongodb_cgroup_memory.pp -m mongodb_cgroup_memory.mod
    sudo semodule -i mongodb_cgroup_memory.pp

The MongoDB process is now able to access the correct files with SELinux set to enforcing.

The current SELinux Policy does not allow the MongoDB process to open and read /proc/net/netstat, which is required for Full Time Diagnostic Data Capture (FTDC). If you intend to run SELinux in enforcing mode, you will need to make the following adjustment to your SELinux policy:

  1. Ensure your system has the checkpolicy package installed:

    sudo yum install checkpolicy
  2. Create a custom policy file mongodb_proc_net.te:

    cat > mongodb_proc_net.te <<EOF
    module mongodb_proc_net 1.0;
    require {
    type cgroup_t;
    type configfs_t;
    type file_type;
    type mongod_t;
    type proc_net_t;
    type sysctl_fs_t;
    type var_lib_nfs_t;
    class dir { search getattr };
    class file { getattr open read };
    }
    #============= mongod_t ==============
    allow mongod_t cgroup_t:dir { search getattr } ;
    allow mongod_t cgroup_t:file { getattr open read };
    allow mongod_t configfs_t:dir getattr;
    allow mongod_t file_type:dir { getattr search };
    allow mongod_t file_type:file getattr;
    allow mongod_t proc_net_t:file { open read };
    allow mongod_t sysctl_fs_t:dir search;
    allow mongod_t var_lib_nfs_t:dir search;
    EOF
  3. Once created, compile and load the custom policy module by running these three commands:

    checkmodule -M -m -o mongodb_proc_net.mod mongodb_proc_net.te
    semodule_package -o mongodb_proc_net.pp -m mongodb_proc_net.mod
    sudo semodule -i mongodb_proc_net.pp
  1. Update the SELinux policy to allow the mongod service to use the new directory:

    sudo semanage fcontext -a -t <type> </some/MongoDB/directory.*>

    Specify one of the following types as appropriate:

    • mongod_var_lib_t for data directory

    • mongod_log_t for log file directory

    • mongod_var_run_t for pid file directory

    Note

    Be sure to include the .* at the end of the directory.

  2. Update the SELinux user policy for the new directory:

    sudo chcon -Rv -u system_u -t <type> </some/MongoDB/directory>

    Specify one of the following types as appropriate:

    • mongod_var_lib_t for data directory

    • mongod_log_t for log directory

    • mongod_var_run_t for pid file directory

  3. Apply the updated SELinux policies to the directory:

    sudo restorecon -R -v </some/MongoDB/directory>

For example:

Tip

Be sure to include the .* at the end of the directory for the semanage fcontext operations.

  • If using a non-default MongoDB data path of /mongodb/data:

    sudo semanage fcontext -a -t mongod_var_lib_t '/mongodb/data.*'
    sudo chcon -Rv -u system_u -t mongod_var_lib_t '/mongodb/data'
    sudo restorecon -R -v '/mongodb/data'
  • If using a non-default MongoDB log directory of /mongodb/log (e.g. if the log file path is /mongodb/log/mongod.log):

    sudo semanage fcontext -a -t mongod_log_t '/mongodb/log.*'
    sudo chcon -Rv -u system_u -t mongod_log_t '/mongodb/log'
    sudo restorecon -R -v '/mongodb/log'
sudo semanage port -a -t mongod_port_t -p tcp <portnumber>

Important

In addition to the above, if SELinux is in enforcing mode you will also need to further customize your SELinux policy for each of these situations:

  • You are using a custom directory path instead of using the default path for any combination of:

  • You are using a custom port instead of using the default MongoDB port.

  • If you have made other modifications to your MongoDB installation.

Follow these steps to run MongoDB Community Edition on your system. These instructions assume that you are using the default settings.

1

Create a directory where the MongoDB instance stores its data. For example:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/mongo

Create a directory where the MongoDB instance stores its log. For example:

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/mongodb

The user that starts the MongoDB process must have read and write permission to these directories. For example, if you intend to run MongoDB as yourself:

sudo chown `whoami` /var/lib/mongo # Or substitute another user
sudo chown `whoami` /var/log/mongodb # Or substitute another user
2

To run MongoDB, run the mongod process at the system prompt.

mongod --dbpath /var/lib/mongo --logpath /var/log/mongodb/mongod.log --fork

For details on the command-line options --dbpath and --logpath, see Options.

3

Verify that MongoDB has started successfully by checking the process output for the following line in the log file /var/log/mongodb/mongod.log:

[initandlisten] waiting for connections on port 27017

You may see non-critical warnings in the process output. As long as you see the log line shown above, you can safely ignore these warnings during your initial evaluation of MongoDB.

4

Start a mongosh session on the same host machine as the mongod. You can run mongosh without any command-line options to connect to a mongod that is running on your localhost with default port 27017.

mongosh

For more information on connecting using mongosh, such as to connect to a mongod instance running on a different host and/or port, see the mongosh documentation.

To help you start using MongoDB, MongoDB provides Getting Started Guides in various driver editions. For the driver documentation, see Start Developing with MongoDB.

By default, MongoDB launches with bindIp set to 127.0.0.1, which binds to the localhost network interface. This means that the mongod can only accept connections from clients that are running on the same machine. Remote clients will not be able to connect to the mongod, and the mongod will not be able to initialize a replica set unless this value is set to a valid network interface which is accessible from the remote clients.

This value can be configured either:

  • in the MongoDB configuration file with bindIp, or

  • via the command-line argument --bind_ip

Warning

Before binding to a non-localhost (e.g. publicly accessible) IP address, ensure you have secured your cluster from unauthorized access. For a complete list of security recommendations, see Security Checklist for Self-Managed Deployments. At minimum, consider enabling authentication and hardening network infrastructure.

For more information on configuring bindIp, see IP Binding in Self-Managed Deployments.

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