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Deploy Search & Vector Search

Install and Use MongoDB Search and Vector Search With External MongoDB Enterprise Edition

You can use the Kubernetes Operator to deploy MongoDB Search and Vector Search on a Kubernetes cluster to run with an external MongoDB Enterprise Edition v8.2.0 or higher server. This procedure demonstrates how to deploy and configure the mongot process in your Kubernetes cluster to use a new or existing external replica set deployment. This tutorial demonstrates how to configure a secure deployment with TLS enabled. You must provide provide the TLS certificates:

  • The server certificate and key for the MongoDBSearch service.

  • The public CA certificate for the external MongoDB database.

Prerequisites

To deploy MongoDB Search and Vector Search, you must have the following:

  • A running Kubernetes cluster with kubeconfig available locally.

  • Kubernetes command-line tool, kubectl, configured to communicate with your cluster.

  • Helm, the package manager for Kubernetes, to install the Kubernetes Operator.

  • Bash v5.1 or higher for running the commands in this tutorial.

  • A MongoDB Enterprise Edition replica set running version 8.2 or higher for storing data.

    Important

    The version format for the Enterprise edition would be X.Y.Z-ent. Ensure that you choose v8.2.0 or higher. To learn more about MongoDB versioning, see MongoDB Versioning in the MongoDB Manual.

    To learn more about deploying MongoDB Enterprise, see Deploy and Configure MongoDB Database Resources.

  • A running MongoDB Cloud Manager or Ops Manager for managing MongoDB tasks.

  • External DB TLS

    Your external MongoDB Enterprise deployment must be configured to use and require TLS connections.

  • External DB CA file

    You must have the public Certificate Authority (CA) certificate file (for example, external-ca.crt) that was used to sign your external MongoDB deployment's server certificates. You will need this file locally.

  • Search Service certificate files

    You must have a valid TLS server certificate and private key (for example, search-service.crt, search-service.key) for the MongoDBSearch service. This certificate must be valid for the hostname you will use to access the service (for example, mdbs-search.example.com).

Before You Begin

Before you install MongoDB Search and Vector Search using the Kubernetes Operator, you must do the following:

Configure Cloud Manager or Ops Manager Parameters for MongoDB Search and Vector Search

Log in to the Cloud Manager or Ops Manager UI and perform the following steps to configure Cloud Manager or Ops Manager for MongoDB Search and Vector Search.

1

Go to your Cloud Manager or Ops Manager Deployment page.

  1. Log in to MongoDB Cloud Manager or Ops Manager.

  2. Click the Deployment tab.

  3. Select the cluster that you want to modify.

2

Modify your Cloud Manager or Ops Manager deployment configuration.

  1. Click the Modify button to open the deployment configuration editor.

  2. Click Advanced Configuration Options under the Process Configuration section.

  3. Click the Add Option button and select setParameter Startup Option from the dropdown.

  4. Add the following parameters in the fields, one by one, by clicking Add after adding the name and value:

    Parameter
    Value

    mongotHost

    Your search hostname and port. For example: search-node1.example.com:27017.

    searchIndexManagementHostAndPort

    Your search hostname and port. For example: search-node1.example.com:27017.

    skipAuthenticationToSearchIndexManagementServer

    false

    searchTLSMode

    Your configured TLS mode. For example, preferTLS, if the mongot process is configured to accept TLS connections.

    useGrpcForSearch

    true

3

Review and deploy your changes.

  1. Click the Review & Deploy button.

  2. Review and confirm to apply the changes.

    Cloud Manager or Ops Manager performs a rolling restart of your replica set to apply the new configuration.

Configure a Cloud Manager or Ops Manager User for MongoDB Search and Vector Search

You must create a user with the searchCoordinator role. In MongoDB versions 8.2 and later, the searchCoordinator is a built-in role. You must create a user and assign the role to the user.

To create the user and assign the user the built-in searchCoordinator role, complete the following steps by using either the Cloud Manager or Ops Manager UI or the mongosh:

1

Go to the Users page.

  1. Log in to Cloud Manager or Ops Manager UI.

  2. Go to the Security tab and click on Users.

2

Click Add New User.

3

Set the credentials for the user.

Username

Enter search-sync-source.

Password

Set a strong, secure password.

Authentication Database

Choose the admin database.

4

Assign the searchCoordinator role to the user.

In the Assign Roles section, select the built-in searchCoordinator role from the dropdown for the admin database.

5

Click Add User to create the user with the searchCoordinator role.

In mongosh, run the following commands:

1

Switch to the admin database.

use admin;
2

Run the following command after replacing the password with a secure password to create the user.

db.createUser({
   user: "search-sync-source",
   pwd: "<PASSWORD>", // Replace with your actual password
   roles: [
      { role: "searchCoordinator", db: "admin" }
   ]
});

Setup Your Environment

Prepare your environment for running the sample code in this tutorial in a terminal.

1

Required. Set the environment variables.

To set the environment variables for use in the subsequent steps in this procedure, copy the following, set the values for the environment variables, and then run the commands in your terminal:

1export K8S_CTX="<your kubernetes context here>"
2
3export MDB_NS="mongodb"
4
5export MDB_VERSION="8.2.0"
6
7export MDB_ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD="admin-user-password-CHANGE-ME"
8export MDB_USER_PASSWORD="mdb-user-password-CHANGE-ME"
9export MDB_SEARCH_SYNC_USER_PASSWORD="search-sync-user-password-CHANGE-ME"
10
11export MDB_TLS_CA_SECRET_NAME="ca"
12export MDB_SEARCH_TLS_SECRET_NAME="mdbs-search-tls"
13
14export MDB_SEARCH_SERVICE_NAME="mdbs-search"
15export MDB_SEARCH_HOSTNAME="mdbs-search.example.com"
16
17# External MongoDB replica set members - REPLACE THESE VALUES with your actual external MongoDB hosts
18# In production, replace with your actual external MongoDB replica set members
19export MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_0="mdbc-rs-0.mdbc-rs-svc.${MDB_NS}.svc.cluster.local:27017"
20export MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_1="mdbc-rs-1.mdbc-rs-svc.${MDB_NS}.svc.cluster.local:27017"
21export MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_2="mdbc-rs-2.mdbc-rs-svc.${MDB_NS}.svc.cluster.local:27017"
22
23# REPLACE with your actual external MongoDB replica set name
24export MDB_EXTERNAL_REPLICA_SET_NAME="mdbc-rs"
25
26export OPERATOR_HELM_CHART="mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes"
27export OPERATOR_ADDITIONAL_HELM_VALUES=""
28
29export MDB_CONNECTION_STRING="mongodb://mdb-user:${MDB_USER_PASSWORD}@${MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_0}/?replicaSet=${MDB_EXTERNAL_REPLICA_SET_NAME}&tls=true&tlsCAFile=/tls/ca.crt"

Note that these environment variables are only available in the current terminal session and will need to be set again in any new terminal sessions.

2

Conditional. Add the MongoDB Helm repository.

Helm automates the deployment and management of MongoDB instances on Kubernetes. If you have already added the Helm repository that contains the Helm chart for installing the Kubernetes Operator operator, skip this step. Otherwise, add the Helm repository.

To add, copy, paste, and run the following command:

1helm repo add mongodb https://mongodb.github.io/helm-charts
2helm repo update mongodb
3helm search repo mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes
1"mongodb" has been added to your repositories
2Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
3...Successfully got an update from the "mongodb" chart repository
4Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈
5NAME                      	CHART VERSION	APP VERSION	DESCRIPTION                                       
6mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes	1.6.0        	           	MongoDB Controllers for Kubernetes translate th...
3

Conditional. Install the MongoDB Controllers for Kubernetes Operator.

The Kubernetes Operator watches MongoDB, MongoDBOpsManager, and MongoDBSearch custom resources and manages the lifecycle of your MongoDB deployments. If you already installed the MongoDB Controllers for Kubernetes Operator, skip this step. Otherwise, install the MongoDB Controllers for Kubernetes Operator from the Helm repository you added in the previous step.

To install the MongoDB Controllers for Kubernetes Operator in the mongodb namespace, copy, paste, and run the following:

1helm upgrade --install --debug --kube-context "${K8S_CTX}" \
2  --create-namespace \
3  --namespace="${MDB_NS}" \
4  mongodb-kubernetes \
5  ${OPERATOR_ADDITIONAL_HELM_VALUES:+--set ${OPERATOR_ADDITIONAL_HELM_VALUES}} \
6  "${OPERATOR_HELM_CHART}"
1Release "mongodb-kubernetes" does not exist. Installing it now.
2NAME: mongodb-kubernetes
3LAST DEPLOYED: Mon Nov 17 13:22:46 2025
4NAMESPACE: mongodb
5STATUS: deployed
6REVISION: 1
7TEST SUITE: None
8USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:
9{}
10
11COMPUTED VALUES:
12agent:
13  name: mongodb-agent
14  version: 108.0.12.8846-1
15community:
16  agent:
17    name: mongodb-agent
18    version: 108.0.2.8729-1
19  mongodb:
20    imageType: ubi8
21    name: mongodb-community-server
22    repo: quay.io/mongodb
23  registry:
24    agent: quay.io/mongodb
25  resource:
26    members: 3
27    name: mongodb-replica-set
28    tls:
29      caCertificateSecretRef: tls-ca-key-pair
30      certManager:
31        certDuration: 8760h
32        renewCertBefore: 720h
33      certificateKeySecretRef: tls-certificate
34      enabled: false
35      sampleX509User: false
36      useCertManager: true
37      useX509: false
38    version: 4.4.0
39database:
40  name: mongodb-kubernetes-database
41  version: 1.6.0
42initAppDb:
43  name: mongodb-kubernetes-init-appdb
44  version: 1.6.0
45initDatabase:
46  name: mongodb-kubernetes-init-database
47  version: 1.6.0
48initOpsManager:
49  name: mongodb-kubernetes-init-ops-manager
50  version: 1.6.0
51managedSecurityContext: false
52mongodb:
53  appdbAssumeOldFormat: false
54  imageType: ubi8
55  name: mongodb-enterprise-server
56  repo: quay.io/mongodb
57multiCluster:
58  clusterClientTimeout: 10
59  clusters: []
60  kubeConfigSecretName: mongodb-enterprise-operator-multi-cluster-kubeconfig
61  performFailOver: true
62operator:
63  additionalArguments: []
64  affinity: {}
65  baseName: mongodb-kubernetes
66  createOperatorServiceAccount: true
67  createResourcesServiceAccountsAndRoles: true
68  deployment_name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
69  enableClusterMongoDBRoles: true
70  enablePVCResize: true
71  env: prod
72  maxConcurrentReconciles: 1
73  mdbDefaultArchitecture: non-static
74  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
75  nodeSelector: {}
76  operator_image_name: mongodb-kubernetes
77  podSecurityContext:
78    runAsNonRoot: true
79    runAsUser: 2000
80  replicas: 1
81  resources:
82    limits:
83      cpu: 1100m
84      memory: 1Gi
85    requests:
86      cpu: 500m
87      memory: 200Mi
88  securityContext: {}
89  telemetry:
90    collection:
91      clusters: {}
92      deployments: {}
93      frequency: 1h
94      operators: {}
95    send:
96      frequency: 168h
97  tolerations: []
98  vaultSecretBackend:
99    enabled: false
100    tlsSecretRef: ""
101  version: 1.6.0
102  watchedResources:
103  - mongodb
104  - opsmanagers
105  - mongodbusers
106  - mongodbcommunity
107  - mongodbsearch
108  webhook:
109    installClusterRole: true
110    registerConfiguration: true
111opsManager:
112  name: mongodb-enterprise-ops-manager-ubi
113readinessProbe:
114  name: mongodb-kubernetes-readinessprobe
115  version: 1.0.23
116registry:
117  agent: quay.io/mongodb
118  database: quay.io/mongodb
119  imagePullSecrets: null
120  initAppDb: quay.io/mongodb
121  initDatabase: quay.io/mongodb
122  initOpsManager: quay.io/mongodb
123  operator: quay.io/mongodb
124  opsManager: quay.io/mongodb
125  pullPolicy: Always
126  readinessProbe: quay.io/mongodb
127  versionUpgradeHook: quay.io/mongodb
128search:
129  name: mongodb-search
130  repo: quay.io/mongodb
131  version: 0.55.0
132versionUpgradeHook:
133  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-version-upgrade-post-start-hook
134  version: 1.0.10
135
136HOOKS:
137MANIFEST:
138---
139# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/database-roles.yaml
140apiVersion: v1
141kind: ServiceAccount
142metadata:
143  name: mongodb-kubernetes-appdb
144  namespace: mongodb
145---
146# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/database-roles.yaml
147apiVersion: v1
148kind: ServiceAccount
149metadata:
150  name: mongodb-kubernetes-database-pods
151  namespace: mongodb
152---
153# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/database-roles.yaml
154apiVersion: v1
155kind: ServiceAccount
156metadata:
157  name: mongodb-kubernetes-ops-manager
158  namespace: mongodb
159---
160# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-sa.yaml
161apiVersion: v1
162kind: ServiceAccount
163metadata:
164  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
165  namespace: mongodb
166---
167# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-clustermongodbroles.yaml
168kind: ClusterRole
169apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
170metadata:
171  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-cluster-mongodb-role
172rules:
173  - apiGroups:
174      - mongodb.com
175    verbs:
176      - '*'
177    resources:
178      - clustermongodbroles
179---
180# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-telemetry.yaml
181# Additional ClusterRole for clusterVersionDetection
182kind: ClusterRole
183apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
184metadata:
185  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-cluster-telemetry
186rules:
187  # Non-resource URL permissions
188  - nonResourceURLs:
189      - "/version"
190    verbs:
191      - get
192  # Cluster-scoped resource permissions
193  - apiGroups:
194      - ''
195    resources:
196      - namespaces
197    resourceNames:
198      - kube-system
199    verbs:
200      - get
201  - apiGroups:
202      - ''
203    resources:
204      - nodes
205    verbs:
206      - list
207---
208# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-webhook.yaml
209kind: ClusterRole
210apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
211metadata:
212  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-webhook-cr
213rules:
214  - apiGroups:
215      - "admissionregistration.k8s.io"
216    resources:
217      - validatingwebhookconfigurations
218    verbs:
219      - get
220      - create
221      - update
222      - delete
223  - apiGroups:
224      - ""
225    resources:
226      - services
227    verbs:
228      - get
229      - list
230      - watch
231      - create
232      - update
233      - delete
234---
235# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-clustermongodbroles.yaml
236kind: ClusterRoleBinding
237apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
238metadata:
239  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-cluster-mongodb-role-binding
240roleRef:
241  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
242  kind: ClusterRole
243  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-cluster-mongodb-role
244subjects:
245  - kind: ServiceAccount
246    name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
247    namespace: mongodb
248---
249# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-telemetry.yaml
250# ClusterRoleBinding for clusterVersionDetection
251kind: ClusterRoleBinding
252apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
253metadata:
254  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-cluster-telemetry-binding
255roleRef:
256  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
257  kind: ClusterRole
258  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-cluster-telemetry
259subjects:
260  - kind: ServiceAccount
261    name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
262    namespace: mongodb
263---
264# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-webhook.yaml
265kind: ClusterRoleBinding
266apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
267metadata:
268  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-webhook-crb
269roleRef:
270  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
271  kind: ClusterRole
272  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-mongodb-webhook-cr
273subjects:
274  - kind: ServiceAccount
275    name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
276    namespace: mongodb
277---
278# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/database-roles.yaml
279kind: Role
280apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
281metadata:
282  name: mongodb-kubernetes-appdb
283  namespace: mongodb
284rules:
285  - apiGroups:
286      - ''
287    resources:
288      - secrets
289    verbs:
290      - get
291  - apiGroups:
292      - ''
293    resources:
294      - pods
295    verbs:
296      - patch
297      - delete
298      - get
299---
300# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-base.yaml
301kind: Role
302apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
303metadata:
304  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
305  namespace: mongodb
306rules:
307  - apiGroups:
308      - ''
309    resources:
310      - services
311    verbs:
312      - get
313      - list
314      - watch
315      - create
316      - update
317      - delete
318  - apiGroups:
319      - ''
320    resources:
321      - secrets
322      - configmaps
323    verbs:
324      - get
325      - list
326      - create
327      - update
328      - delete
329      - watch
330  - apiGroups:
331      - apps
332    resources:
333      - statefulsets
334    verbs:
335      - create
336      - get
337      - list
338      - watch
339      - delete
340      - update
341  - apiGroups:
342      - ''
343    resources:
344      - pods
345    verbs:
346      - get
347      - list
348      - watch
349      - delete
350      - deletecollection
351  - apiGroups:
352      - mongodbcommunity.mongodb.com
353    resources:
354      - mongodbcommunity
355      - mongodbcommunity/status
356      - mongodbcommunity/spec
357      - mongodbcommunity/finalizers
358    verbs:
359      - '*'
360  - apiGroups:
361      - mongodb.com
362    verbs:
363      - '*'
364    resources:
365      - mongodb
366      - mongodb/finalizers
367      - mongodbusers
368      - mongodbusers/finalizers
369      - opsmanagers
370      - opsmanagers/finalizers
371      - mongodbmulticluster
372      - mongodbmulticluster/finalizers
373      - mongodbsearch
374      - mongodbsearch/finalizers
375      - mongodb/status
376      - mongodbusers/status
377      - opsmanagers/status
378      - mongodbmulticluster/status
379      - mongodbsearch/status
380---
381# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-pvc-resize.yaml
382kind: Role
383apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
384metadata:
385  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-pvc-resize
386  namespace: mongodb
387rules:
388  - apiGroups:
389      - ''
390    resources:
391      - persistentvolumeclaims
392    verbs:
393      - get
394      - delete
395      - list
396      - watch
397      - patch
398      - update
399---
400# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/database-roles.yaml
401kind: RoleBinding
402apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
403metadata:
404  name: mongodb-kubernetes-appdb
405  namespace: mongodb
406roleRef:
407  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
408  kind: Role
409  name: mongodb-kubernetes-appdb
410subjects:
411  - kind: ServiceAccount
412    name: mongodb-kubernetes-appdb
413    namespace: mongodb
414---
415# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-base.yaml
416kind: RoleBinding
417apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
418metadata:
419  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
420  namespace: mongodb
421roleRef:
422  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
423  kind: Role
424  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
425subjects:
426  - kind: ServiceAccount
427    name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
428    namespace: mongodb
429---
430# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator-roles-pvc-resize.yaml
431kind: RoleBinding
432apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
433metadata:
434  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-pvc-resize-binding
435  namespace: mongodb
436roleRef:
437  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
438  kind: Role
439  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator-pvc-resize
440subjects:
441  - kind: ServiceAccount
442    name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
443    namespace: mongodb
444---
445# Source: mongodb-kubernetes/templates/operator.yaml
446apiVersion: apps/v1
447kind: Deployment
448metadata:
449  name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
450  namespace: mongodb
451spec:
452  replicas: 1
453  selector:
454    matchLabels:
455      app.kubernetes.io/component: controller
456      app.kubernetes.io/name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
457      app.kubernetes.io/instance: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
458  template:
459    metadata:
460      labels:
461        app.kubernetes.io/component: controller
462        app.kubernetes.io/name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
463        app.kubernetes.io/instance: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
464    spec:
465      serviceAccountName: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
466      securityContext:
467        runAsNonRoot: true
468        runAsUser: 2000
469      containers:
470        - name: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
471          image: "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes:1.6.0"
472          imagePullPolicy: Always
473          args:
474            - -watch-resource=mongodb
475            - -watch-resource=opsmanagers
476            - -watch-resource=mongodbusers
477            - -watch-resource=mongodbcommunity
478            - -watch-resource=mongodbsearch
479            - -watch-resource=clustermongodbroles
480          command:
481            - /usr/local/bin/mongodb-kubernetes-operator
482          resources:
483            limits:
484              cpu: 1100m
485              memory: 1Gi
486            requests:
487              cpu: 500m
488              memory: 200Mi
489          env:
490            - name: OPERATOR_ENV
491              value: prod
492            - name: MDB_DEFAULT_ARCHITECTURE
493              value: non-static
494            - name: NAMESPACE
495              valueFrom:
496                fieldRef:
497                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
498            - name: WATCH_NAMESPACE
499              valueFrom:
500                fieldRef:
501                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
502            - name: MDB_OPERATOR_TELEMETRY_COLLECTION_FREQUENCY
503              value: "1h"
504            - name: MDB_OPERATOR_TELEMETRY_SEND_FREQUENCY
505              value: "168h"
506            - name: CLUSTER_CLIENT_TIMEOUT
507              value: "10"
508            - name: IMAGE_PULL_POLICY
509              value: Always
510            # Database
511            - name: MONGODB_ENTERPRISE_DATABASE_IMAGE
512              value: quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes-database
513            - name: INIT_DATABASE_IMAGE_REPOSITORY
514              value: quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes-init-database
515            - name: INIT_DATABASE_VERSION
516              value: "1.6.0"
517            - name: DATABASE_VERSION
518              value: "1.6.0"
519            # Ops Manager
520            - name: OPS_MANAGER_IMAGE_REPOSITORY
521              value: quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-enterprise-ops-manager-ubi
522            - name: INIT_OPS_MANAGER_IMAGE_REPOSITORY
523              value: quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes-init-ops-manager
524            - name: INIT_OPS_MANAGER_VERSION
525              value: "1.6.0"
526            # AppDB
527            - name: INIT_APPDB_IMAGE_REPOSITORY
528              value: quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes-init-appdb
529            - name: INIT_APPDB_VERSION
530              value: "1.6.0"
531            - name: OPS_MANAGER_IMAGE_PULL_POLICY
532              value: Always
533            - name: AGENT_IMAGE
534              value: "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-agent:108.0.12.8846-1"
535            - name: MDB_AGENT_IMAGE_REPOSITORY
536              value: "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-agent"
537            - name: MONGODB_IMAGE
538              value: mongodb-enterprise-server
539            - name: MONGODB_REPO_URL
540              value: quay.io/mongodb
541            - name: MDB_IMAGE_TYPE
542              value: ubi8
543            - name: PERFORM_FAILOVER
544              value: 'true'
545            - name: MDB_MAX_CONCURRENT_RECONCILES
546              value: "1"
547            - name: POD_NAME
548              valueFrom:
549                fieldRef:
550                  fieldPath: metadata.name
551            - name: OPERATOR_NAME
552              value: mongodb-kubernetes-operator
553            # Community Env Vars Start
554            - name: MDB_COMMUNITY_AGENT_IMAGE
555              value: "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-agent:108.0.2.8729-1"
556            - name: VERSION_UPGRADE_HOOK_IMAGE
557              value: "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes-operator-version-upgrade-post-start-hook:1.0.10"
558            - name: READINESS_PROBE_IMAGE
559              value: "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-kubernetes-readinessprobe:1.0.23"
560            - name: MDB_COMMUNITY_IMAGE
561              value: "mongodb-community-server"
562            - name: MDB_COMMUNITY_REPO_URL
563              value: "quay.io/mongodb"
564            - name: MDB_COMMUNITY_IMAGE_TYPE
565              value: "ubi8"
566            # Community Env Vars End
567            - name: MDB_SEARCH_REPO_URL
568              value: "quay.io/mongodb"
569            - name: MDB_SEARCH_NAME
570              value: "mongodb-search"
571            - name: MDB_SEARCH_VERSION
572              value: "0.55.0"

The preceding command installs Kubernetes Operator in the mongodb namespace, which it creates if it doesn't already exist. After installation, the Kubernetes Operator watches for MongoDBSearch custom resources and manage the lifecycle of your MongoDB Search and Vector Search deployments.

Install MongoDB Search and Vector Search

1

Required. Create and load the MongoDB user secrets.

The mongot process requires authentication credentials to connect to your external MongoDB deployment for creating search indexes and running search queries. This step creates the following Kubernetes secrets:

  • mdb-admin-user-password - credentials for the MongoDB administrator.

  • mdb-user-password - credentials for the user authorized to perform search queries.

  • mdbc-rs-search-sync-source-password - credentials for a dedicated search user used internally by the mongot process to synchronize data and manage indexes.

Kubernetes Operator mounts these secrets into the MongoDB pods.

To create the secrets, copy, paste, and run the following in the namespace where you plan to deploy MongoDB Search and Vector Search:

1# Create admin user secret
2kubectl create secret generic mdb-admin-user-password \
3  --from-literal=password="${MDB_ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD}" \
4  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply --context "${K8S_CTX}" --namespace "${MDB_NS}" -f -
5
6# Create search sync source user secret
7kubectl create secret generic "${MDB_RESOURCE_NAME}-search-sync-source-password" \
8  --from-literal=password="${MDB_SEARCH_SYNC_USER_PASSWORD}" \
9  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply --context "${K8S_CTX}" --namespace "${MDB_NS}" -f -
10
11# Create regular user secret
12kubectl create secret generic mdb-user-password \
13  --from-literal=password="${MDB_USER_PASSWORD}" \
14  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply --context "${K8S_CTX}" --namespace "${MDB_NS}" -f -
15
16echo "User secrets created."
1secret/mdb-admin-user-password created
2secret/mdbc-rs-search-sync-source-password created
3secret/mdb-user-password created
2

Required. Create and deploy the resource for MongoDB Search and Vector Search.

You can deploy one instance of the search node without any load balancing. To deploy, complete the following steps:

  1. Create a MongoDBSearch custom resource named mdbs.

    This resource contains the following:

    spec.source.external.hostAndPorts

    List of external MongoDB replica set members.

    spec.source.username

    Search synchronization user username.

    spec.source.passwordSecretRef

    Search synchronization user password.

    spec.source.external.tls.ca.name

    Configures MongoDBSearch pods to trust the external database. It points to the Kubernetes secret that contains the public CA certificate for your external MongoDB.

    spec.security.tls.certificateKeySecretRef.name

    Secures the MongoDBSearch service. It points to the Kubernetes secret containing the TLS server certificate and private key that the MongoDBSearch pods will present to incoming clients.

    spec.resourceRequirements

    CPU and memory resource requirements for the search container.

    To learn more about the settings in this custom resource, see MongoDB Search and Vector Search Settings.

    1kubectl apply --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" -f - <<EOF
    2apiVersion: mongodb.com/v1
    3kind: MongoDBSearch
    4metadata:
    5  name: ${MDB_SEARCH_RESOURCE_NAME:-mdbs}
    6spec:
    7  source:
    8    external:
    9      hostAndPorts:
    10        - ${MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_0}
    11        - ${MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_1}
    12        - ${MDB_EXTERNAL_HOST_2}
    13      tls:
    14        ca:
    15          name: ${MDB_TLS_CA_SECRET_NAME}
    16    username: search-sync-source
    17    passwordSecretRef:
    18      name: ${MDB_RESOURCE_NAME}-search-sync-source-password
    19      key: password
    20  security:
    21    tls:
    22      certificateKeySecretRef:
    23        name: ${MDB_SEARCH_TLS_SECRET_NAME}
    24  resourceRequirements:
    25    limits:
    26      cpu: "3"
    27      memory: 5Gi
    28    requests:
    29      cpu: "2"
    30      memory: 3Gi
    31EOF

  2. Wait for the MongoDBSearch resource deployment to complete.

    When you apply the MongoDBSearch custom resource, the Kubernetes operator begins deploying the search nodes (pods). This step pauses the execution until the mdbs resource's status phase is Running, which indicates that the MongoDB Search StatefulSet is operational.

    1echo "Waiting for MongoDBSearch resource to reach Running phase..."
    2
    3kubectl --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" wait --for=jsonpath='{.status.phase}'=Running mdbs/"${MDB_SEARCH_RESOURCE_NAME:-mdbs}" --timeout=300s
3

Required. Configure external access for MongoDB Search and Vector Search.

To enable your external MongoDB instances to connect to the search service, you must configure external access for MongoDB Search and Vector Search. You can create a LoadBalancer Service that exposes the search pods outside the Kubernetes cluster.

This following service exposes the MongoDBSearch service on port 27028 with an external IP address or hostname that can be accessed from outside the Kubernetes cluster.

1kubectl apply --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" -f - <<YAML
2apiVersion: v1
3kind: Service
4metadata:
5  name: ${MDB_SEARCH_SERVICE_NAME}
6spec:
7  type: LoadBalancer
8  selector:
9    app: ${MDB_SEARCH_RESOURCE_NAME:-mdbs}-search-svc
10  ports:
11    - name: mongot
12      port: 27028
13      targetPort: 27028
14YAML
15
16echo "Waiting for external IP to be assigned to service ${MDB_SEARCH_SERVICE_NAME}..."
17TIMEOUT=120  # 2 minutes timeout
18ELAPSED=0
19while [ ${ELAPSED} -lt ${TIMEOUT} ]; do
20  EXTERNAL_IP=$(kubectl get service "${MDB_SEARCH_SERVICE_NAME}" --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}' 2>/dev/null)
21  if [ -n "${EXTERNAL_IP}" ] && [ "${EXTERNAL_IP}" != "null" ]; then
22    echo "External IP assigned: ${EXTERNAL_IP}"
23    break
24  fi
25  echo "Still waiting for external IP assignment... (${ELAPSED}s/${TIMEOUT}s)"
26  sleep 5
27  ELAPSED=$((ELAPSED + 5))
28done
29
30if [ ${ELAPSED} -ge ${TIMEOUT} ]; then
31  echo "ERROR: Timeout reached (${TIMEOUT}s) while waiting for external IP assignment"
32  echo "LoadBalancer service may take longer to provision or there may be an issue"
33  exit 1
34fi
4

Optional. View all the running pods in your namespace.

View all the running pods in your namespace pods for the MongoDB replica set members, the MongoDB Controllers for Kubernetes Operator, and the Search nodes.

1echo; echo "MongoDBSearch resource"
2kubectl --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" get mdbs/mdbs
3echo; echo "Search pods running in cluster ${K8S_CTX}"
4kubectl --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" get pods -l app=mdbs-search-svc
5echo; echo "All pods in namespace ${MDB_NS}"
6kubectl --context "${K8S_CTX}" -n "${MDB_NS}" get pods
1MongoDBSearch resource
2NAME   PHASE     VERSION   AGE
3mdbs   Running   0.55.0    34s
4
5Search pods running in cluster kind-kind
6NAME            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
7mdbs-search-0   1/1     Running   0          34s
8
9All pods in namespace mongodb
10NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
11mdbc-rs-0                                     2/2     Running   0          3m4s
12mdbc-rs-1                                     2/2     Running   0          2m1s
13mdbc-rs-2                                     2/2     Running   0          73s
14mdbs-search-0                                 1/1     Running   0          34s
15mongodb-kubernetes-operator-8d9b999b7-26xgz   1/1     Running   0          3m28s

Next Steps

Now that you've successfully deployed MongoDB Search and Vector Search to use with external MongoDB Enterprise Edition, you can add data into your MongoDB cluster, create MongoDB Search and Vector Search indexes, and run queries against your data. To learn more, see MongoDB Search and Vector Search Settings.

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