MongoDB Clusters

A MongoDB cluster is a group of servers working together to store data, handle queries, and provide high availability or horizontal scaling. Clusters allow MongoDB to operate beyond the limits of a single machine.

MongoDB offers two main cluster types: replica sets (for high availability) and sharded clusters (for horizontal scaling).

A database stores all the data in the form of collections and documents, while a cluster is the underlying group of servers that manages, replicates, or distributes that data.

You can create a MongoDB cluster using MongoDB Atlas by selecting a cloud provider, region, and cluster tier, then deploying it with a few simple-to-follow steps. For on‑prem setups, you configure either a replica set or a sharded cluster manually using mongod instances.