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mongod

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Synopsis

mongod is the primary daemon process for the MongoDB system. It handles data requests, manages data format, and performs background management operations.

This document provides a complete overview of all command line options for mongod. These options are primarily useful for testing purposes. In common operation, use the configuration file options to control the behavior of your database, which is fully capable of all operations described below.

Options

Core Options

--help, -h

Returns a basic help and usage text.

--version

Returns the version of the mongod daemon.

--config <filename>, -f <filename>

Specifies a configuration file, that you can use to specify runtime-configurations. While the options are equivalent and accessible via the other command line arguments, the configuration file is the preferred method for runtime configuration of mongod. See the Configuration File Options document for more information about these options.

Note

Ensure the configuration file uses ASCII encoding. mongod does not support configuration files with non-ASCII encoding, including UTF-8.

--verbose, -v

Increases the amount of internal reporting returned on standard output or in the log file specified by --logpath. Use the -v form to control the level of verbosity by including the option multiple times, (e.g. -vvvvv.)

--quiet

Runs the mongod instance in a quiet mode that attempts to limit the amount of output. This option suppresses:

--port <port>

Specifies a TCP port for the mongod to listen for client connections. By default mongod listens for connections on port 27017.

UNIX-like systems require root privileges to use ports with numbers lower than 1024.

--bind_ip <ip address>

The IP address that the mongod process will bind to and listen for connections. By default mongod listens for connections all interfaces. You may attach mongod to any interface; however, when attaching mongod to a publicly accessible interface ensure that you have implemented proper authentication and/or firewall restrictions to protect the integrity of your database.

--maxConns <number>

Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous connections that mongod will accept. This setting will have no effect if it is higher than your operating system’s configured maximum connection tracking threshold.

Note

You cannot set maxConns to a value higher than 20000.

--objcheck

Forces the mongod to validate all requests from clients upon receipt to ensure that clients never insert invalid documents into the database. For objects with a high degree of sub-document nesting, --objcheck can have a small impact on performance. You can set --noobjcheck to disable object checking at run-time.

Changed in version 2.4: MongoDB enables --objcheck by default, to prevent any client from inserting malformed or invalid BSON into a MongoDB database.

--noobjcheck

New in version 2.4.

Disables the default document validation that MongoDB performs on all incoming BSON documents.

--logpath <path>

Specify a path for the log file that will hold all diagnostic logging information.

Unless specified, mongod will output all log information to the standard output. Additionally, unless you also specify --logappend, the logfile will be overwritten when the process restarts.

Note

The behavior of the logging system may change in the near future in response to the SERVER-4499 case.

--logappend

When specified, this option ensures that mongod appends new entries to the end of the logfile rather than overwriting the content of the log when the process restarts.

--syslog

New in version 2.1.0.

Sends all logging output to the host’s syslog system rather than to standard output or a log file as with --logpath.

Important

You cannot use --syslog with --logpath.

--pidfilepath <path>

Specify a file location to hold the “PID” or process ID of the mongod process. Useful for tracking the mongod process in combination with the mongod --fork option.

Without a specified --pidfilepath option, mongos creates no PID file.

--keyFile <file>

Specify the path to a key file to store authentication information. This option is only useful for the connection between replica set members.

See also

Replica Set Security and Replica Set Tutorials.

--nounixsocket

Disables listening on the UNIX socket. mongod always listens on the UNIX socket, unless --nounixsocket is set, --bind_ip is not set, or --bind_ip does not specify 127.0.0.1.

--unixSocketPrefix <path>

Specifies a path for the UNIX socket. Unless this option has a value mongod creates a socket with /tmp as a prefix.

MongoDB will always create and listen on a UNIX socket, unless --nounixsocket is set, --bind_ip is not set, or --bind_ip does not specify 127.0.0.1.

--fork

Enables a daemon mode for mongod that runs the process to the background. This is the normal mode of operation, in production and production-like environments, but may not be desirable for testing.

--auth

Enables database authentication for users connecting from remote hosts. Configure users via the mongo shell. If no users exist, the localhost interface will continue to have access to the database until you create the first user.

See the Security and Authentication page for more information regarding this functionality.

--saslServiceName

New in version 2.4.6: Allows users to override the default Kerberos service name component of the Kerberos principal name, on a per-instance basis. If unspecified, the default value is mongodb.

Only settable during start-up. The setParameter command does not change this setting.

Only available on MongoDB Enterprise.

Important

Ensure that your driver supports alternate service names.

--cpu

Forces mongod to report the percentage of CPU time in write lock. mongod generates output every four seconds. MongoDB writes this data to standard output or the logfile if using the logpath option.

--dbpath <path>

Specify a directory for the mongod instance to store its data. Typical locations include: /srv/mongodb, /var/lib/mongodb or /opt/mongodb

Unless specified, mongod will look for data files in the default /data/db directory. (Windows systems use the \data\db directory.) If you installed using a package management system. Check the /etc/mongodb.conf file provided by your packages to see the configuration of the dbpath.

--diaglog <value>

Creates a very verbose, diagnostic log for troubleshooting and recording various errors. MongoDB writes these log files in the dbpath directory in a series of files that begin with the string diaglog and end with the initiation time of the logging as a hex string.

The specified value configures the level of verbosity. Possible values, and their impact are as follows.

Value Setting
0 off. No logging.
1 Log write operations.
2 Log read operations.
3 Log both read and write operations.
7 Log write and some read operations.

You can use the mongosniff tool to replay this output for investigation. Given a typical diaglog file, located at /data/db/diaglog.4f76a58c, you might use a command in the following form to read these files:

copy 
mongosniff --source DIAGLOG /data/db/diaglog.4f76a58c

--diaglog is for internal use and not intended for most users.

Warning

Setting the diagnostic level to 0 will cause mongod to stop writing data to the diagnostic log file. However, the mongod instance will continue to keep the file open, even if it is no longer writing data to the file. If you want to rename, move, or delete the diagnostic log you must cleanly shut down the mongod instance before doing so.

--directoryperdb

Alters the storage pattern of the data directory to store each database’s files in a distinct folder. This option will create directories within the --dbpath named for each database.

Use this option in conjunction with your file system and device configuration so that MongoDB will store data on a number of distinct disk devices to increase write throughput or disk capacity.

Warning

If you have an existing mongod instance and dbpath, and you want to enable --directoryperdb, you must migrate your existing databases to directories before setting --directoryperdb to access those databases.

Example

Given a dbpath directory with the following items:

copy 
journal
mongod.lock
local.0
local.1
local.ns
test.0
test.1
test.ns

To enable --directoryperdb you would need to modify the dbpath to resemble the following:

copy 
journal
mongod.lock
local/local.0
local/local.1
local/local.ns
test/test.0
test/test.1
test/test.ns
--journal

Enables operation journaling to ensure write durability and data file validity. mongod enables journaling by default on 64-bit builds of versions after 2.0.

--journalOptions <arguments>

Provides functionality for testing. Not for general use, and will affect data file integrity in the case of abnormal system shutdown.

--journalCommitInterval <value>

Specifies the maximum amount of time for mongod to allow between journal operations. Possible values are between 2 and 300 milliseconds. Lower values increase the durability of the journal, at the expense of disk performance.

The default journal commit interval is 100 milliseconds if a single block device (e.g. physical volume, RAID device, or LVM volume) contains both the journal and the data files.

If the journal is on a different block device than the data files the default journal commit interval is 30 milliseconds.

To force mongod to commit to the journal more frequently, you can specify j:true. When a write operation with j:true is pending, mongod will reduce journalCommitInterval to a third of the set value.

--ipv6

Specify this option to enable IPv6 support. This will allow clients to connect to mongod using IPv6 networks. mongod disables IPv6 support by default in mongod and all utilities.

--jsonp

Permits JSONP access via an HTTP interface. Consider the security implications of allowing this activity before enabling this option.

--noauth

Disable authentication. Currently the default. Exists for future compatibility and clarity.

--nohttpinterface

Disables the HTTP interface.

Note

In MongoDB Enterprise, the HTTP Console does not support Kerberos Authentication.

--nojournal

Disables the durability journaling. By default, mongod enables journaling in 64-bit versions after v2.0.

--noprealloc

Disables the preallocation of data files. This will shorten the start up time in some cases, but can cause significant performance penalties during normal operations.

--noscripting

Disables the scripting engine.

--notablescan

Forbids operations that require a table scan.

--nssize <value>

Specifies the default size for namespace files (i.e .ns). This option has no impact on the size of existing namespace files. The maximum size is 2047 megabytes.

The default value is 16 megabytes; this provides for approximately 24,000 namespaces. Each collection, as well as each index, counts as a namespace.

--profile <level>

Changes the level of database profiling, which inserts information about operation performance into output of mongod or the log file. The following levels are available:

Level Setting
0 Off. No profiling.
1 On. Only includes slow operations.
2 On. Includes all operations.

Profiling is off by default. Database profiling can impact database performance. Enable this option only after careful consideration.

--quota

Enables a maximum limit for the number data files each database can have. When running with --quota, there are a maximum of 8 data files per database. Adjust the quota with the --quotaFiles option.

--quotaFiles <number>

Modify limit on the number of data files per database. This option requires the --quota setting. The default value for --quotaFiles is 8.

--rest

Enables the simple REST API.

--repair

Runs a repair routine on all databases. This is equivalent to shutting down and running the repairDatabase database command on all databases.

Warning

During normal operations, only use the repairDatabase command and wrappers including db.repairDatabase() in the mongo shell and mongod --repair, to compact database files and/or reclaim disk space. Be aware that these operations remove and do not save any corrupt data during the repair process.

If you are trying to repair a replica set member, and you have access to an intact copy of your data (e.g. a recent backup or an intact member of the replica set), you should restore from that intact copy, and not use repairDatabase.

Note

When using journaling, there is almost never any need to run repairDatabase. In the event of an unclean shutdown, the server will be able restore the data files to a pristine state automatically.

Changed in version 2.1.2.

If you run the repair option and have data in a journal file, mongod refuses to start. In these cases you should start mongod without the --repair option to allow mongod to recover data from the journal. This completes more quickly and is more likely to produce valid data files.

To continue the repair operation despite the journal files, shut down mongod cleanly and restart with the --repair option.

Note

--repair copies data from the source data files into new data files in the repairpath, and then replaces the original data files with the repaired data files. If repairpath is on the same device as dbpath, you may interrupt a mongod running --repair without affecting the integrity of the data set.

--repairpath <path>

Specifies the root directory containing MongoDB data files, to use for the --repair operation. Defaults to a _tmp directory within the dbpath.

--setParameter <options>

New in version 2.4.

Specifies an option to configure on startup. Specify multiple options with multiple --setParameter options. See mongod Parameters for full documentation of these parameters. The setParameter database command provides access to many of these parameters. --setParameter supports the following options:

--slowms <value>

Defines the value of “slow,” for the --profile option. The database logs all slow queries to the log, even when the profiler is not turned on. When the database profiler is on, mongod the profiler writes to the system.profile collection. See the profile command for more information on the database profiler.

--smallfiles

Enables a mode where MongoDB uses a smaller default file size. Specifically, --smallfiles reduces the initial size for data files and limits them to 512 megabytes. --smallfiles also reduces the size of each journal files from 1 gigabyte to 128 megabytes.

Use --smallfiles if you have a large number of databases that each holds a small quantity of data. --smallfiles can lead your mongod to create a large number of files, which may affect performance for larger databases.

--shutdown

Used in control scripts, the --shutdown will cleanly and safely terminate the mongod process. When invoking mongod with this option you must set the --dbpath option either directly or by way of the configuration file and the --config option.

The --shutdown option is available only on Linux systems.

--syncdelay <value>

mongod writes data very quickly to the journal, and lazily to the data files. --syncdelay controls how much time can pass before MongoDB flushes data to the database files via an fsync operation. The default setting is 60 seconds. In almost every situation you should not set this value and use the default setting.

The serverStatus command reports the background flush thread’s status via the backgroundFlushing field.

syncdelay has no effect on the journal files or journaling.

Warning

If you set --syncdelay to 0, MongoDB will not sync the memory mapped files to disk. Do not set this value on production systems.

--sysinfo

Returns diagnostic system information and then exits. The information provides the page size, the number of physical pages, and the number of available physical pages.

--upgrade

Upgrades the on-disk data format of the files specified by the --dbpath to the latest version, if needed.

This option only affects the operation of mongod if the data files are in an old format.

Note

In most cases you should not set this value, so you can exercise the most control over your upgrade process. See the MongoDB release notes (on the download page) for more information about the upgrade process.

--traceExceptions

For internal diagnostic use only.

Replication Options

--replSet <setname>

Use this option to configure replication with replica sets. Specify a replica set name as an argument to this set. All hosts in the replica set must have the same set name.

Important

If your application connects to more than one replica set, each set should have a distinct name. Some drivers group replica set connections by replica set name.

See also

Replication, Replica Set Tutorials, and Replica Set Configuration

--oplogSize <value>

Specifies a maximum size in megabytes for the replication operation log (e.g. oplog.) By mongod creates an oplog based on the maximum amount of space available. For 64-bit systems, the op log is typically 5% of available disk space.

Once the mongod has created the oplog for the first time, changing --oplogSize will not affect the size of the oplog.

--fastsync

In the context of replica set replication, set this option if you have seeded this member with a snapshot of the dbpath of another member of the set. Otherwise the mongod will attempt to perform an initial sync, as though the member were a new member.

Warning

If the data is not perfectly synchronized and mongod starts with fastsync, then the secondary or slave will be permanently out of sync with the primary, which may cause significant consistency problems.

--replIndexPrefetch

New in version 2.2.

You must use --replIndexPrefetch in conjunction with replSet. The default value is all and available options are:

  • none
  • all
  • _id_only

By default secondary members of a replica set will load all indexes related to an operation into memory before applying operations from the oplog. You can modify this behavior so that the secondaries will only load the _id index. Specify _id_only or none to prevent the mongod from loading any index into memory.

Master-Slave Replication

These options provide access to conventional master-slave database replication. While this functionality remains accessible in MongoDB, replica sets are the preferred configuration for database replication.

--master

Configures mongod to run as a replication master.

--slave

Configures mongod to run as a replication slave.

--source <host><:port>

For use with the --slave option, the --source option designates the server that this instance will replicate.

--only <arg>

For use with the --slave option, the --only option specifies only a single database to replicate.

--slavedelay <value>

For use with the --slave option, the --slavedelay option configures a “delay” in seconds, for this slave to wait to apply operations from the master node.

--autoresync

For use with the --slave option. When set, --autoresync option allows this slave to automatically resync if it is more than 10 seconds behind the master. This setting may be problematic if the --oplogSize specifies a too small oplog. If the oplog is not large enough to store the difference in changes between the master’s current state and the state of the slave, this instance will forcibly resync itself unnecessarily. When you set the autoresync option to false, the slave will not attempt an automatic resync more than once in a ten minute period.

Sharding Cluster Options

--configsvr

Declares that this mongod instance serves as the config database of a sharded cluster. When running with this option, clients will not be able to write data to any database other than config and admin. The default port for a mongod with this option is 27019 and the default --dbpath directory is /data/configdb, unless specified.

Changed in version 2.2: --configsvr also sets --smallfiles.

Changed in version 2.4: --configsvr creates a local oplog.

Do not use --configsvr with --replSet or --shardsvr. Config servers cannot be a shard server or part of a replica set.

--shardsvr

Configures this mongod instance as a shard in a partitioned cluster. The default port for these instances is 27018. The only effect of --shardsvr is to change the port number.

--moveParanoia

New in version 2.4: MongoDB 2.4 does not specify --moveParanoia by default.

During chunk migrations, --moveParanoia forces the mongod instances to save all documents migrated from this shard in the moveChunk directory of the dbpath. MongoDB does not delete data from this directory.

Prior to 2.4, --moveParanoia behavior was the default behavior of MongoDB.

SSL Options

See

Connect to MongoDB with SSL for full documentation of MongoDB’s support.

--sslOnNormalPorts

New in version 2.2.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

Enables SSL for mongod. With --sslOnNormalPorts, a mongod requires SSL encryption for all connections on the default MongoDB port, or the port specified by --port. By default, --sslOnNormalPorts is disabled.

--sslPEMKeyFile <filename>

New in version 2.2.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

Specifies the .pem file that contains both the SSL certificate and key. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths

When using --sslOnNormalPorts, you must specify --sslPEMKeyFile.

--sslPEMKeyPassword <value>

New in version 2.2.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

Specifies the password to de-crypt the certificate-key file (i.e. --sslPEMKeyFile). Only use --sslPEMKeyPassword if the certificate-key file is encrypted. In all cases, mongod will redact the password from all logging and reporting output.

Changed in version 2.4: --sslPEMKeyPassword is only needed when the private key is encrypted. In earlier versions mongod would require --sslPEMKeyPassword whenever using --sslOnNormalPorts, even when the private key was not encrypted.

--sslCAFile <filename>

New in version 2.4.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

Specifies the .pem file that contains the root certificate chain from the Certificate Authority. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths

--sslCRLFile <filename>

New in version 2.4.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

Specifies the .pem file that contains the Certificate Revocation List. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths

--sslWeakCertificateValidation

New in version 2.4.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

Disables the requirement for SSL certificate validation, that --sslCAFile enables. With --sslWeakCertificateValidation, mongod will accept connections if the client does not present a certificate when establishing the connection.

If the client presents a certificate and mongod has --sslWeakCertificateValidation enabled, mongod will validate the certificate using the root certificate chain specified by --sslCAFile, and reject clients with invalid certificates.

Use --sslWeakCertificateValidation if you have a mixed deployment that includes clients that do not or cannot present certificates to mongod.

--sslFIPSMode

New in version 2.4.

Note

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for SSL. To use SSL you can either compile MongoDB with SSL support or use MongoDB Enterprise. See Connect to MongoDB with SSL for more information about SSL and MongoDB.

When specified, mongod will use the FIPS mode of the installed OpenSSL library. Your system must have a FIPS compliant OpenSSL library to use --sslFIPSMode.

Usage

In common usage, the invocation of mongod will resemble the following in the context of an initialization or control script:

copy 
mongod --config /etc/mongodb.conf

See the Configuration File Options for more information on how to configure mongod using the configuration file.

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