Hosting MongoDB version 4 server on DigitalOcean

My gripe comes from the limitation with free tier and lower tiers of MongoDB Atlas. (Where can I host MongoDB with allowDiskUse=true?) So, I have decided to host my own MongoDB on DigitalOcean.

Setting up a droplet and installing MongoDB

So, this is the only relatively easy part. It can be installed with either

• One click install
• Setting up a server from scratch

Since one click install is too easy, yet I don't have a luck with it too much, I am not going to discuss this one. One click install comes with MongoDB 4 already.

To setup a server from scratch, I chose Ubuntu 19.04.

Then, choose a cheapest tier. This is hidden beneath the left arrow.

For authentication, use SSH. I am using macOS, so I can create SSH key with ssh-keygen -t rsa. After the code is generated, copy the key with cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, but cat doesn't work on my machine, so I use code (Visual Studio Code CLI) instead. (nano should also works.)

Then, press "Create".

Then, after the droplet is created, you will see the IP address. Log in to the server with the terminal.

ssh root@SERVER_IP_ADDRESS

To install MongoDB 4, follow the following steps -- , but if you have installed MongoDB 3, you have additional steps to take -- https://askubuntu.com/a/1054323/5156

Create users on MongoDB and set permissions

• Run mongo
• Create user "admin", by typing this in Mongo Shell

use admin
db.createUser(
  {
    user: "myUserAdmin",
    pwd: "abc123",
    roles: [ { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }, "readWriteAnyDatabase" ]
  }
)

• DO NOT shutdown the mongod instance
• Login to admin mongo --port 27017 -u "myUserAdmin" --authenticationDatabase "admin" -p
• Create additional users

use test
db.createUser(
  {
    user: "myTester",
    pwd: "xyz123",
    roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "test" },
             { role: "read", db: "reporting" } ]
  }
)

• nano /etc/mongod.conf, enable security:, and add authorization: enabled
• Allow your IP address on ufw
• If you use WiFi, or something that IP address varies, you might consider "Allow from anywhere"

That's it. Now you can login to MongoDB from outside via mongodb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@SERVER_IP_ADDRESS:27017/test

You might consider using SSH tunneling.