MongoDB: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

Preface

How This Book Is Organized

This book is split up into six sections, covering development, administration, and deployment information.

Getting Started with MongoDB

In Chapter 1 we provide background on MongoDB: why it was created, the goals it is trying to accomplish, and why you might choose to use it for a project. We go into more detail in Chapter 2, which provides an introduction to the core concepts and vocabulary of MongoDB. Chapter 2 also provides a first look at working with MongoDB, getting you started with the database and the shell. The next two chapters cover the basic material that developers need to know to work with MongoDB. In Chapter 3, we describe how to perform those basic write operations, including how to do them with different levels of safety and speed. Chapter 4 explains how to find documents and create complex queries. This chapter also covers how to iterate through results and gives options for limiting, skipping, and sorting results.

Developing with MongoDB

Chapter 5 covers what indexing is and how to index your MongoDB collections. Chapter 6 explains how to use several special types of indexes and collections. Chapter 7 covers a number of techniques for aggregating data with MongoDB, including counting, finding distinct values, grouping documents, the aggregation framework, and writing these results to a collection. Chapter 8 introduces transactions: what they are, how best to use them for your application, and how to tune. Finally, this section finishes with a chapter on designing your application: Chapter 9 goes over tips for writing an application that works well with MongoDB.

Replication

The replication section starts with Chapter 10, which gives you a quick way to set up a replica set locally and covers many of the available configuration options. Chapter 11 then covers the various concepts related to replication. Chapter 12 shows how replication interacts with your application and Chapter 13 covers the administrative aspects of running a replica set.

Sharding

The sharding section starts in Chapter 14 with a quick local setup. Chapter 15 then gives an overview of the components of the cluster and how to set them up. Chapter 16 has advice on choosing a shard key for a variety of applications. Finally, Chapter 17 covers administering a sharded cluster.

Application Administration

The next two chapters cover many aspects of MongoDB administration from the perspective of your application. Chapter 18 discusses how to introspect what MongoDB is doing. Chapter 19 covers security in MongoDb and how to configure authentication as well as authorization for your deployment. Chapter 20 explains how MongoDB stores data durably.

Server Administration

The final section is focused on server administration. Chapter 21 covers common options when starting and stopping MongoDB. Chapter 22 discusses what to look for and how to read stats when monitoring. Chapter 23 describes how to take and restore backups for each type of deployment. Finally, Chapter 24 discusses a number of system settings to keep in mind when deploying MongoDB.

Appendixes

Appendix A explains MongoDB’s versioning scheme and how to install it on Windows, OS X, and Linux. Appendix B details how MongoDB works internally: its storage engine, data format, and wire protocol.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, collection names, database names, filenames, and file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, command-line utilities, environment variables, statements, and keywords.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.

Tip

This element signifies a tip or suggestion.

Note

This element signifies a general note.

Caution

This element indicates a warning or caution.

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