What is MongoDB?
  • What is MongoDB?Sep 30, 2022
  • What is MongoDB?MongoDB

What is MongoDB?

MongoDB is a document-oriented database program. It uses JSON-like documents and optional schemas to store data. It is a free software program developed by MongoDB Inc. and distributed under the Server Side Public License. However, several distributions consider this license to be non-free.

Documents are the basic unit of data in MongoDB

MongoDB is a NoSQL database that stores data as documents. Documents are flexible and allow users to perform ad hoc queries or regular expression searches. They also allow users to find specific fields within documents for easy searching. MongoDB also supports indexing, which helps speed up searches. Any field in a document can be indexed.

A document in MongoDB is stored in a database with a unique identifier called _id. This is similar to a string in relational databases. A document in MongoDB is a list of key-value pairs. The documents can also be grouped into collections. A collection in MongoDB is equivalent to a table in relational databases. A database can be stored on multiple servers and is called a MongoDB server.

MongoDB stores data records as BSON documents. This binary representation is similar to JSON but can contain more data types. For example, a name field can hold an embedded document, while a birth and death field can contain a Date type value. Another field, called contribs, can store an array of strings, while a view field can contain a NumberLong value.

Text search is a powerful feature of MongoDB

MongoDB's text search feature can be used to find documents by their content. It doesn't just return results in alphabetical order, but it also sorts documents based on their scores. You can use the $meta aggregation expression to sort documents in descending order by text score. You can also use the $text operator to assign a text score to each document based on its importance to your search query.

MongoDB's text search feature uses stemming techniques to identify specific words and phrases. This allows it to support more than 15 different languages. It also allows you to search for particular texts efficiently. To use text search, you must create a text index in your MongoDB database. This index is created using the createIndex() method.

Scalability

Scalability is one of the key features of MongoDB. Prior to version 3.0, MongoDB relied on horizontal scaling and neglected the need for vertical scalability. This was unfortunate, as MongoDB was originally designed for highly concurrent, web/application-driven businesses. Without vertical scalability, users were disenfranchised, and infrastructure complexity was multiplied.

As the amount of data generated by a business grows, the scalability of MongoDB is critical. With the ability to scale across multiple clouds, organizations can avoid the challenges of single cloud outages, and developers can easily migrate their applications from one cloud to another without downtime. This flexibility and scalability of MongoDB enable modern businesses to focus on the customer experience and not on the infrastructure of their application.

MongoDB supports horizontal scaling through sharding, which distributes data across several nodes within a cluster. Each replica set stores a small fraction of the data, and its size and storage capacity is determined by a collection sharding key. MongoDB can increase its write and read capacities by distributing data across multiple replica sets. This feature can also help reduce costs by allowing developers to use commodity hardware for their database clusters.

Authentication

Authentication in MongoDB allows you to restrict who can view and edit your data. You can create a user with a username and password and assign various roles. The data in MongoDB is stored in JSON-like documents, which means that if you add a new user, you will create a new document containing that user's data.

Authentication in MongoDB is supported by several methods, including x.509 authentication, RSA authentication, and key-based authentication. In addition to this, you can use a combination of authentication methods. For example, if your server supports Kerberos, you can use its keytab files as your authentication method. MongoDB supports multi-CA authentication, which means you can use one CA for client-server communications and another for internal cluster communications. The good thing about this approach is that you can easily change your certificate and Distinguished Name without stopping your cluster. However, you must note that by default, authentication is not supported, meaning anyone with access to your server can access your data. Therefore, you should ensure that you use the proper authentication methods to protect your data.

Encryption

MongoDB encryption is a powerful security feature that protects data at rest. It helps ensure compliance with various privacy and security standards. MongoDB's WiredTiger storage engine features native encryption, which means that encrypted data files can only be decoded by parties who have access to the encryption key.

Encryption in MongoDB is easy to use. The database provides several methods to encrypt data, including a simple command-line interface. In addition to the built-in security mechanisms, MongoDB also offers third-party encryption key management solutions. The MongoDB encryption guide will walk you through the basics of encrypting data in MongoDB.

MongoDB encryption works with AES256-GCM encryption, which requires the same secret key to decrypt data. Encryption in MongoDB is enabled using FIPS mode, ensuring that your database meets the highest security standards. The encrypted database files are stored in a database file. In addition to the database files, MongoDB also generates unique private encryption keys, which are paired with a master encryption key.

Conclusion
Techinaut
Divyanshu Sharma

Founder and CEO, Techinaut

“ MongoDB is a database system that supports horizontal scaling and high availability. This means that you can use more than one server without the risk of data loss or performance degradation. Its distributed architecture makes it easy to use more than one server, which helps you to reduce maintenance costs and improve performance. “