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Accepted
Pierre
Asked: 2011-07-16 07:55:37 +0800 CST

What is the safest way to change MongoDB server structure?

  • 772

I currently have a MongoDB replica set configured as such:

{
    "_id" : "ahspy_mongo_set",
    "version" : 13,
    "members" : [
            {
                    "_id" : 0,
                    "host" : "remotedatacenter.in.montreal.dns.com",
                    "priority" : 0
            },
            {
                    "_id" : 1,
                    "host" : "t1.micro.at.ec2.dns.com",
                    "arbiterOnly" : true
            },
            {
                    "_id" : 2,
                    "host" : "m1.xlarge.at.ec2.dns.com"
            }
    ]
}

So basically, one server at EC2 that backups up to another server in Montreal which, for multiple reasons, cannot become master.

I want to change my structure and I'm not sure where to start without causing a lot of trouble. In fact, I'm not even sure what I want to do is possible.

What I want to do is take the main DB server I have at EC2 (m1.xlarge) and turn it into 3 m1.large shards. So basically, go from:

  • Replica at EC2 (m1.xlarge)
  • Backup Replica in Montreal
  • Arbiter

to

  • Replica at EC2
    • Shard 1 (m1.large)
    • Shard 2 (m1.large)
    • Shard 3 (m1.large)
  • Backup Replica in Montreal
  • Arbiter

Is this possible? Can I shard the replica set in EC2 while keeping only one server in the replica in Montreal? If so, what's the proper way to do this? I'm having a real "Chicken and Egg" issue with Replication/Sharding in Mongo so any help would be appreciated.

Thank you very much :).

replication amazon-ec2 mongodb sharding

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Here's the basic steps:

    1. Start up mongos and config servers
    2. Make this replica set your first shard.
    3. Add shard 2
    4. Add shard 3

    You can't use your backup replica as backup for all of your shards: it's just backup for that one replica set.

    You should set up a separate replica set for each shard. If there's capacity for it on the Montreal server, you could put a backup member for shards 2 and 3 on that server, but they'd have to be separate mongod processes from the shard 1 member.

    • 3