MongoDB Atlas is a developer-oriented cloud service provided by MongoDB. It is open-source in nature and is a NoSQL database. MongoDB Atlas has dynamic schemas which use JSON documents, and it acts as an alternative for table-type databases like SQL.
In MongoDB Atlas, automation of administrative tasks like patches, backups, scaling events, infrastructure provisioning, database configuration, etc., along with all the features of MongoDB, are provided.
By using MongoDB Atlas, developers can better focus on developing Apps rather than wasting their time on managing databases. The MongoDB Atlas is available on Google Cloud Platform, Azure, AWS, etc.
Features of MongoDB
Some of the amazing features of MongoDB Atlas include compliance, scalability, availability, and best-in-class automation. MongoDB Atlas lets us use the complete ecosystem of MongoDB’s integrations, drivers, and tools to save time and make database management relatively easy.
Advantages of MongoDB Atlas
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Manages Operational Efficiency
MongoDB Atlas comes in with the best built-in operational practices to accelerate the application development process and deliver good business value instead of just focusing on managing databases.
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Secures Sensitive Data
MongoDB Atlas provides built-in controls for all our data along with compliance standards and existing protocols for security integration with enterprise-grade features.
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Helps Enable Developer Productivity
MongoDB Atlas provides a platform of services that makes it easier to secure, build, and extend applications that run on MongoDB. MongoDB atlas usually moves fast with general developer tools as well.
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Provides Mission-control Workload Reliability
MongoDB Atlas enables automated data recovery and distributed fault tolerance.
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Provides Optimal Performance
MongoDB Atlas makes it easy to induce database scaling in any desired direction. It provides real-time visibility into database metrics and performance optimization tools along with the existing developer resources into metrics of the database.
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Enables Creation of Global Clusters
In MongoDB Atlas, we are free to choose our desired cloud ecosystem and partner according to our business strategy.
How to Create an Atlas Account?
Now, let us see how to create an account on MongoDB Atlas.
Step 1: Visit the official MongoDB Atlas page to create a free-tier account.
Step 2: Click on Try Free, which will take you to a registration page. Create your account here by filling in details or Sign Up using Google.
Step 3: Accept the terms and conditions.
Step 4: Provide details of your project and press the Finish button.
Step 5: Choose and deploy a cloud database from the given types. These are low-cost and efficient to use. For now, let us choose the free shared tier.
Step 6: Create a cluster. Here, we get to choose between M0, M2, and M5 cluster tiers. Let us go for the shared cluster type.
Step 7: Choose a cloud provider and the desired region and click on Create Cluster.
Wait for the cluster to be created; it takes about 5 - 7 mins.
By visiting All Clusters, you will be able to see all the created Clusters. You can navigate to the current cluster to view its details and edit.
By visiting our current cluster, we notice that MongoDB Atlas has selected the M0 Sandbox by default, and through registration, MongoDB Atlas creates a default organization for us.
Now it's time to Whitelist our Connection IP Address of the MongoDB Atlas Cluster.
How to Whitelist Your Connection IP Address?
Before we learn how to whitelist your connection IP address, let us first understand what an IP address is.
An IP Address provides a unique identifier to the network connecting device.
Atlas allows only clusters from trusted IP addresses to get connected. Known as Whitelist, an inventory of really trusted IP addresses is created to enable cluster connection and data access. Before connecting to our MongoDB Atlas cluster, we need to Whitelist our IP Address Connection.
The following steps are used to Whitelist IP Address Connection:
Step 1: Click on Connect in the cluster dashboard.
Step 2: Click on Add Your Current IP Address.
Step 3: Click on Add IP Address (we blurred our current IP Address for security reasons).
How to Create a MongoDB User for Your Cluster?
Now, before actually connecting our cluster to the MongoDB database, MongoDB Atlas requires us to create our MongoDB User authentication to access our created cluster.
MongoDB users are discrete from the MongoDB Atlas users in the following ways:
- MongoDB Atlas users can log in to MongoDB Atlas but don't have access to their database.
- By contrast, MongoDB users can access all the databases hosted on MongoDB Atlas.
To create a MongoDB User, follow the below-given steps:
Step 1: From the Cluster View, click on Connect button.
Step 2: Add a username and password in the Create Database User section.
Step 3: Click on Create Database User.
The Database User is now created.
How to Connect to Clusters?
Now let us proceed to connect the MongoDB cluster. Follow the given steps to connect to the created cluster:
Step 1: Click on Connect on the Cluster dashboard.
Step 2: Click on Connect with the MongoDB Shell.
Step 3: If you do not have MongoDB shell installed, click on the left bar.
Step 4: Select your operating system and click on download.
Step 5: Now extract the MongoDB zip file and add the system path of the MongoDB Shell path in the system environment variables as shown below.
Step 6: To check if the MongoDB shell is correctly installed in your computer, run the following command in your command prompt (cmd)-
mongosh - - v
Step 7: Now go back to your Cluster view and select “I have MongoDB shell installed”.
Step 8: Copy the given connection string, paste it in the cmd and run it.
Step 9: Enter the MongoDB database password to proceed.
Now that our connection is made let us interact with this MongoDB cluster.
Insert and View Data in Your Cluster
For interacting with the MongoDB cluster, we need to use the Data Explorer of MongoDB Atlas.
Data Explorer helps us to create, view, and drop databases. We can edit, delete and insert documents and run and create aggregation pipelines to process our data. Data Explorer allows us to access and manage data inside our clusters, unlike MongoDB Compass.
We will insert and view data in our MongoDB Atlas Cluster using the MongoDB shell in the following steps.
First, let us sample the data set into the cluster.
Insert
Step 1: Switch to a new database called mongoTesting by using the following command.
use mongoTesting
Step 2: Insert a document into your current database.
Run the following command in the mongoTesting to insert a document into your database.
db.people.insertOne({
name: { first: 'Elon', last: 'Musk’ }
})
The Shell displays the following output:
{
acknowledged: true,
insertedId: ObjectId("61b43e9c7d9d9a5a9d874477")
}
Now, let us proceed to view this inserted data in our database.
View Data
Step 1: The following command searches the people collection of our inserted data that have name.last value containing Musk :
db.people.find({ "name.last": "Musk" })
By running this command, the following output is displayed on the cmd:
[
{
_id: ObjectId("61b43e0f8636debd5084a258"),
name: { first: 'Elon', last: 'Musk' }
},
{
_id: ObjectId("61b43e9c7d9d9a5a9d874477"),
name: { first: 'Elon', last: 'Musk' }
}
]
Note that two object Ids are created for us since we inserted the data twice. In your case, you might only see a single object Id.
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MongoDB Atlas makes life easier for developers and businesses to create and maintain databases. Providing features like data security and operational efficiency helps developers focus more on application creation instead of maintaining databases.
To master and learn more about MongoDB Atlas and its related technologies in detail and become well versed to get into full-stack development, one might consider referring and learning in-depth from various resources, study materials, and course books.
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