Add a MongoDB database instance

Monitor your MongoDB database instance with SolarWinds Observability SaaS on a dedicated host, or Atlas. Capture a robust assortment of MongoDB query metrics that give you insight into database performance and what consumes your database’s resources.

Get started

To monitor your MongoDB database instance with SolarWinds Observability SaaS, complete the following:

1. In SolarWinds Observability SaaS, click Add Data at the top.

2. On the Add Data dialog Intro, click Monitor my database performance.

3. Click MongoDB.

4. Choose an existing SolarWinds Observability Agent on a monitored host. Click Next to continue.

   For more information about installing the SolarWinds Observability Agent on your host, see Add a self-managed host or Run the SolarWinds Observability Agent as a Docker image or Kubernetes deployment.

   If the Agent you want to use is not displayed in the wizard, make sure it has host monitoring enabled. See Enable host monitoring on an Agent.

5. Enter your database credentials, enable SSL (optional), set your Packet Capture method, add any applicable tags (optional) and click Next:

   1. Enter the DBMS instance address, display name, database username, and database password for your database instance.

   2. Optional: To enable SSL, click the Enable SSL toggle and enter your credentials.

   3. Select the Packet Capture method from the drop-down menu (Log, Profiler, or Sniff).

   4. Optional: Click Add Tags to add any tags to your database entity. Enter a tag key and value, and then click Add Tag. Repeat this step as necessary for any tags you want to add.

   5. Click Next to continue.

   Npcap must be installed if you are monitoring databases for on-host data gathering on a Windows Installation. The On Host option is only available if you are monitoring a MongoDB Self-hosted instance.
   
   Choose Log to monitor queries using the log. Choose Profiler to monitor queries using the Profiler.
   

6. Copy and execute the script on your MongoDB instance. The user account created with this script will be used by the SolarWinds Observability Agent.

   1. Create a new database user - Copy and execute the db.createUser script to create a new user for the Agent to use. If you already have a user, you can skip this step.

   2. Grant Privileges - Copy and execute the script to grant database privileges for your user. Note that the Agent requires at least the listed privileges.

   3. Set Profiling Level - If you did not pick Log or Profiler you will not have to complete this step. Copy and execute the script to set the profling level on your database. The profiler captures and records data on the performance of write operations, cursors, and database commands on a running database instance.

   4. Save Operation Profiling Options - If you did not pick Profiler you will not have to complete this step. Copy the parameters in your mongod.conf file to specify the operations that should be profiled. Set these parameters in your mongod.conf file of your provider's equivalent.

   5. The Advanced Configuration field is optional. The field provides a metric agent configuration path for you to indicate a different config file that can add to or override the dbo-global.conf file.

      This field should be used if you need to monitor multiple database instances from the same host Agent and you want to provide different configuration file paths to each DBO plugin on that same host Agent. Enter any parameters for metric collection in the Metric Agent field.

      See Database configuration files for information about configuration options.

      The /etc/solarwinds/dbo-global.conf configuration file is used for all database hosts. If you don't need to override configuration options in the dbo-global.conf file for this database instance, you do not need to provide a configuration file path for the Metric Agent field.

      The config files are JSON. When editing or creating a new configuration file, be sure to include the opening and closing brackets" { " and " }" . All options must be comma-separated.

      For example, a file might look like the following:

      {

      "disable-sampling":"false",

      "enable-explains":"false"

      }

   6. Click Observe Database to continue.

7. The database plugin status and the other information you entered in the wizard is displayed on the Review tab.

   1. If your plugin deployment was unsuccessful, check the Agent status you entered in the wizard, and verify your database credentials. Click Test Connection to refresh your plugin connection.

   2. If your plugin deployment was successful, your database instance is being monitored with SolarWinds Observability.

   3. Click Close to exit the wizard.

To view data collected for the newly configured entity in the Entity Explorer, click the name of the Database Instance in the confirmation dialog in the lower-left corner. It may take a few seconds for data to appear for the newly created entity. See Entity Explorer for details.

See Entities in SolarWinds Observability SaaS for an overview of Database Instance entities and how they work in SolarWinds Observability SaaS.