Migrate a self-hosted MongoDB environment to MongoDB Atlas on AWS

Determine the cluster size.

Estimate the working set size by using the information from db.stats() for the total index space. Assume that a percentage of your data space will be accessed frequently. Or, you can estimate your memory requirements based on your own assumptions. This task should take approximately one week. For more information and examples for this and the other stories in this epic, see the Related resources section.

Estimate network bandwidth requirements.

To estimate your network bandwidth requirements, multiply the average document size by the number of documents served per second. Consider the maximum traffic that any node on your cluster will bear as the basis. To calculate downstream data transfer rates from your cluster to client applications, use the sum of the total documents returned over a period of time. If your applications read from secondary nodes, divide this number of total documents by the number of nodes that can serve read operations. To find the average document size for a database, use the db.stats().avgObjSize command. This task will typically take one day.

Select the Atlas tier.

Follow the instructions in the MongoDB documentation to select the correct Atlas cluster tier.

Plan for cutover.

Plan for application cutover.

Create a new MongoDB Atlas cluster on AWS.

Log in to Atlas and open the Overview page for your project. Choose the Create button to create a cluster. For more information, see the MongoDB documentation.

Select AWS Regions and global cluster configuration.

Select from the list of available AWS Regions for your Atlas cluster. Configure global clusters if required. For more information, see the MongoDB documentation.

Select the cluster tier.

Select your preferred cluster tier. Your tier selection determines factors such as memory, storage, and IOPS specification.

Configure additional cluster settings.

Configure additional cluster settings such as MongoDB version, backup, and encryption options. For more information about these options, see the Related resources section.

Authenticate and authorize users.

You must create and authenticate the database users who will access the MongoDB Atlas clusters. To access clusters in a project, users must belong to that project, and they can belong to multiple projects. Atlas also supports authentication based on AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). For more information, see the MongoDB documentation.

Create custom roles.

(Optional) Atlas supports creating custom roles in cases where the built-in Atlas database user permissions don’t cover the set of permissions you want.

Set up VPC peering.

(Optional) Atlas supports virtual private cloud (VPC) peering with other VPCs on AWS.

Set up an AWS PrivateLink endpoint.

(Optional) You can set up private endpoints on AWS by using AWS PrivateLink. For more information, see the Amazon VPC documentation.

Enable two-factor authentication.

(Optional) Atlas supports two-factor authentication (2FA) to help users control access to their Atlas accounts.

Set up user authentication and authorization with LDAP.

(Optional) Atlas supports performing user authentication and authorization with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

Set up unified AWS access.

(Optional) Some Atlas features, including Atlas Data Lake and encryption at rest using customer key management, use IAM roles for authentication.

Set up encryption at rest using AWS KMS.

(Optional) Atlas supports using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) to encrypt storage engines and cloud provider backups.

Set up client-side field-level encryption.

(Optional) Atlas supports client-side field level encryption, including automatic encryption of fields.

Select your target replica set in MongoDB Atlas.

Navigate to the destination Atlas cluster and choose the ellipsis (...) button. On the cluster list, this button appears below the cluster name. In cluster details, the button appears on the right, next to the Connect and Configuration buttons. For more information, see the MongoDB documentation.

Add the Atlas Live Migration Service to the access list.

Add the Atlas Live Migration Service to the access list in your AWS source cluster. This helps prepare the source environment to connect to the target Atlas cluster.

Perform migration with Atlas Live Migration Service.

Choose Start migration. When the Prepare to Cutover button turns green, perform the cutover. Review Atlas cluster performance metrics. Consider updating the database connection in all application layers to point to the new database.

Connect to the MongoDB Atlas cluster.

Make sure that MongoDB Atlas cluster connectivity works as expected.

Interact with cluster data.

Test the cluster data.

Monitor your clusters.

Verify that your clusters are set up correctly.

Back up and restore cluster data.

Schedule backups with a regular cadence for cluster data.