This article will discuss launching and managing a new MongoDB instance using the Tesora Database as a Service Platform, which is based on OpenStack Trove. It’s designed to run on OpenStack, with the goal of allowing users to quickly and easily use the native features of a database without the burden of handling complex administrative tasks. Cloud users and database administrators can provision and manage multiple database instances as needed.

Step 1: First you will need to have Guest Images for each datastore and version. These images are loaded to OpenStack Glance (where virtual machine images are stored) and registered with Trove. Some guest images for development and testing are available for download from OpenStack at http://tarballs.openstack.org/trove/images/ubuntu. If you’re looking for more information, check out this article, Building a database guest image for OpenStack Trove.

Step 2: Next, using the Tesora DBaaS platform dashboard, log in as the admin user then select the “Datastores” tab. To create a new instance, simply click on the “Launch Instance” button which triggers a screen where you name the instance, then pick the flavor (the kind of machine or the virtual machine), the database instance size and type of database. Finally, click the “Launch” button and the instance is created.

Step 3: Next, click on “Create Database”, type in the name and you have your new MongoDB database. To create a user, click on the “Users” tab and then “Create User”. Type in the user name and password, then allow the user access by clicking on the pulldown to the far right and select “Manage Access”. On the next screen, click on “Grant Access” and you’re done.

Now that the database has been created, let’s look at how to manage your MongoDB instances.

Step 4: Go to the MongoDB database instance and select “Create Backup” on the far right. Type in the name and click on the “Backup” button to complete the process.

Step 5: Finally, let’s look at how to create a new instance from an existing backup. Click on “Launch Instance” and type in a new name, the flavor and volume as you did before but this time click on the “Advanced” tab. In the bottom box, choose the “Backup Name” you just created then click the “Launch” button.

It’s also possible to set up a configuration group where you have access to all of the parameters of the database.

Step 6: Start by choosing “Configuration Groups” from the menu and then select “Create Configuration Group”. Next, name the group, for example, “mongoconfig”. Now you’ll want to select “Add Parameter” and you’ll see a list of MongoDB parameters. You can define values for each. Once done, click on “Apply Changes” to save the configuration group.

Step 7: Here is how to apply the configuration group to another database instance. Select “Instances” then use the “Actions” pulldown on one of the database instances to select [FD1] [GR2] “Attach Configuration Group”. Select the group that you just created and choose “Attach Configuration”. This adds the configuration group to that database instance. To complete this, you will be prompted to click on “Restart Instance”.

You can see how easy it is to launch new MongoDB instances and manage those with the Tesora DBaaS platform — database as a service based on OpenStack Trove. We’ve created this “Configuring & Managing MongoDB Instances: Creating Database Instances” video demonstration so you can see for yourself.