This article describes in detail how to run Mongodb in docker. I am using wsl ubuntu 20.04 as my operating system.

Install docker

(If you already have docker installed, you can skip this step…)

For ubuntu, you can refer to this tutorial: Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu.

Check the version of docker.

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$ sudo docker --version
[sudo] password for pengfei:
Docker version 20.10.18, build b40c2f6

Download and run the mongo image

  1. Download the mongo image from docker hub

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    sudo docker pull mongo

  2. Make sure the mongo image is installed

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    $ sudo docker images
REPOSITORY    TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
mongo         latest    1cca5cf68239   2 days ago      695MB
hello-world   latest    feb5d9fea6a5   12 months ago   13.3kB

  3. Building a docker container

    Build the container with the downloaded mongo image and open port 27017 so that we can access the running mongo database service through the local port 27017, --name indicates the name of the container to be started.

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    $ sudo docker run -p 27017:27017 --name mongodb -d mongo

    After starting mongodb, the local machine can connect to localhost:27017 to access the database using a database visualization client such as studio 3T.

    View the running docker container.

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    $ sudo docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                           NAMES
a05a1533b628   mongo     "docker-entrypoint.s…"   17 minutes ago   Up 17 minutes   0.0.0.0:27017->27017/tcp, :::27017->27017/tcp   mongodb

    You can see that the mongodb container is running.

    Stop the mongo container from running.

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    $ sudo docker stop mongodb
mongodb

    Looking at all containers, including those that have not stopped running, you can see that STATUS is exited.

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    $ sudo docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE         COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                      PORTS     NAMES
a05a1533b628   mongo         "docker-entrypoint.s…"   22 minutes ago   Exited (0) 47 seconds ago             mongodb
849405137c9e   hello-world   "/hello"                 46 minutes ago   Exited (0) 46 minutes ago             wizardly_neumann

    Restart the container.

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    $ sudo docker start mongodb
mongodb

  4. Using volume to persist data

    Although mongodb is successfully started, the data inside the docker container will disappear every time the container is stopped. You can save the data by using volume so that the data can be restored and not lost after restarting the container next time.

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    $ sudo docker run -it -v mongo_volume:/data/db/mongo -p 27017:27017 --name mongodb -d mongo
a05a1533b6280d95fb625213c579228c627ace989f7b00ba1815b8e81f6c815b

    With the -v command, you can create and associate a volume, where the volume name is mongo_volume and the data storage location is /data/db/mongo.

    View all volumes.

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    $ sudo docker volume ls
DRIVER    VOLUME NAME
local     9cf22727a49818b76240fcfd16f0f017a46075974d84cca7b680d03022b1e605
local     58ee5403f72d36bc066757f3a4dc25867046d02acc7e6e69b52bfa530cbabb68
local     24553a91d0eafd60a73f23a65c0f463cb61cbf557ea64ab43d5b784d8a9622d9
local     b8783d382ad0f423ec3064d94401a968ab08f1c766a71f05cdaa17e5e384efc9
local     bffb4d18d9398a92711c3b121c327884e2b2f12ec175dbbb0d7611f526f6747c
local     d38c59edc35c306d7c3be775443b13d2dd7b925d56ad1c72ad3267dfb1b05842
local     mongo_volume