MongoDB

Monitor your MongoDB databases by collecting metrics using the OpenTelemetry Collector and sending them to Parseable.

Overview

The OpenTelemetry Collector's MongoDB receiver collects metrics from standalone MongoDB clusters including:

Server Statistics - Connections, operations, network traffic
Database Metrics - Document counts, storage sizes
Collection Metrics - Index usage, document operations
Replication Metrics - Replica set status and lag

Prerequisites

MongoDB 4.0+ (supports 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0)
OpenTelemetry Collector with mongodb receiver
Parseable instance running and accessible

Database User Setup

Create a monitoring user with the clusterMonitor role:

// Connect to admin database
use admin

// Create monitoring user
db.createUser({
  user: "otel",
  pwd: "your-secure-password",
  roles: [
    { role: "clusterMonitor", db: "admin" },
    { role: "read", db: "local" }
  ]
})

OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration

Basic Configuration

Create an otel-collector-config.yaml file:

receivers:
  mongodb:
    hosts:
      - endpoint: localhost:27017
    username: otel
    password: ${env:MONGODB_PASSWORD}
    collection_interval: 60s
    initial_delay: 1s
    tls:
      insecure: true

exporters:
  otlphttp/parseable:
    endpoint: "http://parseable:8000"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4="
      X-P-Stream: "mongodb-metrics"
      X-P-Log-Source: "otel-metrics"
    tls:
      insecure: true

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [mongodb]
      exporters: [otlphttp/parseable]

Replica Set Configuration

For monitoring MongoDB replica sets:

receivers:
  mongodb:
    hosts:
      - endpoint: mongo1:27017
      - endpoint: mongo2:27017
      - endpoint: mongo3:27017
    username: otel
    password: ${env:MONGODB_PASSWORD}
    replica_set: rs0
    collection_interval: 60s
    timeout: 1m
    tls:
      insecure: false
      insecure_skip_verify: false
      ca_file: /path/to/ca.crt

exporters:
  otlphttp/parseable:
    endpoint: "http://parseable:8000"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4="
      X-P-Stream: "mongodb-metrics"
      X-P-Log-Source: "otel-metrics"
    tls:
      insecure: true

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [mongodb]
      exporters: [otlphttp/parseable]

Configuration Options

Parameter	Default	Description
`hosts`	`localhost:27017`	List of MongoDB endpoints
`username`	-	Database username
`password`	-	Database password
`replica_set`	-	Replica set name for autodiscovery
`collection_interval`	`1m`	Metrics collection interval
`timeout`	`1m`	Command timeout
`direct_connection`	`false`	Disable autodiscovery
`tls.insecure`	-	Disable TLS

Collected Metrics

The MongoDB receiver collects the following metrics:

Metric	Description
`mongodb.cache.operations`	Cache operations count
`mongodb.collection.count`	Number of collections
`mongodb.connection.count`	Active connections
`mongodb.cursor.count`	Open cursors
`mongodb.cursor.timeout.count`	Timed out cursors
`mongodb.database.count`	Number of databases
`mongodb.document.operation.count`	Document operations
`mongodb.global_lock.time`	Global lock time
`mongodb.index.count`	Number of indexes
`mongodb.index.size`	Index size in bytes
`mongodb.memory.usage`	Memory usage
`mongodb.network.io.receive`	Network bytes received
`mongodb.network.io.transmit`	Network bytes transmitted
`mongodb.operation.count`	Operation counts by type
`mongodb.storage.size`	Storage size in bytes

Running the Collector

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name otel-collector \
  -v $(pwd)/otel-collector-config.yaml:/etc/otelcol/config.yaml \
  -e MONGODB_PASSWORD=your-password \
  otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest

Docker Compose

version: '3.8'
services:
  otel-collector:
    image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest
    volumes:
      - ./otel-collector-config.yaml:/etc/otelcol/config.yaml
    environment:
      - MONGODB_PASSWORD=${MONGODB_PASSWORD}
    depends_on:
      - mongodb
      - parseable

Querying MongoDB Metrics in Parseable

Once data is flowing, query your MongoDB metrics:

-- Get connection counts over time
SELECT p_timestamp, connection_count 
FROM "mongodb-metrics" 
ORDER BY p_timestamp DESC 
LIMIT 100

-- Find databases with high storage usage
SELECT database_name, storage_size, index_size
FROM "mongodb-metrics"
WHERE p_timestamp > NOW() - INTERVAL '1 hour'
ORDER BY storage_size DESC

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

If the collector can't connect to MongoDB:

Verify MongoDB is accepting connections on the configured port
Check the user has clusterMonitor role
Verify authentication database is correct (usually admin)
Check firewall rules allow the connection

Missing Metrics

If some metrics are not appearing:

Ensure the monitoring user has proper roles
Verify the replica set name is correct (if using replica sets)
Check timeout settings if MongoDB is slow to respond

Next Steps

Set up alerts for database performance thresholds
Create dashboards for MongoDB monitoring
Explore SQL queries for custom analysis

MongoDB

On this page