2.3. Basic administration

This chapter promised to be an introduction to MongoDB via the JavaScript shell. You’ve already learned the basics of data manipulation and indexing. Here I’ll present some techniques for getting information about your mongod process. For instance, you’ll probably want to know how much space your various collections are taking up or how many indexes you’ve defined on a given collection. The commands detailed here can take you a long way in helping you to diagnose performance issues and keep tabs on your data.

We’ll also look at MongoDB’s command interface. Most of the special, non-CRUD operations that can be performed on a MongoDB instance, from server status checks to data file integrity verification, are implemented using database commands. I’ll explain what commands are in the MongoDB context and show how easy they are to use. Finally, it’s always good to know where to look for help. To that end, I’ll point out some places in the shell where you can turn for help to further your exploration of MongoDB.