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Use an external cloud-based MongoDB with your installation

Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition requires you to install a database by default. You can optionally use an external database with your installation. This enables you to separate your data from node execution. To use an external MongoDB with your Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition installation, you must ensure that your hardware, software, and network meet the minimum requirements for installation and configuration. This tutorial describes how to configure an external cloud-based MongoDB for your installation.

Hardware requirements​

Harness recommends a MongoDB three member replica set configuration with the following minimum hardware:

  • Three nodes
  • Four CPU (3*4 = 12 CPU)
  • 16GB RAM (3*16 = 48GB RAM)
  • 100GB SSD data storage, depending on your requirements

Software requirements​

External database setup requires the following software:

Network requirements​

External database setup includes the following network requirements:

  • Your port must be open for bidirectional replication.

    note

    MongoDB uses default port 27017 to communicate between Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition and the database. MongoDB supports a wide range of ports, and you can use any supported MongoDB port range.

  • Your Kubernetes cluster and MongoDB backend must be on the same subnet.

  • You must have a reliable network connection between your MongoDB replica sets if your implementation is across multiple data centers.

Monitoring tools​

For MongoDB Enterprise Edition versions, Harness recommends Ops Manager for replica set management. Ops Manager is a MongoDB database management tool to monitor alerts, backup, and replica set management.

For MongoDB Community Editions versions, Harness recommends the following third-party monitoring tools:

  • Datadog/App Dynamics (alerts)
  • Percona (MongoDB management tool)
  • Mongodump/Mongorestore (backups)
  • Rubrik (cloud backups)
  • Custom tools

Required Helm configuration updates​

For external MongoDB support, update the following fields in your Helm values.yaml configuration files:

Global configuration​

global:
# -- provide overrides to use in-cluster database or configure to use external databases
  database:
    # -- settings to deploy mongo in-cluster or configure to use external mongo source
    mongo:
      # -- set false to configure external mongo and generate mongo uri protocol://hosts?extraArgs
      installed: true
      # -- set the protocol for mongo uri
      protocol: mongodb
      # --   set the mongo hosts if mongo.installed is set to false
      hosts: []
      # -- provide the secret name to reference mongo username and password
      secretName: ""
      # -- provide the userKey to reference mongo username
      userKey: ""
      # -- provide the passwordKey to reference mongo password
      passwordKey: ""
      # -- set additional arguments to mongo uri
      extraArgs: ""

Platform configuration​

platform:
  # -- Access control settings (taints, tolerations, and so on)
  access-control:
    # -- set mongoHosts for external database hosts
    # -- mongoHosts:
    # -- - replica1.host.com:27017
    # -- - replica2.host.com:27017
    # -- - replica3.host.com:27017
    mongoHosts: []
    # -- enable mongoSSL for external database connections
    mongoSSL:
      enabled: false

TLS support​

TLS is supported for Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition 0.13.0 or later with MongoDB Atlas using the mongodb+srv protocol. No additional change is required in the override.yaml file to enable TLS for MongoDB Atlas.

FAQs​

How do I resolve an out of sync issue?​

MongoDB automatically resolves out of sync issues, but manual intervention may be required for a full sync. For details, go to Resync a member of a replica set in the MongoDB documentation.

Does MongoDB support non-blocking secondary reads?​

Yes, MongoDB 4.0+ supports non-blocking secondary reads for analytic reports.

Do I need to manually create the MongoDB collection?​

No, Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition automatically creates any missing collection/indexes during each deployment.

What are the data retention limits?​

By default, Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition stores data for six months. Contact Harness Support if you require longer data retention.