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Install MongoDB Community Edition on Windows

On this page

  • Overview
  • Considerations
  • Install MongoDB Community Edition
  • Run MongoDB Community Edition as a Windows Service
  • Run MongoDB Community Edition from the Command Interpreter
  • Additional Considerations

Note

MongoDB Atlas

MongoDB Atlas is a hosted MongoDB service option in the cloud which requires no installation overhead and offers a free tier to get started.

Use this tutorial to install MongoDB 7.0 Community Edition on Windows using the default installation wizard.

This tutorial installs MongoDB 7.0 Community Edition. To install a different version of MongoDB Community, use the version drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of this page to select the documentation for that version.

This tutorial installs MongoDB on Windows using the default MSI installation wizard. To install MongoDB using the msiexec.exe command-line tool instead, see Install MongoDB using msiexec.exe. The msiexec.exe tool is useful for system administrators who wish to deploy MongoDB in an unattended fashion using automation.

The MongoDB Shell (mongosh) is not installed with MongoDB Server. You need to follow the mongosh installation instructions to download and install mongosh separately.

MongoDB 7.0 Community Edition supports the following 64-bit versions of Windows on x86_64 architecture:

  • Windows Server 2022

  • Windows Server 2019

  • Windows 11

MongoDB only supports the 64-bit versions of these platforms.

For more information, see Platform Support.

Note

MongoDB is not supported on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). To run MongoDB on Linux, use a supported Linux system.

Oracle offers experimental support for VirtualBox on Windows hosts where Hyper-V is running. However, Microsoft does not support VirtualBox on Hyper-V.

Disable Hyper-V if you want to install MongoDB on Windows using VirtualBox.

Before deploying MongoDB in a production environment, consider the Production Notes document which offers performance considerations and configuration recommendations for production MongoDB deployments.

MongoDB logs diagnostic data to assist with troubleshooting. For detailed information, see Full Time Diagnostic Data Capture.

On Windows, to collect system data such as disk, cpu, and memory, FTDC requires Microsoft access permissions from the following groups:

  • Performance Monitor Users

  • Performance Log Users

If the user running mongod and mongos is not an administrator, add them to these groups to log FTDC data. For more information, see the Microsoft documentation here.

Follow these steps to install MongoDB Community Edition using the MongoDB Installer wizard. The installation process installs both the MongoDB binaries as well as the default configuration file <install directory>\bin\mongod.cfg.

1

Download the MongoDB Community .msi installer from the following link:

MongoDB Download Center

  1. In the Version dropdown, select the version of MongoDB to download.

  2. In the Platform dropdown, select Windows.

  3. In the Package dropdown, select msi.

  4. Click Download.

2

For example, from the Windows Explorer/File Explorer:

  1. Go to the directory where you downloaded the MongoDB installer (.msi file). By default, this is your Downloads directory.

  2. Double-click the .msi file.

3

The wizard steps you through the installation of MongoDB and MongoDB Compass.

  1. Choose Setup Type
    You can choose either the Complete (recommended for most users) or Custom setup type. The Complete setup option installs MongoDB and the MongoDB tools to the default location. The Custom setup option allows you to specify which executables are installed and where.
  2. Service Configuration

    Starting in MongoDB 4.0, you can set up MongoDB as a Windows service during the install or just install the binaries.

  3. Install MongoDB Compass
    Optional. To have the wizard install MongoDB Compass, select Install MongoDB Compass (Default).
  4. When ready, click Install.

The .msi installer does not include mongosh. Follow the mongosh installation instructions to download and install the shell separately.

The MongoDB service starts upon successful installation.

If you would like to customize the service, you must stop the service. Customize the MongoDB instance by editing the configuration file at <install directory>\bin\mongod.cfg.

For information about the available configuration options, refer to Configuration File Options.

After making changes, start the service again.

If you only installed the executables and did not install MongoDB as a Windows service, you must manually start the MongoDB instance.

See Run MongoDB Community Edition from the Command Interpreter for instructions to start a MongoDB instance.

Starting in version 4.0, you can install and configure MongoDB as a Windows Service during installation. The MongoDB service starts upon successful installation. Configure the MongoDB instance with the configuration file <install directory>\bin\mongod.cfg.

If you have not already done so, follow the mongosh installation instructions to download and install the MongoDB Shell (mongosh).

Be sure to add the path to your mongosh.exe binary to your PATH environment variable during installation.

Open a new Command Interpreter and enter mongosh.exe to connect to MongoDB.

For more information on connecting to a mongod using mongosh.exe, such as connecting to a MongoDB instance running on a different host and/or port, see Connect to a Deployment.

For information on CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations, see:

To start/restart the MongoDB service, use the Services console:

  1. From the Services console, locate the MongoDB service.

  2. Right-click on the MongoDB service and click Start.

To stop/pause the MongoDB service, use the Services console:

  1. From the Services console, locate the MongoDB service.

  2. Right-click on the MongoDB service and click Stop (or Pause).

To remove the MongoDB service, first use the Services console to stop the service. Then open a Windows command prompt/interpreter (cmd.exe) as an Administrator, and run the following command:

sc.exe delete MongoDB

You can run MongoDB Community Edition from the Windows command prompt/interpreter (cmd.exe) instead of as a service.

Open a Windows command prompt/interpreter (cmd.exe) as an Administrator.

Important

You must open the command interpreter as an Administrator.

1

Create the data directory where MongoDB stores data. MongoDB's default data directory path is the absolute path \data\db on the drive from which you start MongoDB.

From the Command Interpreter, create the data directories:

cd C:\
md "\data\db"
2

To start MongoDB, run mongod.exe.

"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\7.0\bin\mongod.exe" --dbpath="c:\data\db"

The --dbpath option points to your database directory.

If the MongoDB database server is running correctly, the Command Interpreter displays:

[initandlisten] waiting for connections

Important

Depending on the Windows Defender Firewall settings on your Windows host, Windows may display a Security Alert dialog box about blocking "some features" of C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\7.0\bin\mongod.exe from communicating on networks. To remedy this issue:

  1. Click Private Networks, such as my home or work network.

  2. Click Allow access.

To learn more about security and MongoDB, see the Security Documentation.

3

If you have not already done so, follow the mongosh installation instructions to download and install the MongoDB Shell (mongosh).

Be sure to add the path to your mongosh.exe binary to your PATH environment variable during installation.

Open a new Command Interpreter and enter mongosh.exe to connect to MongoDB.

For more information on connecting to mongod using mongosh.exe, such as connecting to a MongoDB instance running on a different host and/or port, see Connect to a Deployment.

For information on CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations, see:

By default, MongoDB launches with bindIp set to 127.0.0.1, which binds to the localhost network interface. This means that the mongod.exe can only accept connections from clients that are running on the same machine. Remote clients will not be able to connect to the mongod.exe, and the mongod.exe will not be able to initialize a replica set unless this value is set to a valid network interface which is accessible from the remote clients.

This value can be configured either:

  • in the MongoDB configuration file with bindIp, or

  • via the command-line argument --bind_ip

Warning

Before you bind your instance to a publicly-accessible IP address, you must secure your cluster from unauthorized access. For a complete list of security recommendations, see Security Checklist. At minimum, consider enabling authentication and hardening network infrastructure.

For more information on configuring bindIp, see IP Binding.

If you installed MongoDB with the Windows installer (.msi), the .msi automatically upgrades within its release series (e.g. 4.2.1 to 4.2.2).

Upgrading a full release series (e.g. 4.0 to 4.2) requires a new installation.

If you add C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\7.0\bin to your System PATH you can omit the full path to the MongoDB Server binaries. You should also add the path to mongosh if you have not already done so.

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