Compose's new primetime MongoDB

We've got big changes to Compose's MongoDB happening right now. For the past months we've been working away on what we've called MongoDB+, offering the service in beta with the latest MongoDB, most recently rolling out MongoDB 3.2. Well, today, we're removing the beta label from what was MongoDB+ and making it into our new default MongoDB deployment. Not only that, but we're also unveiling the option to use the WiredTiger storage engine.

The big difference with the MongoDB+ is that it's got an architecture built for the future and includes features like SSL access to the database and seamless High Availability. It also runs on the same underlying software platform our Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, Redis and RethinkDB production databases. That means it'll benefit from the engineering we're doing to optimize all our databases in future.

While we aren't making anyone upgrade to the new MongoDB, we want to make the new MongoDB so useful you'll want to upgrade. Our previous MongoDB offering will continue as MongoDB-Classic. We understand you need to plan so we can say now we'll be ensuring the MongoDB-Classic platform is available for new deployments till at least the end of 2016.

We know you probably have lots of questions so let's answer some of them for you right now:

Are there any pricing changes?

Gosh, you got to the point straight away. Here's the new pricing for MMAPv1 MongoDB on Compose:

$31 a month for your first gigabyte and $18 a month for every gigabyte after that.

It really is that simple. It's changed probably not for the reasons you think. We've talked about how we price things in the past and we like to be transparent about how these things work. You'll find a lot of the details in that article but the TL;DR is we've added extra containers to make all the new features, like SSL and seamless HA, work for you.

What about WiredTiger?

MongoDB with WiredTiger has a different resource profile. The compression and caching features mean that disk usage is reduced but at the cost of more CPU and RAM – MongoDB Inc recommend starting with 1GB of RAM. WiredTiger has shown, in use, to be as RAM consuming as expected so we knew it would only make sense to offer it with as much RAM as was recommended.

Therefore, to make it all work for everyone, we start our WiredTiger offering with 4GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. That works out to $133 as your entry point. Each extra gigabyte of storage includes 256MB of RAM to support it and costs $30. We give you the choice of which storage engine you want, but be aware that we do not support swapping storage engines without a complete backup and restore to a new deployment.

What version of MongoDB is it?

We're setting our baseline with the new MongoDB at MongoDB 3.2.1, the latest version available as we switch to production. Beta users may be running older versions of MongoDB and we encourage them to use the easy update option to get themselves right up to date. We will not be deploying any new MongoDB earlier than 3.2.1 from this point on; if you want earlier versions, we have MongoDB-Classic deployments still available.

If you were using the "MongoDB+ beta", you are now on our main MongoDB, but you may need to upgrade your databases to version 3.2.1.

Do I have to have SSL support?

No, but we do recommend you use the SSL support to ensure your connections are encrypted as they pass over the net. We understand your application or drivers may not support SSL, so we've given you the option to turn SSL support off when creating your new MongoDB deployment.

If you do turn it off, we still recommend that you start investigating how to SSL-enable your applications so you can take advantage of the added security in future.

What's seamless High Availability?

It's better for you. With MongoDB-Classic, we kept your database highly available by supporting replication and stepdown but your applications had to actively make use of that by detecting the stepdown and reconnecting to a newly promoted master.

With the new MongoDB, you don't need to do that because the added infrastructure will automatically route your queries to the current primary node. That means less code for you to write to catch unexpected events and more time to harness the power of the database.

Do you support oplog access?

Yes. Oplog access is useful for a number of MongoDB based applications including continuous synchronisation to other databases and for scaling up platforms like Meteor. MongoDB-Classic's simple architecture made that easy to access and popular with a number of our users. Because of the new architecture in Compose's MongoDB we have had to come up with a new way to offer Oplog access. We have our own solution available as an add-on which gives a separate SSL connection getting to the oplog.

How about other addons?

New Relic and Syslog-NG integration are available as add-ons for MongoDB deployments. The New Relic add-on allows you to plug in your MongoDB database into New Relic's performance management while the Syslog-NG add-on lets you send your database's logging to either Papertrail or Logg.ly.

How do I get the new MongoDB?

If you don't have an account, sign-up for a 30 day free trial and create a MongoDB deployment. If you do have an account, head to the Create Deployment page and select MongoDB to get going.