Install MongoDB on WSL

MongoDB  is one of the most famous NoSQL databases that uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas. 

Prerequisites

Before installing MongoDB on WSL, please ensure you have WSL enabled on your Windows 10 system. 

Follow Install Windows Subsystem for Linux on a Non-System Drive to install WSL on a non-C drive. 

This tutorial provides steps to install MongoDB on WSL Debian distro. You can follow similar steps to install it in other Linux distros. 

Step by step guide

1. Open Debian distro through WSL command:
   

   wsl -d Debian

2. Update Debian packages:
   

   sudo apt update

   You need to type user password.

3. Install Redis using the following command:
   

   sudo apt install mongodb

   Type Y to continue when asked.

4. Wait until the installation is completed. 
5. Verify MongoDB version:
   

   $ mongod --version
   db version v3.2.11
   git version: 009580ad490190ba33d1c6253ebd8d91808923e4
   OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.0.2l  25 May 2017
   allocator: tcmalloc
   modules: none
   build environment:
       distarch: x86_64
       target_arch: x86_64

By default, MongoDB stores data in /data/db and host the daemon service on port 27017. And mongod is the daemon (host process for the database) and mongo is the command-line shell that connects to a specific instance of mongod.

Test MongoDB server

1. Start MongoDB using the following command:
   

   sudo service mongodb start
   # or
   sudo /etc/init.d/mongodb start
   

2. Check the status of the server
   

   sudo service mongodb status
   # or
   sudo /etc/init.d/mongodb status

   The command prints out the following text:
   [ ok ] Checking status of database: mongodb running.
3. Use mongo CLI:
   

   $ mongo
   MongoDB shell version: 3.2.11
   connecting to: test
   Welcome to the MongoDB shell.
   For interactive help, type "help".
   For more comprehensive documentation, see
           http://docs.mongodb.org/
   Questions? Try the support group
           http://groups.google.com/group/mongodb-user
   > help
           db.help()                    help on db methods
           db.mycoll.help()             help on collection methods
           sh.help()                    sharding helpers
           rs.help()                    replica set helpers
           help admin                   administrative help
           help connect                 connecting to a db help
           help keys                    key shortcuts
           help misc                    misc things to know
           help mr                      mapreduce
   
           show dbs                     show database names
           show collections             show collections in current database
           show users                   show users in current database
           show profile                 show most recent system.profile entries with time >= 1ms
           show logs                    show the accessible logger names
           show log [name]              prints out the last segment of log in memory, 'global' is default
           use <db_name>                set current database
           db.foo.find()                list objects in collection foo
           db.foo.find( { a : 1 } )     list objects in foo where a == 1
           it                           result of the last line evaluated; use to further iterate
           DBQuery.shellBatchSize = x   set default number of items to display on shell
           exit                         quit the mongo shell
   > show dbs
   local  0.000GB
   >

4. Type exit to quite mongo CLI.
5. Run the following command to stop Mongo daemon service:
   

   sudo /etc/init.d/mongodb stop
   # or
   sudo service mongodb stop

Create objects

Using mongo CLI to insert some documents:

use app
db.users.insertOne(
   { "_id" : "1",
     "firstName" : "Raymond",
     "lastName" : "Tang",
     "roles" :  ["user","admin"]
   }
)
db.users.insertOne(
   { "_id" : "2",
     "firstName" : "Kontext",
     "lastName" : "",
     "roles" :  ["admin"]
   }
)

The above code snippets creates a collection named users in database app. Two user records are inserted into the collection.

Print out the users

> db.users.find()
{ "_id" : "1", "firstName" : "Raymond", "lastName" : "Tang", "roles" : [ "user", "admin" ] }
{ "_id" : "2", "firstName" : "Kontext", "lastName" : "", "roles" : [ "admin" ] }

The above command prints out the documents in the collection.

Fix issue

If mongod cannot be started successfully, try run the following command to repair and then restart the service:

sudo mongod --repair
sudo service mongodb start