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MongoDB

If you're afraid of running out of memory by using Redis, or want your forum to be more easily scalable, you can install NodeBB with MongoDB. This tutorial assumes you know how to SSH into your server and have root access.

These instructions are for Ubuntu. Adjust them accordingly for your distro.

Note

If you have to add sudo to any command, do so. No one is going to hold it against you ;)

Step 1: Install MongoDB

The latest and greatest MongoDB is required (or at least greater than the package manager). The instructions to install it can be found on the MongoDB manual).

Step 2: Install node.js

Like MongoDB, the latest and greatest node.js is required (or at least greater than the package manager), so I'm leaving this to the official wiki. The instructions to install can be found on Joyent.

Note

NPM is installed along with node.js, so there is no need to install it separately

Step 3: Install the Base Software Stack

Enter the following into the terminal to install the base software required to run NodeBB:

# apt-get install git build-essential imagemagick

Step 4: Clone the Repository

Enter the following into the terminal, replacing /path/to/nodebb/install/location to where you would like NodeBB to be installed.

$ cd /path/to/nodebb/install/location
$ git clone git://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git nodebb

Step 5: Install The Required NodeBB Dependencies

Go into the newly created nodebb directory and install the required dependencies by entering the following.

$ cd nodebb
$ npm install

Step 6: Adding a New Database With Users

To go into the MongoDB command line, type:

$ mongo

To add a new database called nodebb, type:

> use nodebb

To add a user to access the nodebb database, type:

> db.createUser( { user: "nodebb", pwd: "<Enter in a secure password>", roles: [ "readWrite" ] } )

If you want to be able to view database statistics in NodeBB's admin control panel (Advanced → Database) type also this command:

> db.grantRolesToUser("nodebb",[{ role: "clusterMonitor", db: "admin" }]);

If you don't type the last command you will get this error message when trying to see database statistics:

Internal Error.

Oops! Looks like something went wrong!

/api/admin/advanced/database

not authorized on nodebb to execute command { serverStatus: 1 }

Note

NodeBB requires MongoDB 4.2 or higher. The role readWrite provides read or write any collection within a specific database to user.

Step 7: Configure MongoDB

Modify /etc/mongodb.conf.

# nano /etc/mongodb.conf

To enable authentication, type:

Uncomment security: and add authorization: enabled below it (and don't forget to put two spaces before the second line). It should look like this:

security:
  authorization: enabled

Restart MongoDB.

# service mongodb restart

Step 8: Configuring NodeBB

Make sure you are in your NodeBB root folder. If not, just type:

$ cd /path/to/nodebb

To setup the app, type:

$ node app --setup
  • Change the hostname to your domain name.
  • Accept the defaults by pressing enter until it asks you what database you want to use. Type mongo in that field.
  • Accept the default port, unless you changed it in the previous steps.
  • Change your username to nodebb, unless you set it to another username.
  • Enter in the password you made in step 5.
  • Change the database to nodebb, unless you named it something else.

Continue with the installation, following the instructions the installer provides you.

Step 9: Starting the App

To start the app, run:

$ ./nodebb start

Now visit yourdomainorip.com:4567 and your NodeBB installation should be running.

NodeBB can also be started with helper programs, such as supervisor or forever. You can also use nginx as a reverse proxy.

Advanced Settings

The mongodb nodejs driver has a default connection pool size of 5, if you need to increase this just add a poolSize setting into your config.json file under the mongo block.