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Install MongoDB Community Edition on

Windows
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Overview

Considerations

Install MongoDB Community Edition

Run MongoDB Community Edition as a Windows Service

Run MongoDB Community Edition from the Command Interpreter

Additional Considerations

Overview
Use this tutorial to install MongoDB 8.0 Community Edition on Windows using the default
installation wizard.

MongoDB Version
This tutorial installs MongoDB 8.0 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.

Installation Method
This tutorial installs MongoDB on Windows using the default MSI installation wizard. You can
also install MongoDB on Windows by these other methods:

Install MongoDB using msiexec.exe.

Install MongoDB from the zip file

Considerations

MongoDB Shell, mongosh

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

Platform Support
MongoDB 8.0 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.

Virtualization
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.

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

Full Time Diagnostic Data Capture

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

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 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 .

Install MongoDB Community Edition

Procedure
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 installer.

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

➤ MongoDB Download Center

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

b. In the Platform dropdown, select Windows.

c. In the Package dropdown, select msi.

d. Click Download.

2 Run the MongoDB installer.

For example, from the Windows Explorer/File Explorer:

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

b. Double-click the .msi file.

3 Follow the MongoDB Community Edition installation wizard.

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

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 a. 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.

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 b. Service Configuration
You can set up MongoDB as a Windows service during the install or just install
the binaries.

MongoDB Service MongoDB

You can configure and start MongoDB as a Windows service during the install,
and the MongoDB service is started upon successful installation.

Select Install MongoD as a Service.

Select one of these options:

Run the service as Network Service user (Default)

This is a Windows user account that is built-in to Windows.

Run the service as a local or domain user

For an existing local user account, specify a period (.) for the
Account Domain and specify the Account Name and the
Account Password for the user.

For an existing domain user, specify the Account Domain,

Account Name and Account Password for that user.

Service Name. Specify the service name. Default name is MongoDB. If

you already have a service with the specified name, you must choose
another name.

Data Directory. Specify the data directory, which corresponds to the

--dbpath . If the directory does not exist, the installer will create the
directory and sets the directory access to the service user.

Log Directory. Specify the Log directory, which corresponds to the

--logpath . If the directory does not exist, the installer will create the
directory and sets the directory access to the service user.

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 c. Install MongoDB Compass
Optional. To have the wizard install MongoDB Compass, select Install
MongoDB Compass (Default).

d. When ready, click Install.

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

If You Installed MongoDB as a Windows Service

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 Self-Managed

Configuration File Options.

After making changes, start the service again.

If You Did Not Install MongoDB as a Windows Service

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.

Run MongoDB Community Edition as a Windows Service

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.

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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:

Insert Documents

Query Documents

Update Documents

Delete Documents

Start MongoDB Community Edition as a Windows Service

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.

Stop MongoDB Community Edition as a Windows Service

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).

Remove MongoDB Community Edition as a Windows Service

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

Run MongoDB Community Edition from the Command

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

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

IMPORTANT

You must open the command interpreter as an Administrator.

1 Create database directory.

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 Start your MongoDB database.

To start MongoDB, run mongod.exe.

"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\8.0\bin\mongod.exe" --dbpath="c:\d

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\8.0\bin\mongod.exe from communicating
on networks. To remedy this issue:

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

b. Click Allow access.

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

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:

Insert Documents

Query Documents

Update Documents

Delete Documents

Additional Considerations

Localhost Binding by Default

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.

This value can be configured either:

in the MongoDB configuration file with bindIp , or

via the command-line argument --bind_ip

WARNING

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 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 for Self-Managed Deployments. At minimum, consider enabling
authentication and hardening network infrastructure.

For more information on configuring bindIp , see IP Binding in Self-Managed Deployments.

Point Releases and .msi

If you installed MongoDB with the Windows installer (.msi), the .msi automatically upgrades
within its release series (e.g. 7.2.1 to 7.2.2).

Upgrading a full release series (e.g. 6.0 to 7.0) requires a new installation.

Add MongoDB binaries to the System PATH

If you add C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\8.0\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.

Back Next
Install using .tgz Tarball Install Using msiexec.exe

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