mongodump and mongorestore Workflow

Beginner10 minTrending

Create full and partial MongoDB backups with mongodump and restore them with mongorestore for disaster recovery and data migration.

Prerequisites

-MongoDB installed and running
-mongodump and mongorestore in PATH (included with MongoDB Database Tools)

Steps

Backup an entire database

Create a full binary backup of a database with compressed output.

$ mongodump --db=mydb --gzip --out=/backups/mongodb/$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)

The --gzip flag compresses individual BSON files, reducing backup size by 50-70%.

Backup a single collection

Dump only a specific collection for targeted backup or migration.

$ mongodump --db=mydb --collection=users --gzip --out=/backups/mongodb/users-$(date +%Y%m%d)

Backup with a query filter

Export only documents matching a query for selective backup.

$ mongodump --db=mydb --collection=orders --query='{"status":"completed","createdAt":{"$gte":{"$date":"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"}}}' --out=/backups/mongodb/orders-2026

Restore a full database backup

Restore all collections from a backup directory into the target database.

$ mongorestore --db=mydb_restored --gzip /backups/mongodb/20260311-120000/mydb/

By default mongorestore inserts documents alongside existing data. Use --drop to replace existing collections.

Restore with --drop to replace existing data

Drop each collection before restoring to get an exact replica of the backup.

$ mongorestore --db=mydb --drop --gzip /backups/mongodb/20260311-120000/mydb/

The --drop flag deletes all current data in each collection before restoring. Double-check the target database name.

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/bin/bash
# MongoDB Backup Script
set -euo pipefail

DB_NAME="mydb"
BACKUP_DIR="/backups/mongodb"
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
BACKUP_PATH="$BACKUP_DIR/$TIMESTAMP"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

echo "=== Starting backup of $DB_NAME ==="
mongodump --db="$DB_NAME" --gzip --out="$BACKUP_PATH"

echo ""
echo "=== Backup contents ==="
ls -lhR "$BACKUP_PATH/$DB_NAME/"

echo ""
echo "=== Backup size ==="
du -sh "$BACKUP_PATH"

echo ""
echo "=== Verifying backup integrity ==="
mongorestore --db="${DB_NAME}_verify" --gzip --dryRun "$BACKUP_PATH/$DB_NAME/" 2>&1 | tail -5

echo ""
echo "=== Cleaning up old backups (30+ days) ==="
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} \; -print

echo ""
echo "=== To restore, run: ==="
echo "mongorestore --db=$DB_NAME --drop --gzip $BACKUP_PATH/$DB_NAME/"

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#!/bin/bash # MongoDB Backup Script set -euo pipefail DB_NAME="mydb" BACKUP_DIR="/backups/mongodb" TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) BACKUP_PATH="$BACKUP_DIR/$TIMESTAMP" mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR" echo "=== Starting backup of $DB_NAME ===" mongodump --db="$DB_NAME" --gzip --out="$BACKUP_PATH" echo "" echo "=== Backup contents ===" ls -lhR "$BACKUP_PATH/$DB_NAME/" echo "" echo "=== Backup size ===" du -sh "$BACKUP_PATH" echo "" echo "=== Verifying backup integrity ===" mongorestore --db="${DB_NAME}_verify" --gzip --dryRun "$BACKUP_PATH/$DB_NAME/" 2>&1 | tail -5 echo "" echo "=== Cleaning up old backups (30+ days) ===" find "$BACKUP_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} \; -print echo "" echo "=== To restore, run: ===" echo "mongorestore --db=$DB_NAME --drop --gzip $BACKUP_PATH/$DB_NAME/"