change user mongod is running under in ubuntu

Question

I have followed the instructions for installing MongoDB through apt-get, from this page: http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-ubuntu/

This creates a config file called: /etc/mongodb.conf

And a control script called: /etc/init.d/mongodb

These allow me to start mongodb by calling:

sudo service mongodb start

My question is, how do I change the user the mongod process is running under? I've searched the config file, and the control script and neither have any mention of a user. I had to use ps aux | less to see all the processes and find the mongod process to see what user the process was running under. The call to start doesn't accept a user, and the config file doesn't specify a user, and the control script doesn't either. Does anyone have any idea how to change the user or even how the user to run the process under is being determined?

Solution

MongoDB adds a user and group, mongodb, that runs the process and owns the associated files such as logs in /var/log/mongodb and database files in /var/lib/mongodb

If you look in /etc/init.d/mongodb you will see DAEMONUSER=${DAEMONUSER:-mongodb} - here is where you can change the user running mongod.

You will need to add a user and group, for your new daemon user, as well as chown'ing the files to your new user and group. I wouldn't recommend changing the user, however.

Is there a particular reason that you want to change this user to be something you defined yourself?

Comments

[Tyler Jones]

This is all I needed to know! I was wanting to use the user I had defined already, but I have just assigned all the same permissions to the mongodb user that I needed. Thanks for the info!

[twiz]

An item on MongoDB's security checklist is: Run MongoDB with a Dedicated User Is this default user setup good enough to meet that requirement?

[Forivin]

For debian wheezy it was /etc/init.d/mongod not /etc/init.d/mongodb!