MongoDB: Not authorized on admin to execute command

Question

My mongo shell is giving me this error when I am using show dbs command.

not authorized on admin to execute command

I have tried to create a user using

db.createUser(
  {
    user: "siteUserAdmin",
    pwd: "password",
    roles: [ { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ]
  }
)

as on https://docs.mongodb.com/v2.6/tutorial/add-user-administrator/

But it still gives me the same error:

Could not add user: not authorized on admin to execute command.

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 and mongoDB version is 3.4.9

Solution

I think you can use the role as root for Ubuntu. Try the below query.

use admin
db.createUser(
  {
    user: "admin",
    pwd: "password",
    roles: [ { role: "root", db: "admin" } ]
  }
);
exit; 

You can give read write permission to user as well

use admin

 db.grantRolesToUser("admin",["readWrite"])

EDIT

Since the above didn't work try to start the instance with auth as below

1. Stop the mongod instance
2. Start the instance with $ mongod --auth
3. Now start mongo shell and create user

   use admin
   db.createUser(
            {
             user: "admin",
             pwd: "password",
             roles: [ { role: "root", db: "admin" } ]
            }
                );
           exit;

4. Now give permission

    db.auth("admin", "password")
    db.grantRolesToUser("password", [ { role: "readWrite", db: "admin" } ])
   

5. Now check show users

Comments

[charan tej]

@SLASH what error you got exactly after executing with root

[DragonBorn]

I got this error: couldn't add user: not authorized on admin to execute command

[DragonBorn]

Here is the whole thing Error: couldn't add user: not authorized on admin to execute command { createUser: "admin", pwd: "xxx", roles: [ { role: "root", db: "admin" } ], digestPassword: false, writeConcern: { w: "majority", wtimeout: 600000.0 } } : _getErrorWithCode@src/mongo/shell/utils.js:25:13 DB.prototype.createUser@src/mongo/shell/db.js:1292:15 @(shell):1:1

[DragonBorn]

Same error: Error: not authorized on admin to execute command { grantRolesToUser: "admin", roles: [ "readWrite" ], writeConcern: { w: "majority", wtimeout: 600000.0 } } : _getErrorWithCode@src/mongo/shell/utils.js:25:13 DB.prototype.grantRolesToUser@src/mongo/shell/db.js:1493:19 @(shell):1:1

[charan tej]

mongo --port 27017 -u "admin" -p "password" --authenticationDatabase "admin" use command and run

[DragonBorn]

It says Authentication failed

[DragonBorn]

Nope didn't work. I started it with mongod --auth. Still gave me the same errors. I had to remove everything and reinstall everything and it works now