MongoDB uses a fairly simple versioning scheme: even-point releases are stable, and odd-point releases are development versions. For example, anything starting with 2.4 is a stable release, such as 2.4.0, 2.4.1, and 2.4.15. Anything starting with 2.5 is a development release, such as 2.5.0, 2.5.2, or 2.5.10. Let’s take the 2.4/2.5 release as a sample case to demonstrate how the versioning timeline works:

You can see how close a production release is by browsing the core server roadmap on the MongoDB bug tracker.

If you are running in production, you should use a stable release. If you are planning to use a development release in production, ask about it first on the mailing list or IRC to get the developers’ advice.

If you are just starting development on a project, using a development release may be a better choice. By the time you deploy to production, there will probably be a stable release with the features you’re using (MongoDB attempts to stick to a regular cycle of stable releases every six months). However, you must balance this against the possibility that you would run into server bugs, which can be discouraging to a new user.

To install MongoDB on Windows, download the Windows zip from the MongoDB downloads page. Use the advice in the previous section to choose the correct version of MongoDB. There are 32-bit and 64-bit releases for Windows, so select whichever version you’re running. When you click the link, it will download the .zip. Use your favorite extraction tool to unzip the archive.

Now you need to make a directory in which MongoDB can write database files. By default, MongoDB tries to use the datadb directory on the current drive as its data directory (for example, if you’re running mongod on C:, it’ll use C:datadb). You can create this directory or any other empty directory anywhere on the filesystem. If you chose to use a directory other than datadb, you’ll need to specify the path when you start MongoDB, which is covered in a moment.

Now that you have a data directory, open the command prompt (cmd.exe). Navigate to the directory where you unzipped the MongoDB binaries and run the following:

$ binmongod.exe

If you chose a directory other than C:datadb, you’ll have to specify it here, with the --dbpath argument:

$ binmongod.exe --dbpath C:Documents and SettingsUsernameMy Documentsdb

See Chapter 20 for more common options, or run mongod.exe --help to see all options.

$ C:mongodb-windows-32bit-1.6.0inmongod.exe 
     --dbpath ""C:Documents and SettingsUsernameMy Documentsdb"" --install

Choose a version of MongoDB, based on the advice in the section Choosing a Version. Go to the MongoDB downloads page, and select the correct version for your OS.

You must create a directory for the database to put its files. By default, the database will use /data/db, although you can specify any other directory. If you create the default directory, make sure it has the correct write permissions. You can create the directory and set the permissions by running the following:

$ mkdir -p /data/db
$ chown -R $USER:$USER /data/db

mkdir -p creates the directory and all its parents, if necessary (i.e., if the /data directory didn’t exist, it will create the /data directory and then the /data/db directory). chown changes the ownership of /data/db so that your user can write to it. Of course, you can also just create a directory in your home folder and specify that MongoDB should use that when you start the database, to avoid any permissions issues.

Decompress the .tar.gz file you downloaded from http://www.mongodb.org:

$ tar zxf mongodb-linux-i686-1.6.0.tar.gz
$ cd mongodb-linux-i686-1.6.0

Now you can start the database:

$ bin/mongod

Or if you’d like to use an alternate database path, specify it with the --dbpath option:

$ bin/mongod --dbpath ~/db

See section TODO for a summary of the most common options, or run mongod with --help to see all the possible options.