MongoDB: Create User – For Database, Admin, Root

In MongoDB, users can have privileges across different databases.

In the following article i will show how to create, show and delete a user in MongoDB.

I will also show how to create a user with admin and a user with root (superuser) privileges on the all databases in MongoDB.

Create a User in MongoDB

Authentication Database: In MongoDB, user can have privileges across different databases. When adding a user, you create the user in a specific database. This database is the authentication database for this user.

Connect to MongoDB using mongo shell:

$ mongo

Cool Tip: How to connect to remote MongoDB server from the command line using mongo shell! Read More →

Create Admin/Root User in MongoDB

Switch to admin database:

> use admin

Admin vs Root: The role userAdminAnyDatabase in MongoDB gives ability to create users and assign roles to them, but by itself it doesn’t allow the user to do anything else. The superuser role in MongoDB is the root.

Create mongo-admin user:

> db.createUser(
  {
    user: "mongo-admin",
    pwd: "passw0rd",
    roles: [ { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ]
  }
)

Create mongo-root user:

> db.createUser(
  {
    user: "mongo-root",
    pwd: "passw0rd",
    roles: [ { role: "root", db: "admin" } ]
  }
)

Create User For Database

Switch to the database in which you would like to create a common user:

> use my-database

Create my-user with readWrite permissions on my-database:

> db.createUser(
  {
    user: "my-user",
    pwd: "passw0rd",
    roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "my-database" } ]
  }
)

You can also create a user with different permissions on different databases.

For example, you can create my-user and grant him readWrite permissions on my-database and read permissions on another-database:

> db.createUser(
  {
    user: "my-user",
    pwd: "passw0rd",
    roles: [ 
             { role: "readWrite", db: "my-database" },
             { role: "read", db:"another-database" }
           ]
  }
)

Read more about built-in roles in the official documentation.

Cool Tip: Enable auth in MongoDB (disabled by default)! Read More →

Show Users in MongoDB

Show users in the current database:

> db.getUsers()
- or -
> show users

Delete User in MongoDB

Delete a user from the current database:

> db.dropUser("my-user")