Compare various solutions to deploy MongoDB in Kubernetes

There are multiple ways to deploy and manage MongoDB in Kubernetes. Here we will focus on comparing the following open source solutions:

• Bitnami Helm chart

• KubeDB

• MongoDB Community Operator

• Percona Operator for MongoDB

Generic

Here is the review of generic features, such as supported MongoDB versions, open source models and more.

Feature/Product	Percona Operator for MongoDB	Bitnami Helm Chart	KubeDB for MongoDB	MongoDB Community Edtion Operator
Open source model	Apache 2.0	Apache 2.0	Open core	Open core
MongoDB versions	PSMDB 4.4, 5.0, 6.0	MongoDB 5.0	MongoDB 3.4, 3.6. 4.0, 4.1, 4.2	MongoDB 4.2, 4.4, 5.0
Kubernetes conformance	Various versions are tested	No guarantee	No guarantee	No guarantee
Cluster-wide mode	Yes	Not an operator	Enterprise only	Yes
Network exposure	Yes	Yes	No, only through manual config	Enterprise only

Maintenance

Upgrade and scaling are the two most common maintenance tasks that are executed by database administrators and developers.

Feature/Product	Percona Operator for MongoDB	Bitnami Helm Chart	KubeDB for MongoDB	MongoDB Community Operator
Operator upgrade	Yes	Helm upgrade	Image change	Yes
Database upgrade	Automated minor, manual major	No	Manual minor	Manual mintor and major
Compute scaling	Horizontal and vertical	Horizontal and vertical	Enterprise only	Horizontal only
Storage scaling	Manual	Manual	Enterprise only	Enterprise only

MongoDB topologies

The next comparison is focused on replica sets, arbiters, sharding and other node types.

Feature/Product	Percona Operator for MongoDB	Bitnami Helm Chart	KubeDB for MongoDB	MongoDB Community Operator
Multi-cluster deployment	Yes	No	No	No
Sharding	Yes	Yes, another chart	Yes	No
Arbiter	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-voting nodes	Yes	No	No	No
Hidden nodes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network exposure	Yes	Yes	Manual	Enterprise only

Backups

Here are the backup and restore capabilities of each solution.

Feature/Product	Percona Operator for MongoDB	Bitnami Helm Chart	KubeDB for MongoDB	MongoDB Community Operator
Scheduled backups	Yes	No	Enterprise only	Enterprise only
Incremental backups	No	No	Enterprise only	No
Point-in-time recovery	Yes	No	No	Enterprise only
Logical backups	Yes	No	No	Enterprise only
Physical backups	Yes	No	No	Enterprise only

Monitoring

Monitoring is crucial for any operations team.

Feature/Product	Percona Operator for MongoDB	Bitnami Helm Chart	KubeDB for MongoDB	MongoDB Community Operator
Custom exporters	Yes, through sidecars	mongodb-exporter as a sidecar	mongodb-exporter as a sidecar	Integrate with prometheus operator
Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM)	Yes	No	No	No

Miscellaneous

Finally, let’s compare various features that are not a good fit for other categories.

Feature/Product	Percona Operator for MongoDB	Bitnami Helm Chart	KubeDB for MongoDB	MongoDB Community Operator
Customize MongoDB configuration	Yes	Yes	Yes	No, only some params
Helm	Yes	Yes	Yes, for operator only	Yes, for operator only
SSL/TLS	Yes	Yes	Enterprise only	Yes
Create users/roles	No, only some params	Yes	No	Yes

Contact Us

For free technical help, visit the Percona Community Forum.

To report bugs or submit feature requests, open a JIRA ticket.

For paid support and managed or consulting services , contact Percona Sales.

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Last update: 2023-09-11