Merge Chunks in a Sharded Cluster¶

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Overview¶

Changed in version 3.0.

The mergeChunks command allows you to combine continuous chunks on the same shard into a single chunk. This tutorial explains how to merge neighboring chunks in a sharded cluster.

Procedure¶

Note

Examples in this procedure use a users collection in the test database, using the username filed as a shard key.

Identify Chunk Ranges¶

In the mongo shell, identify the chunk ranges with the following operation:

sh.status()

The output of the sh.status() will resemble the following:

--- Sharding Status ---
sharding version: {
     "_id" : 1,
     "version" : 4,
     "minCompatibleVersion" : 4,
     "currentVersion" : 5,
     "clusterId" : ObjectId("5260032c901f6712dcd8f400")
}
shards:
     {  "_id" : "shard0000",  "host" : "localhost:30000" }
     {  "_id" : "shard0001",  "host" : "localhost:30001" }
  databases:
     {  "_id" : "admin",  "partitioned" : false,  "primary" : "config" }
     {  "_id" : "test",  "partitioned" : true,  "primary" : "shard0001" }
             test.users
                     shard key: { "username" : 1 }
                     chunks:
                             shard0000       7
                             shard0001       7
                     { "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(2, 0)
                     { "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(3, 0)
                     { "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(4, 0)
                     { "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(5, 0)
                     { "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(6, 0)
                     { "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(7, 0)
                     { "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(8, 0)
                     { "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(8, 1)
                     { "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 8)
                     { "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 9)
                     { "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 10)
                     { "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 11)
                     { "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 12)
                     { "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 13)

The chunk ranges appear after the chunk counts for each sharded collection, as in the following excerpts:

Chunk counts:

chunks:
        shard0000       7
        shard0001       7

Chunk range:

{ "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(6, 0)

Merge Chunks¶

Merge two contiguous chunks on the same shard, with an operation that resembles the following:

db.runCommand( { mergeChunks: "test.users",
                 bounds: [ { "username": "user68982" },
                           { "username": "user95197" } ]
             } )

On success, mergeChunks produces the following output:

{ "ok" : 1 }

On any failure condition, mergeChunks returns a document where the value of the ok field is 0.

View Merged Chunks Ranges¶

After merging the identified chunks, confirm the new chunk, as follows:

sh.status()

The output of sh.status() should resemble:

--- Sharding Status ---
sharding version: {
     "_id" : 1,
     "version" : 4,
     "minCompatibleVersion" : 4,
     "currentVersion" : 5,
     "clusterId" : ObjectId("5260032c901f6712dcd8f400")
}
shards:
     {  "_id" : "shard0000",  "host" : "localhost:30000" }
     {  "_id" : "shard0001",  "host" : "localhost:30001" }
  databases:
     {  "_id" : "admin",  "partitioned" : false,  "primary" : "config" }
     {  "_id" : "test",  "partitioned" : true,  "primary" : "shard0001" }
             test.users
                     shard key: { "username" : 1 }
                     chunks:
                             shard0000       2
                             shard0001       2
                     { "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(2, 0)
                     { "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shard0000 Timestamp(3, 0)
                     { "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shard0001 Timestamp(8, 1)
                     { "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shard0001 Timestamp(1, 13)

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