How to configure storage.smallFiles on mongodb

Question

I have a CentOS machine where I installed mongodb and I want it to always use storage.smallFiles setting, so I went to /etc and I created a new file /etc/mongodb.conf where I added the following text and I saved:

storage:
   smallFiles:
      enabled: true

then I typed:

$ mongod --config /etc/mongodb.conf
Unrecognized option: storage.smallFiles.enabled
try 'mongod --help' for more information

I followed documentation on http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/configuration-options/#storage.smallFiles

Answer 1

The configuration for storage option smallFiles is different for different versions of MongoDB. Note that MMAPv1 storage engine is deprecated in MongoDG v4.0 and removed in MongoDB v4.2 - docs.

MongoDB 3.0–4.0 - docs:

storage:
  mmapv1:
    smallFiles: true

MongoDB 2.6 - docs:

storage:
   smallFiles: true

MongoDB 2.4 - docs:

smallfiles = true

You can check that your setting is properly set by calling this command against admin database:

db.runCommand({getCmdLineOpts:1});

You can also specify it directly when starting mongod:

mongod --config /etc/mongodb.conf --smallFiles

Answer 2

If you're a developer, don't have time and is using a VM getting out of space... Just copy, paste and go!

sudo bash -c "echo \"smallfiles=true\" >> /etc/mongodb.conf"
sudo service mongodb restart