Import Data on MongoDB using Docker-Compose

Question

There are many sites that show how to import data to a mongodb using the below docker-compose method but mine is not finding the db server.

How do I seed a mongo database using docker-compose? https://gist.github.com/jschwarty/6f9907e2871d1ece5bde53d259c18d5f https://docs.codefresh.io/v1.0/docs/import-data-to-mongodb-in-composition

Wondering if something has changed making this not work any longer.

docker-compose.yml

version: '3'
services:
  mongodb:
    image: mongo
    command: mongod --smallfiles
    ports:
      - 27017

  mongo_seed:
    build: mongo-seed/.
    links:
      - mongodb

mongo-seed/Dockerfile

FROM mongo

COPY census.json /census.json

CMD mongoimport --host mongodb --db test --collection census --type json --file /census.json --jsonArray

mongo-seed/census.json

[
 {
   "Geography": "Abbeville city, Alabama",
   "Census": "2688"
 }
]

ERROR after docker-compose up

mongodb_1     | 2018-01-09T21:57:14.353+0000 I NETWORK  [initandlisten] waiting for connections on port 27017
mongo_seed_1  | 2018-01-10T00:19:58.286+0000    [........................] test.census 0B/1KB (0.0%)
mongo_seed_1  | 2018-01-10T00:19:58.332+0000    [........................] test.census 0B/1KB (0.0%)
mongo_seed_1  | 2018-01-10T00:19:58.332+0000    Failed: error connecting to db server: no reachable servers
mongo_seed_1  | 2018-01-10T00:19:58.332+0000    imported 0 documents

In the mongoimport statement, I have tried using different host names: mongodb_1, 127.0.0.1, localhost.

I have read that if replSet is set it can give this error but I'm not setting replSet unless it's default in which case I don't know how it disable it.

I have also tried mongorestore instead of mongoimport but get the same error.

I have read since link is deprecated in Docker that maybe environmental variables are no longer working. Not sure if that is true or happening here.

Does anyone have ideas?

Answer 1

I ended up removing the Dockerfile, adding the commands in a bash script, then calling the script from the docker-compose file. Used a script rather than one command in the docker-compose file because I'm importing several files thus several commands that are not shown in my example. I needed to use mongo:3.2.6 to make this work. There may be other versions but this one works for sure.

docker-compose.yml

version: '3'
services:
  mongodb:
    image: mongo:3.2.6
    ports:
      - 27017:27017

  mongo_seed:
    image: mongo:3.2.6
    links:
      - mongodb
    volumes:
      - ./mongo-seed:/mongo-seed
    command:
      /mongo-seed/import.sh

/mongo-seed/import.sh

#! /bin/bash

mongoimport --host mongodb --db test --collection census --type json --file /mongo-seed/census.json --jsonArray