JavaScript heap out of memory - error while inserting into mongodb

Question

I want to insert 1500000 documents in MongoDB. First, I query a database and get a list of 15000 instructors from there and for each instructor I want to insert 100 courses by each of them.

I run two loops: first it loops through all instructors and secondly, in each iteration it will insert 100 docs for that id as in the code below:

const instructors = await Instructor.find();
//const insrtuctor contains 15000 instructor
instructors.forEach((insructor) => {
    for(let i=0; i<=10; i++) {
        const course = new Course({
            title: faker.lorem.sentence(),
            description: faker.lorem.paragraph(),
            author: insructor._id,
            prise: Math.floor(Math.random()*11),
            isPublished: 'true',
            tags: ["java", "Nodejs", "javascript"]
        });
        course.save().then(result => {
            console.log(result._id);
            Instructor.findByIdAndUpdate(insructor._id, { $push: { courses: course._id } })
            .then(insructor => {
                console.log(`Instructor Id : ${insructor._id} add Course : ${i} `);
            }).catch(err => next(err));
            console.log(`Instructor id: ${ insructor._id } add Course: ${i}`)
        }).catch(err => console.log(err));
    }
});

Here is my package.json file where I put something I found on the internet:

{
    "scripts": {
        "start": "nodemon app.js",
        "fix-memory-limit": "cross-env LIMIT=2048 increase-memory-limit"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "cross-env": "^5.2.0",
        "faker": "^4.1.0",
        "increase-memory-limit": "^1.0.6",
    }
}

This is my course model definition

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const Course = mongoose.model('courses', new mongoose.Schema({

title: {
    type: String,
    required: true,
    minlength: 3
},
author: {
    type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
    ref: 'instructor'
},
description: {
    type: String,
    required: true,
    minlength: 5
},
ratings: [{
    user: {
        type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
        ref: 'users',
        required: true,
        unique: true
    },
    rating: {
        type: Number,
        required: true,
        min: 0,
        max: 5
    },
    description: {
        type: String,
        required: true,
        minlength: 5
    }
}],
tags: [String],
rating: {
    type: Number,
    min: 0,
    default: 0
},
ratedBy: {
    type: Number,
    min: 0,
    default: 0
},
prise: {
    type: Number,
    required: function() { this.isPublished },
    min: 0
},
isPublished: {
    type: Boolean,
    default: false
}
}));

module.exports = Course;

Answer 1

For big amount of data You've to use cursors.

Idea is to process document asap as You get one from db.

Like You're asking db to give instructors and db sends back with small batches and You operate with that batch and process them until reach the end of all batches.

Otherwise await Instructor.find() will load all data to memory and populate that instances with mongoose methods that You don't need.

Even await Instructor.find().lean() will not give memory benefit.

Cursor is mongodb's feature when You do find on collection.

With mongoose it's accessible using: Instructor.collection.find({})

Watch this video.

Below I've written solution for batch processing data using cursor.

Add this somewhere inside the module:

const createCourseForInstructor = (instructor) => {
  const data = {
    title: faker.lorem.sentence(),
    description: faker.lorem.paragraph(),
    author: instructor._id,
    prise: Math.floor(Math.random()*11), // typo: "prise", must be: "price"
    isPublished: 'true',
    tags: ["java", "Nodejs", "javascript"]
  };
  return Course.create(data);
}

const assignCourseToInstructor = (course, instructor) => {
  const where = {_id: instructor._id};
  const operation = {$push: {courses: course._id}};
  return Instructor.collection.updateOne(where, operation, {upsert: false});
}

const processInstructor = async (instructor) => {
  let courseIds = [];
  for(let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
    try {
      const course = await createCourseForInstructor(instructor)
      await assignCourseToInstructor(course, instructor);
      courseIds.push(course._id);
    } 
    catch (error) {
      console.error(error.message);
    }
  }
  console.log(
    'Created ', courseIds.length, 'courses for', 
    'Instructor:', instructor._id, 
    'Course ids:', courseIds
  );
};

and in Your asynchronous block replace Your loop with:

const cursor = await Instructor.collection.find({}).batchSize(1000);

while(await cursor.hasNext()) {
  const instructor = await cursor.next();
  await processInstructor(instructor);
}

P.S. I'm using native collection.find and collection.updateOne for performance to avoid mongoose use extra heap for mongoose methods and fields on model instances.

BONUS:

Even if with this cursor solution Your code will get out of memory issue again, run Your code like in this example (define size in megabytes according server's ram):

nodemon --expose-gc --max_old_space_size=10240 app.js