Configure Replica Set Tag Sets

A replica set member or members can be configured with tags:

{ "<tag1>": "<string1>", "<tag2>": "<string2>",... }

For read operations, you can specify a tag set in the read preferences to help direct read operations to members that have specific tag(s).

For write operations, you can use the tags to create a custom write concern.

Use Tag Sets in Read Preference

If a replica set member or members are associated with tags, you can specify a tag set in the read preference to target those members. A tag set is an array of documents, where each document contains the tag and value pair(s). The specifications are tried in order until a match is found. Once found, that specification is used to find all eligible matching members.

Note

You cannot specify a tag set when specifying read preference mode primary.

For example, a replica set has the following replica set configuration (some of the fields have been omitted for brevity):

{
   "_id" : "rs0",
   "version" : 1,
   "protocolVersion" : NumberLong(1),
   "writeConcernMajorityJournalDefault" : true,
   "members" : [
       { "_id" : 0, "host" : "mongodb0.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... },
       { "_id" : 1, "host" : "mongodb1.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... },
       { "_id" : 2, "host" : "mongodb2.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... }
   ],
   "settings" : {
      ...
   }
}
  1. Add tags to the members.

    Connect a mongo shell to the replica set and use rs.reconfig() to add tags to the members:

    conf = rs.conf();
    conf.members[0].tags = { "dc": "east", "usage": "production" };
    conf.members[1].tags = { "dc": "east", "usage": "reporting" };
    conf.members[2].tags = { "dc": "west", "usage": "production" };
    rs.reconfig(conf);
    
  2. Verify the replica set configuration.

    Run rs.conf() to verify the replica set configuration (some of the fields have been omitted for brevity). The rs.conf() returns a document similar to the following:

    {
       "_id" : "rs0",
       "version" : 2,
       "protocolVersion" : NumberLong(1),
       "writeConcernMajorityJournalDefault" : true,
       "members" : [
          {
              "_id" : 0,
              "host" : "mongodb0.example.net:27017",
              ...
              "tags" : {
                  "dc": "east",
                  "usage": "production"
              },
              ...
          },
          {
              "_id" : 1,
              "host" : "mongodb1.example.net:27017",
              ...
              "tags" : {
                  "dc": "east",
                  "usage": "reporting"
              },
              ...
           },
          {
              "_id" : 2,
              "host" : "mongodb2.example.net:27017",
              ...
              "tags" : {
                  "dc": "west",
                  "usage": "production"
              },
              ...
          }
       ],
       "settings" : {
          ...
       }
    }
    
  3. Specify tag sets in the read preference.

    To direct read operations to the secondaries tagged with a particular tag(s), in the mongo shell connected to the replica set, you can use the readPref() method to specify the read preference mode and the tag set. For example,

    • To direct read operations to the secondary tagged with both "dc": "east" and "usage": "production", include the following tag set:

      db.collection.find({}).readPref( "secondary", [ { "dc": "east", "usage": "production" } ] )
      
    • To direct a read operation to the secondaries tagged with "dc": "east", and if not found, to secondaries tagged with "usage": "production", include the following tag set:

      db.collection.find({}).readPref( "secondary", [ { "dc": "east"}, { "usage": "production" } ] )
      

Custom Multi-Datacenter Write Concerns

If a replica set member or members are associated with tags, you can configure the replica set’s settings.getLastErrorModes setting to create a custom write concern.

Given a five member replica set with members in two data centers:

  1. a facility VA tagged dc_va
  2. a facility CA tagged dc_ca
{
   "_id" : "rs0",
   "version" : 1,
   "protocolVersion" : NumberLong(1),
   "writeConcernMajorityJournalDefault" : true,
   "members" : [
       { "_id" : 0, "host" : "mongodb0.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... },
       { "_id" : 1, "host" : "mongodb1.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... },
       { "_id" : 2, "host" : "mongodb2.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... }
       { "_id" : 3, "host" : "mongodb3.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... }
       { "_id" : 4, "host" : "mongodb4.example.net:27017", ...,  "tags": { }, ... }
   ],
   "settings" : {
      ...
   }
}
  1. Add tags to the replica set members.

    Connect a mongo shell to the replica set and use rs.reconfig() to add tags to the members:

    conf = rs.conf();
    conf.members[0].tags = { "dc_va": "rack1"};
    conf.members[1].tags = { "dc_va": "rack2"};
    conf.members[2].tags = { "dc_ca": "rack1"};
    conf.members[3].tags = { "dc_ca": "rack2"};
    conf.members[4].tags = { "dc_va": "rack1"};
    rs.reconfig(conf);
    
  2. Create a custom write concern.

    In the replica set configuration, define a custom write concern in the settings.getLastErrorModes setting. For example, the following defines the custom write concern MultipleDC that requires the write to propagate to two members with different dc_va tag values and one member with any dc_ca tag value.

    conf = rs.conf();
    conf.settings = { getLastErrorModes: { MultipleDC : { "dc_va": 2, "dc_ca": 1 }