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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 members collection in the test database, using the username field as the shard key.

Identify Chunk Ranges

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

sh.status()

In the output, the chunk ranges appear after the chunk counts for each sharded collection, as in the following example:

--- Sharding Status ---
  sharding version: {
     "_id" : 1,
     "minCompatibleVersion" : 5,
     "currentVersion" : 6,
     "clusterId" : ObjectId("5c115c5932efd7db228eb2a7")
  }
  shards:
        {  "_id" : "shardA",  "host" : "shardA/shardA-m1.example.net:27018,shardA-m2.example.net:27018,shardA-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
        {  "_id" : "shardB",  "host" : "shardB/shardB-m1.example.net:27018,shardB-m2.example.net:27018,shardB-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
  active mongoses:
        "3.2.21" : 1
  balancer:
        Currently enabled:  yes
        Currently running:  no
        Failed balancer rounds in last 5 attempts:  0
        Migration Results for the last 24 hours:
                7 : Success
  databases:
        {  "_id" : "test",  "primary" : "shardA",  "partitioned" : true }
             test.members
                  shard key: { "username" : 1 }
                  unique: false
                  balancing: true
                  chunks:
                          shardA   7
                          shardB   7
                  { "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shardB Timestamp(2, 0)
                  { "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shardB Timestamp(3, 0)
                  { "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shardB Timestamp(4, 0)
                  { "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shardB Timestamp(5, 0)
                  { "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shardB Timestamp(6, 0)
                  { "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shardB Timestamp(7, 0)
                  { "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shardB Timestamp(8, 0)
                  { "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(8, 1)
                  { "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 17)
                  { "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 19)
                  { "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 21)
                  { "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 23)
                  { "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 25)
                  { "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 26)

The chunk ranges appear after the chunk counts for each sharded collection. For example, the following are the chunk ranges for the test.members collection:

{ "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shardB Timestamp(2, 0)
{ "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shardB Timestamp(3, 0)
{ "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shardB Timestamp(4, 0)
{ "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shardB Timestamp(5, 0)
{ "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shardB Timestamp(6, 0)
{ "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shardB Timestamp(7, 0)
{ "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shardB Timestamp(8, 0)
{ "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(8, 1)
{ "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 17)
{ "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 19)
{ "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 21)
{ "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 23)
{ "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 25)
{ "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 26)

Merge Chunks

Merge contiguous chunks on the same shard.

For example, consider the following chunk ranges on shardA:

Note

The chunks to be merged are highlighted.

{ "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(8, 1)
{ "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 17)
{ "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user76462" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 19)
{ "username" : "user76462" } -->> { "username" : "user83108" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 21)
{ "username" : "user83108" } -->> { "username" : "user89756" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 23)
{ "username" : "user89756" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 25)
{ "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 26)

To merge the highlighted contiguous chunks, issue the mergeChunks command against the admin database:

db.adminCommand( {
   mergeChunks: "test.members",
   bounds: [ { "username" : "user69816" },
             { "username" : "user96401" } ]
} )

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,
     "minCompatibleVersion" : 5,
     "currentVersion" : 6,
     "clusterId" : ObjectId("5c115c5932efd7db228eb2a7")
  }
  shards:
        {  "_id" : "shardA",  "host" : "shardA/shardA-m1.example.net:27018,shardA-m2.example.net:27018,shardA-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
        {  "_id" : "shardB",  "host" : "shardB/shardB-m1.example.net:27018,shardB-m2.example.net:27018,shardB-m3.example.net:27018",  "state" : 1 }
  active mongoses:
        "3.2.21" : 1
  balancer:
        Currently enabled:  yes
        Currently running:  no
        Failed balancer rounds in last 5 attempts:  0
        Migration Results for the last 24 hours:
                8 : Success
  databases:
        {  "_id" : "test",  "primary" : "shardA",  "partitioned" : true }
                test.members
                        shard key: { "username" : 1 }
                        unique: false
                        balancing: true
                        chunks:
                                shardA   5
                                shardB   6
                        { "username" : { "$minKey" : 1 } } -->> { "username" : "user16643" } on : shardA Timestamp(9, 0)
                        { "username" : "user16643" } -->> { "username" : "user2329" } on : shardB Timestamp(9, 1)
                        { "username" : "user2329" } -->> { "username" : "user29937" } on : shardB Timestamp(4, 0)
                        { "username" : "user29937" } -->> { "username" : "user36583" } on : shardB Timestamp(5, 0)
                        { "username" : "user36583" } -->> { "username" : "user43229" } on : shardB Timestamp(6, 0)
                        { "username" : "user43229" } -->> { "username" : "user49877" } on : shardB Timestamp(7, 0)
                        { "username" : "user49877" } -->> { "username" : "user56522" } on : shardB Timestamp(8, 0)
                        { "username" : "user56522" } -->> { "username" : "user63169" } on : shardA Timestamp(8, 1)
                        { "username" : "user63169" } -->> { "username" : "user69816" } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 17)
                        { "username" : "user69816" } -->> { "username" : "user96401" } on : shardA Timestamp(8, 2)
                        { "username" : "user96401" } -->> { "username" : { "$maxKey" : 1 } } on : shardA Timestamp(1, 26)

After the merge, the balancer may migrate chunks across shards to ensure a more even distribution of chunks.