Restoring a MongoDB Database

In the previous section, we learned how to create a backup of an entire MongoDB database using mongodump. However, these exports would not be beneficial in our backup strategy unless we possess a method for loading them back into a MongoDB server. The command that complements mongodump by putting our export back into the Database is mongorestore.

Unlike mongoimport which allows us to import commonly used formats into MongoDB, mongorestore is only used to importing mongodump results. This means it is most commonly used for restoring most or all of a database to a specific state. The mongorestore command is ideal for restoring a dump after a disaster or for migrating an entire MongoDB instance to a new configuration.

When put in combination with our other commands, it should be clear that mongorestore completes the import and export lifecycle. With the three commands (mongoimport, mongoexport, and mongodump), we have learned we can export collection...