Connect to a MongoDB container with kubectl
Goal: Connect your local computer to a Mongo database running in a kubernetes cluster.
Use case: Use a hosted database for local development. I have used this workflow to connect to databases hosted in Rancher, a container orchestrating service.
You need to know:
- kubernetes namespace
- pod name
The command looks like this:
kubectl -n namespace port-forward podName 31137:27017
Where namespace is the kubernetes namespace and podName is the name of the pod.
Example:
kubectl -n namepsace-to-connect-to port-forward name-of-pod-12345-4321 31137:27017
Running this command in your terminal will open up a port connection on 31137, which you can then use to connect to the Mongo database with a GUI such as MongoDB Compass. Be sure to keep the terminal open to run in the background!