**TL;DR:**

> Plakar now backs up and restores MongoDB. Install one package, point it at
> your server, and every backup is encrypted, deduplicated and stored away from
> the database. It is our first NoSQL database, after
> [PostgreSQL](/integrations/postgres/), [MySQL / MariaDB](/integrations/mysql/)
> and [SQL Server](/integrations/mssql/). Like our PostgreSQL and MySQL
> connectors, it is open source.

---

## Schemaless is not backupless

MongoDB lets you change your data model without a migration. That is great until
someone runs `db.orders.drop()` on the wrong cluster.

Replica sets do not help here. They keep you online when a node dies, but a
dropped collection or a bad `updateMany` reaches every secondary in
milliseconds. A replica is a copy of now. A backup is a copy of before.

So most teams end up with the same thing: `mongodump` in a cron job, a folder of
archives, and no one sure the last one restores.

We already fixed that for SQL databases with our
[PostgreSQL](/integrations/postgres/), [MySQL / MariaDB](/integrations/mysql/)
and [SQL Server](/integrations/mssql/) integrations. MongoDB is the first
document database to join them.

## How it works

Plakar runs `mongodump` against your server, over TLS by default. It works with
self-hosted servers and with MongoDB Atlas (`mongodb+srv://` URLs). It cuts the
dump into chunks, keeps only the chunks it has not seen before, then compresses
and encrypts them into a
[Kloset store](/posts/2025-04-29/kloset-the-immutable-data-store/). Keys stay on
your side. The storage only sees encrypted data.

Restore is the same path in reverse, with `mongorestore`, to the same server or
a new one.

A few things NoSQL folks will like:

- **No agent on the database host.** Plakar needs network access and the MongoDB
  database tools (`mongosh`, `mongodump`, `mongorestore`). That is it.
- **Nightly dumps stay small.** Most documents do not change between two nights,
  so most chunks are already in the store.
- **Custom CA, mutual TLS and auth mechanisms.** For clusters that only accept
  client certificates or a specific auth method.
- **Backups outside the blast radius.** Store them on S3, SFTP or disk, far from
  the cluster and the credentials that manage it.

## Get started

Pre-built packages need a free Plakar account:

```bash
plakar login
plakar pkg add mongodb
```

Back up:

```bash
plakar source add my-mongodb \
  location=mongodb://db.example.com \
  username=backup \
  password=<YOUR_PASSWORD>

plakar at /var/backups backup "@my-mongodb"
```

Restore (careful: it runs `mongorestore --drop`, so existing collections in the
target are replaced by the snapshot):

```bash
plakar destination add my-mongodb-restore \
  location=mongodb://target.example.com \
  username=admin \
  password=<YOUR_PASSWORD>

plakar at /var/backups restore -to "@my-mongodb-restore" <snapshot_id>
```

All options are in the
[MongoDB docs](/docs/community/main/integrations/mongodb/).

## Open source

The MongoDB connector is
[open source](https://github.com/PlakarKorp/integrations/tree/main/mongodb) like
the PostgreSQL and MySQL ones.

Tell us which database you want next on
[Discord](https://discord.gg/uuegtnF2Q5). Redis? Cassandra? We are listening.

Happy hacking,