This document is intended as an example to show how to setup MongoDB on an external Linux server for use with Qlik Alerting. This is intended as an alternative to installing MongoDB on the same machine as Qlik Alerting.
The reasons you may choose to do this are:
For maintenance of versions that fit with your corporate policies
to be able to setup a more resilient architecture (more documents to follow with September 2020 release)
This document is based on:
an install of Qlik Alerting June 2020
a separate linux server running Ubuntu 18.04
If you already have an existing MongoDB cluster that you wish to use with Qlik Alerting then follow the later steps which cover the changes to the configuration in Qlik Alerting.
Step 1 - Provision a linux server and install MongoDB
Once you have provisioned your linux server you will need to access through SSH. Using a command line tool (Command line, Powershell, Terminal etc) you can open an SSH connection.
In the command line enter ssh username@servername (you may need to use the IP of FQDN in place of servername)
you will be prompted to type in the password for this user, enter the password and press enter.
You should see that the prompt has updated and should show username@servername:~$
Create list file for Mongo echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 ] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu bionic/mongodb-org/4.2 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.2.list
update the listing before installing sudo apt-get update
Call the install sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org
Start the MongoDB service sudo systemctl start mongod
Check the status of the service to validate that it is running correctly sudo systemctl status mongod
Update systemctl settings to ensure that the MongoDB service starts on reboot sudo systemctl enable mongod
Restart the MongoDB service sudo systemctl restart mongod
Bring up the Mongo shell functionality to validate the local connection to Mongo mongo
Step 2 - Configure MongoDB to allow access from your Qlik Alerting server (only)
To update the settings you will need to edit the mongod.conf configuration file sudo nano /etc/mongod.conf The contents of the configuration file will be presented.
Scroll to the # network interfaces section and update the bindIp value For example (where multiple IPs are comma separated with no spaces):
bindIp: 127.0.0.1 (localhost only)
bindIp: 127.0.0.1,10.20.123.456 (localhost and server IP 10.20.123.456 only)
Do NOT change the #security setting until you have added users on MongoDB.
Click ctrl+x and follow the prompts to save the file with the same name
Restart the MongoDB service sudo systemctl restart mongod
Check the status of the service to validate that it is running correctly following these changes sudo systemctl status mongod
Confirm that MongoDB is listening to the new server IPs entered sudo netstat -lnp | grep mongod
Allow external access through the firewall to machine from a subnet (in this example public) sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.121.0/24 to any port 27017 (or make more secure as you need to)
Test connection from an external machine
Mac/Linux sudo nc -vznu <server ip or fqdn> 27017
Windows, use telnet (will need to be installed as a feature on machine) telnet <server ip or fqdn> 27017
Step 3 - Setup a user in MongoDB for Qlik Alerting to use to securely access the Qlik Alerting database only.
from your SSH connection, connect to mongo shell mongo
Create an admin user for MongoDB if this is a new install. One who has access to manage MongoDB access to all databases in the future. NOTE: this is an important step before configuring authorization in the mongod.conf file.
change database to use the admin database use admin
Create a Qlik Alerting database user with access to only that database.
Change database to use the qlikalerting database use qlikalerting
Create the qlik user with readwrite access to the qlikalerting database db.createUser({ user: "qlik", pwd: "yourPassword", roles: [ { role: “readWrite”, db: "qlikalerting" } ] } )
Exit mongo shell Exit
From your SSH prompt you can now enable security by changing the mongod.conf file.
Open the mongod.conf file sudo nano /etc/mongod.conf The contents of the configuration file will be presented.
Scroll to the #security section and ensure it shows as follows security: authorization: enabled
Click ctrl+x and follow the prompts to save the file with the same name
Restart the MongoDB service sudo systemctl restart mongod
Check the status of the service to validate that it is running correctly following these changes sudo systemctl status mongod
Step 4 - Configure Qlik Alerting to use the external MongoDB database
NOTE: you can install Qlik Alerting without having the Mongo or Redis databases locally installed. You should not try the registration steps before resetting the connection to the external databases.
You will need a remote session on the Qlik Alerting server.
Navigate to the C:\Program Files\Qlik Alerting\repository\config folder
Open the default.json file using a text editor (preferably one that formats nicely)
Edit the repository > uses > mongodb details:
the database 'qlikalerting' is the name of the database in MongoDB where all the data for Qlik Alerting will be stored. It defaults as qlikalerting but can be changed if required. e.g. "database" : "qlikalerting"
update the ip key with server (IP or FQDN) of your external MongoDB server, e.g. "ip": "10.20.123.456"
update the port if you have changed the standard port for MongoDB, e.g. "port": 27017
Assuming you have enabled authentication, update the auth key to "auth": true
Identify the authentication database in MongoDB (you may have setup your user authentication on a different database). In the example able the authentication is directly on the qlikalerting database. e.g. "authDatabase": "qlikalerting"
enter the username of the MongoDB user created above, e.g. "user": "qlik"
enter the password for this user as created in MongoDB, e.g. "password": "yourPassword"
[advanced] The final connectionString option is null by default. This provides the option of connecting with a pre-constructed string rather than entering all of the details above. Your MongoDB admin can support you with this option.
Save the default.json file
Restart the Qlik Alerting Repository service
You should now be able to register (new install) or login (existing install) using this new external database.
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