Announcing MongoDB Server 8.0 Platform Support Improvements

Alexandre Ettouati
June 17, 2024

Last month at MongoDB.local NYC 2024, we announced the preview of MDB 8.0, the next evolution of MongoDB’s modern database. With MongoDB 8.0, we’re focused on delivering the unparalleled performance, scalability, and operational resilience necessary to support the creation of next-generation applications.

For that to be possible, users must be able to deploy MongoDB on industry-standard operating systems. As a result, we are updating our Server Platform Policy to ensure that customers have the best possible experience when using MongoDB.

Starting in MongoDB 8.0, there will be two new changes:

When a new major version of MongoDB is released, we will only release it operating system (OS) versions that are fully supported by the vendor for the duration of the MongoDB version’s life. In short, we will support an operating system if the operating system’s Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) date is after the MongoDB Server’s End of Life (EOL) date.
We will release new MongoDB Server versions (both major and minor) on the minimum supported minor version of the OS (defined by the OS vendor). Once an OS minor version is no longer supported by the vendor, we will update future MongoDB Server versions to the next supported OS minor version.

As always, MongoDB reserves the right to discontinue support for platforms based on lack of user demand and/or technical difficulties (e.g., if a platform doesn’t support required libraries or compiler features).

Ensuring best-in-class security

MongoDB routinely updates our documentation to indicate which platforms a new version of the MongoDB Server will be available on with the general availability release of that new server version.

To ensure that MongoDB customers can meet strong regulatory and security requirements, our software is developed, released, and distributed in accordance with industry security best practices. Given the mission-critical nature of MongoDB’s business—providing a highly secure, performant data platform to tens of thousands of customers in over 100 countries—we strive to provide strong and consistent security assurances across all of our products. In addition, MongoDB partners also need guarantees about the security development lifecycle of our products so they can provide the best experience to their customers.

By ensuring that our software runs only on platform versions that are receiving security patches, we aim to limit the vulnerabilities that might be introduced by customers running EOL operating systems.

The significance of this change

With every major server release, MongoDB determines the supported builds for that general availability (GA) release according to the planned vendor platform’s end of life date —meaning the MongoDB major release will not support the operating system if the operating system’s extended lifecycle support ends before the MongoDB EOL date. This also applies to server container images delivered to our customers.

Furthermore, to guarantee security assurances for operating systems that have a minimum minor version, we will only build new versions of MongoDB Server software on a vendor-supported major/minor version of the operating system. Concretely, we will build new versions of MongoDB on a minimum minor version until it hits a maintenance event (defined on a per-vendor basis), and at that point future MongoDB server builds will be updated to the new supported minor version.

Separately, when a vendor publishes a new major version of an operating system after a given version of MongoDB reaches GA, we will evaluate whether the latest MongoDB release will run on this new OS version, or we will wait for the next major MongoDB release before documenting formal platform support on our website.

Walkthrough: How it could work for you

Consider the RHEL 9 Planning Guide below and the hypothetical release cadence of MongoDB version X.0. As long as version X.0 is released three years before the end of RHEL 9 support, which as noted by RHEL is 2032, we will provide support on RHEL 9. This means that 2029 will be the last year that MongoDB releases a server version on RHEL 9.

Next, consider that version X.0 will be released at the end of 2025. Following the Extended Update Support Plan, we will build version X.0 on RHEL 9.6 until the start of 2026 when RHEL 9.8 becomes available. And then for future versions, MDB X.Y will begin being built on RHEL 9.8 until we require the minimum version to be 9.10 in 2027.

Diagram of the RHEL 9 planning guide. The left side of the chart features ratings from 9.0 up to 9.10. The bottom of the chart has the years from 2022 to 2032. The bars within the chart represent dark blue as minor release, light blue as extended update support, and light green as enhanced extended update support. The dark blue, minor release, starts in 2022 at 9.0 and reaches 9.10 in 2027. Light blue, extended update support, starts at the end of 2022 and peaks at 9.8 in 2026. Finally, the light green, enhanced extended update support, starts at 9.0 in 2024 and reaches 9.8 in 2028. — **RHEL 9 planning guide**

Building the future

Overall, these coming changes to the MongoDB Server Platform Policy underscore MongoDB’s commitment to helping developers innovate quickly and easily while providing an even more highly secure and performant data platform.

Stay tuned for additional updates about MongoDB 8.0—which will provide optimal performance by dramatically increasing query performance, improving resilience during periods of heavy load, making scalability easier and more cost-effective, and making time series collections faster and more efficient.

For more information about the Server Platform Policy updates, please refer to our documentation.

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AI-Powered Media Personalization: MongoDB and Vector Search

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By using LLMs to automate these processes, publishers can maintain a high level of productivity and innovation in content creation, ensuring they remain at the cutting edge of media delivery. Future directions As media consumption habits continue to evolve, AI-powered personalization stands out as a vital tool for publishers. By using AI to deliver tailored content and to automate back end processes, publishers can address the decline in traditional referrals and build stronger, more direct relationships with their audiences. If you would like to learn more about AI-Powered Media Personalization, visit the following resources: AI-Powered Personalization to Drive Next-Generation Media Channels AI-Powered Innovation in Telecommunications and Media GitHub Repository : Create a local version of this solution by following the instructions in the repository

June 13, 2024

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Nokia Corteca Scales Wi-Fi Connectivity to Millions of Devices With MongoDB Atlas

Nokia’s home Wi-Fi connectivity cloud platform was launched in 2019 as the Nokia WiFi Cloud Controller (NWCC). In 2023, it was renamed and relaunched as the Corteca Home Controller, becoming part of the Corteca software suite that delivers smarter broadband for a better experience. The Corteca Home Controller can be hosted on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, and is the industry’s first platform to support three management services—device management, Wi-Fi management, and application management. Supporting TR-369 (a standardized remote device management protocol) also allows the Home Controller to work in a multi-vendor environment, managing both Nokia broadband devices and third-party broadband devices. By solving connectivity issues before the end-user detects them, and by automatically optimizing Wi-Fi performance, the Home Controller helps deliver excellent customer experiences to millions of users, 24/7. During the five years that Nokia Corteca has been a MongoDB Atlas customer, the Home Controller has successfully scaled from 500,000 devices to over 4.5 million. There are now 75 telecommunications customers of Home Controller spread across all regions of the globe. Having the stability, efficiency, and performance to scale Nokia Corteca's solution is end-to-end, from applications embedded in the device, through the home, and into the cloud. Algorithms assess data extracted from home networks, based on which performance parameters automatically adjust as needed—changing Wi-Fi channels to avoid network interference, for example—thereby ensuring zero downtime. The Home Controller processes real-time data sent from millions of devices, generating massive volumes of data. With a cloud optimization team tasked with deploying the solution across the globe to ever more customers, the Home Controller needed to store and manage its vast dataset and to onboard new telecommunication organizations more easily without incurring any downtime. Prior to Nokia Corteca moving to MongoDB Atlas, its legacy relational database lacked stability and required both admin and application teams to manage operations. A flexible model with time series capabilities That's where MongoDB Atlas came in. Nokia was familiar with the MongoDB Atlas database platform, having already worked with it as part of a previous company acquisition and solution integration. As Nokia's development team had direct experience with the scalability, manageability, and ease of use offered by MongoDB Atlas, they knew it had the potential to address the Home Controller’s technical and business requirements. There was another key element: Nokia wanted to store time-series data—a sequence of data points in which insights are gained by analyzing changes over time. MongoDB Atlas has the unique ability to store operational and time series data in parallel and provides robust querying capabilities on that data. Other advantages include MongoDB's flexible schema, which helps developers store data to match the application's needs and adapt as data changes over time. MongoDB Atlas also provides features such as Performance Advisor that monitors the performance of the database and makes intelligent recommendations to optimize and improve the performance and resource consumption Fast real time data browsing and scalability made easy Previously, scaling the database had been time-consuming and manual. With MongoDB Atlas, the team can easily scale up as demand increases with very little effort and no downtime. This also means it is much more straightforward to add new clients, such as large telecommunications companies. Having started with 100GB of data, the team now has more than 1.3 terabytes, and can increase the disc space in a fraction of a second, positioning the team to be able to scale with the business. As the Home Controller grows and onboards more telcos, the team anticipates a strengthening relationship with MongoDB. “We have a very good relationship with the MongoDB team,” said Jaisankar Gunasekaran, Head of Cloud Hosting and Operations at Nokia. “One of the main advantages is their local presence—they’re accessible, they’re friendly, and they’re experts. It makes our lives easier and lets us concentrate on our products and solutions.” To learn more about how MongoDB can help drive innovation and capture customer imaginations, check out our MongoDB for Telecommunications page.

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