sh.setBalancerState()

Description

sh.setBalancerState(state)

Enables or disables the balancer.

Starting in MongoDB 6.0.3, automatic chunk splitting is not performed. This is because of balancing policy improvements. Auto-splitting commands still exist, but do not perform an operation.

In MongoDB versions earlier than 6.0.3, sh.setBalancerState() also enables auto-splitting if enabling the balancer and disables auto-splitting if disabling the balancer.

Use sh.getBalancerState() to determine if the balancer is currently enabled or disabled and sh.isBalancerRunning() to check its current state.

Important

mongosh Method

This page documents a mongosh method. This is not the documentation for database commands or language-specific drivers, such as Node.js.

For the database command, see the balancerStart and balancerStop commands.

For MongoDB API drivers, refer to the language-specific MongoDB driver documentation.

Important

You can only run sh.setBalancerState() on a mongos instance. sh.setBalancerState() errors if run on mongod instance.

The sh.setBalancerState() method has the following parameter:

Parameter	Type	Description
state	boolean	Set this to true to enable the balancer and false to disable it. Leaving the balancer disabled for extended periods of time can lead to unbalanced shards, which degrade cluster performance. Only disable the balancer if necessary, and ensure that you re-enable the balancer when maintenance is complete.

Compatibility

This method is available in deployments hosted in the following environments:

• MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

• MongoDB Enterprise: The subscription-based, self-managed version of MongoDB

• MongoDB Community: The source-available, free-to-use, and self-managed version of MongoDB

Learn More

• sh.enableBalancing()

• sh.disableBalancing()

• sh.getBalancerState()

• sh.isBalancerRunning()

• sh.startBalancer()

• sh.stopBalancer()

• sh.waitForBalancer()

• sh.waitForBalancerOff()