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Add Secondary Indexes to Time Series Collections

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  • Use Secondary Indexes to Improve Sort Performance
  • Last Point Queries on Time Series Collections
  • Specify Index Hints for Time Series Collections
  • Time Series Secondary Indexes in MongoDB 6.0 and Later

To improve query performance for time series collections, add one or more secondary indexes to support common time series query patterns. Starting in MongoDB 6.3, MongoDB automatically creates a compound index on the metaField and timeField fields for new collections.

Note

Not all index types are supported. For a list of unsupported index types, see Limitations for Secondary Indexes on Time Series Collections.

You may wish to create additional secondary indexes. Consider a weather data collection with the configuration:

db.createCollection(
"weather",
{
   timeseries: {
      timeField: "timestamp",
      metaField: "metadata"
}})

In each weather data document, the metadata field value is a subdocument with fields for the weather sensor ID and type:

{
   "timestamp": ISODate("2021-05-18T00:00:00.000Z"),
   "metadata": {
     "sensorId": 5578,
     "type": "temperature"
   },
   "temp": 12
}

The default compound index for the collection indexes the entire metadata subdocument, so the index is only used with $eq queries. By indexing specific metadata fields, you improve query performance for other query types.

For example, this $in query benefits from a secondary index on metadata.type:

{ metadata.type:{ $in: ["temperature", "pressure"] }}

Tip

See:

db.collection.createIndex()

Use Secondary Indexes to Improve Sort Performance

Sort operations on time series collections can use secondary indexes on the timeField field. Under certain conditions, sort operations can also use compound secondary indexes on the metaField and timeField fields.

The aggregation pipeline stages $match and $sort determine which indexes a time series collection can use. An index can be used in the following scenarios:

  • Sort on { <timeField>: ±1 } uses a secondary index on <timeField>

  • Sort on { <metaField>: ±1, timeField: ±1 } uses the default compound index on { <metaField>: ±1, timeField: ±1 }

  • Sort on { <timeField>: ±1 } uses a secondary index on { metaField: ±1, timeField: ±1 } when there is a point predicate on <metaField>

For example, the following sensorData collection contains measurements from weather sensors:

db.sensorData.insertMany( [ {
     "metadata": {
         "sensorId": 5578,
         "type": "omni",
         "location": {
             type: "Point",
             coordinates: [-77.40711, 39.03335]
         }
     },
     "timestamp": ISODate("2022-01-15T00:00:00.000Z"),
     "currentConditions": {
         "windDirection": 127.0,
         "tempF": 71.0,
         "windSpeed": 2.0,
         "cloudCover": null,
         "precip": 0.1,
         "humidity": 94.0,
     }
   },
   {
     "metadata": {
         "sensorId": 5578,
         "type": "omni",
         "location": {
             type: "Point",
             coordinates: [-77.40711, 39.03335]
         }
     },
     "timestamp": ISODate("2022-01-15T00:01:00.000Z"),
     "currentConditions": {
         "windDirection": 128.0,
         "tempF": 69.8,
         "windSpeed": 2.2,
         "cloudCover": null,
         "precip": 0.1,
         "humidity": 94.3,
     }
   },
   {
     "metadata": {
         "sensorId": 5579,
         "type": "omni",
         "location": {
             type: "Point",
             coordinates: [-80.19773, 25.77481]
         }
     },
     "timestamp": ISODate("2022-01-15T00:01:00.000Z"),
     "currentConditions": {
         "windDirection": 115.0,
         "tempF": 88.0,
         "windSpeed": 1.0,
         "cloudCover": null,
         "precip": 0.0,
         "humidity": 99.0,
     }
    }
  ]
)

Create a secondary single-field index on the timestamp field:

db.sensorData.createIndex( { "timestamp": 1 } )

The following sort operation on the timestamp field uses the Secondary Index to improve performance:

db.sensorData.aggregate( [
  { $match: { "timestamp" : { $gte: ISODate("2022-01-15T00:00:00.000Z") } } },
  { $sort: { "timestamp": 1 } }
] )

To confirm that the sort operation used the Secondary Index, run the operation again with the .explain( "executionStats" ) option:

db.sensorData.explain( "executionStats" ).aggregate( [
  { $match: { "timestamp": { $gte: ISODate("2022-01-15T00:00:00.000Z") } } },
  { $sort: { "timestamp": 1 } }
] )

Last Point Queries on Time Series Collections

In time series data, a last point query returns the data point with the latest timestamp for a given field. For time series collections, a last point query fetches the latest measurement for each unique metadata value. For example, you may want to get the latest temperature reading from all sensors. Improve performance on last point queries by creating any of the following indexes:

{ "metadata.sensorId": 1,  "timestamp": 1 }
{ "metadata.sensorId": 1,  "timestamp": -1 }
{ "metadata.sensorId": -1, "timestamp": 1 }
{ "metadata.sensorId": -1, "timestamp": -1 }

Note

Last point queries are most performant when they use the DISTINCT_SCAN optimization. This optimization is only available when an index on timeField is descending.

The following command creates a compound secondary index on metaField (ascending) and timeField (descending):

db.sensorData.createIndex( { "metadata.sensorId": 1,  "timestamp": -1 } )

The following last point query example uses the descending timeField compound secondary index created above:

db.sensorData.aggregate( [
   {
      $sort: { "metadata.sensorId": 1, "timestamp": -1 }
   },
   {
      $group: {
         _id: "$metadata.sensorId",
         ts: { $first: "$timestamp" },
         temperatureF: { $first: "$currentConditions.tempF" }
      }
   }
] )

To confirm that the last point query used the secondary index, run the operation again using .explain( "executionStats" ):

db.getCollection( 'sensorData' ).explain( "executionStats" ).aggregate( [
   {
      $sort: { "metadata.sensorId": 1, "timestamp": -1 }
   },
   {
      $group: {
         _id: "$metadata.sensorId",
         ts: { $first: "$timestamp" },
         temperatureF: { $first: "$currentConditions.tempF" }
      }
   }
] )

The winningPlan.queryPlan.inputStage.stage is DISTINCT_SCAN, which indicates that the index was used. For more information on the explain plan output, see Explain Results.

Specify Index Hints for Time Series Collections

Index hints cause MongoDB to use a specific index for a query. Some operations on time series collections can only take advantage of an index if that index is specified in a hint.

For example, the following query causes MongoDB to use the timestamp_1_metadata.sensorId_1 index:

db.sensorData.find( { "metadata.sensorId": 5578 } ).hint( "timestamp_1_metadata.sensorId_1" )

On a time series collection, you can specify hints using either the index name or the index key pattern. To get the names of the indexes on a collection, use the db.collection.getIndexes() method.

Time Series Secondary Indexes in MongoDB 6.0 and Later

New in version 6.3.

Starting in MongoDB 6.3, you can create a partial TTL index for a time series collection. You can only filter on the metaField.

If the collection doesn't use the expireAfterSeconds option to expire documents, creating a partial TTL index sets an expiration time for matching documents only. If the collection uses expireAfterSeconds for all documents, a partial TTL index lets you expire matching documents sooner.

New in version 6.0.

Starting in MongoDB 6.0, you can:

Note

If there are secondary indexes on time series collections and you need to downgrade the feature compatibility version (FCV), you must first drop any secondary indexes that are incompatible with the downgraded FCV. See setFeatureCompatibilityVersion.

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