Problem: I have a mongodb that needs backing up. However the space on that server is limited. Lets call this server Production.

Solution: Do a mongodump from another server with plenty of space. We will call this server Backup

1. On Backup, create a user that can be used to ssh into the Production. Once done, create a ssh keypair. Then copy the public key into Production.

$ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
$ssh-copy-id .ssh/id_rsa_pub user@production -v 

2. Install mongodump. I suggest referring to the documentation on the official website. On Ubuntu, just install the mongodb-org-tools which contains mongodump.

3. Create ssh tunnel with local port forwarding on Backup. This will allow you to access the database locally via port 27071

$ssh -nNT -L 27071:127.0.0.1:27071 -v

4. Run mongodump [1]

$mongodump --gzip --database database_name

mongodump will connect to mongodb on Production and dump the data on Backup. All of this happens via ssh.

By default, mongodump will create a directory called dump. Do check out other options for mongodump on the official website.