Attempts to install MongoDB on a cPanel based CentOS VPS

While trying to install MongoDB on a cPanel based CentOS server, I found the system configurations were customized by cPanel. Many commands were unavailable in bash, and some package installations were disabled in /etc/yum.conf (e.g., php* in the 'exclude' list blocked the installation of php-devel package, etc.). This document outlines the key steps to install MongoDB on such a system.

I referred to the official documentation on mongodb.com to install MongoDB on CentOS. At the time of writing this, the version provided in the documentation to install was 4.4.

Ref. https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-red-hat/

1. Create a repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d called mongodb-org-4.4.repo with this content:

   [mongodb-org-4.4]
   name=MongoDB Repository
   baseurl=https://repo.mongodb.org/yum/redhat/$releasever/mongodb-org/4.4/x86_64/
   gpgcheck=1
   enabled=1
   gpgkey=https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.4.asc
   

2. Install the MongoDB packages:

   yum install -y mongodb-org

3. Configure MongoDB to auto-start on system startup / reboot:

   chkconfig mongod on

   Output:

   Note: Forwarding request to 'systemctl enable mongod.service'.

4. Start MongoDB:

   service mongod start

   Output:

   Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start mongod.service

5. Install MongoDB PHP Extension

   Note that cPanel has tools like pecl, phpize, etc., located in /opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/bin/. Change the version in "ea-php*" according to your PHP version. Multiple versions of PHP might be installed, so choose the version used for the project.

   To run phpize followed by ./configure while compiling a package yourself, use:

   /opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/bin/phpize && ./configure --with-php-config=/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/bin/php-config

   PHP extension installation with the pecl tool:

   /opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/bin/pecl install mongodb

   Ref. https://www.php.net/manual/en/mongodb.installation.pecl.php

   Note that some references suggest installing 'mongo' as the extension, but it's the old extension. With PHP 7, you need to install 'mongodb' as the extension.

   A successful installation should end with:

   Build process completed successfully
   Installing '/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/lib64/php/modules/mongodb.so'
   install ok: channel://pecl.php.net/mongodb-1.9.0
   Extension mongodb enabled in php.ini
   

   Info: Location of php.ini on cPanel:

   /opt/cpanel/ea-*/root/etc/php.ini

6. Restart Apache:

   service httpd restart