Question
Moving database (Mongo) to separate droplet.
Hi. I have a single Ubuntu droplet with Nodejs, nginx and mongodb running. I would like to move mongodb to seperate droplet to split the load. Please, give some advice regarding next questions:
- To allow app server connection to DB server, I can achieve it by enabling private networking for both droplets?
- After doing all manual setup (like in official guide: https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/networking/private-networking/quickstart/, should I add some sort of encryption to that connection? As I understand - no, because traffic between these droplets will only be visible to private network.
- Can I hide my database server from the public/Internet? If yes, then how I will connect to it via SSH for setup and administration?
- Should I use a DO Load Balancer, or I can just use nginx for that task as long as I have 1 application droplet?
Thanks in advance!
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Hi there,
Those are some very good questions. Let’s answer them one by one for anyone who comes across this in the future.
Private Networking: You can use a VPC for that. With the DigitalOcean VPCs, your Droplets are isolated at the network level, providing a secure and private environment for your resources. The traffic within a VPC is not visible to other Droplets outside the VPC.
Encryption: When using a VPC adding an extra layer of protection might be an overkill. However, this might depend on your security requirements, even with the enhanced privacy provided by a VPC, it might still a good idea to encrypt the communication between your application and database servers. Alternatively, you could use a Managed MongoDB cluster which already covers this:
Hide Database Server: Yes, you can restrict public access to your MongoDB server by configuring the firewall to only accept connections on the MongoDB port (27017 by default) from the IP of your application server. However, for SSH access, you should allow connections on port 22 from your own IP. This way, you’ll still be able to connect to the server for setup and administration. DigitalOcean provides a cloud firewall service that you can use for this purpose.
Load Balancer: Using a DigitalOcean Load Balancer could be beneficial if you have more than one application server, as it can distribute incoming network load across multiple droplets to ensure better availability and reliability. However, if you only have a single application droplet, using Nginx as a reverse proxy should be sufficient for your needs.
I would personally go for a Managed MongoDB cluster which covers most of the things that were mentioned.
Hope that this helps!
Best,
Bobby