db.addUser()¶

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Definition
Considerations
Example

Deprecated since version 2.6: Use db.createUser() and db.updateUser() instead of db.addUser() to add users to MongoDB.

In 2.6, MongoDB introduced a new model for user credentials and privileges, as described in Security Introduction. To use db.addUser() on MongoDB 2.4, see db.addUser() in the version 2.4 of the MongoDB Manual.

Definition¶

db.addUser(document)¶

Adds a new user on the database where you run the method. The db.addUser() method takes a user document as its argument:

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db.addUser(<user document>)

Specify a document that resembles the following as an argument to db.addUser():

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{ user: "<name>",
  pwd: "<cleartext password>",
  customData: { <any information> },
  roles: [
    { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
    ...
  ],
  writeConcern: { <write concern> }
}

The db.addUser() user document has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`pwd`	string	The user’s password. The `pwd` field is not required if you run `db.addUser()` on the `$external` database to create users who have credentials stored externally to MongoDB.
`customData`	document	Optional. Any arbitrary information. This field can be used to store any data an admin wishes to associate with this particular user. For example, this could be the user’s full name or employee id.
`roles`	array	The roles granted to the user. Can specify an empty array `[]` to create users without roles.
`writeConcern`	document	Optional. The level of write concern for the creation operation. The `writeConcern` document takes the same fields as the `getLastError` command.
`user`	string	The name of the new user.

Users created on the $external database should have credentials stored externally to MongoDB, as, for example, with MongoDB Enterprise installations that use Kerberos.

In the roles field, you can specify both built-in roles and user-defined role.

To specify a role that exists in the same database where db.addUser() runs, you can either specify the role with the name of the role:

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"readWrite"

Or you can specify the role with a document, as in:

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{ role: "<role>", db: "<database>" }

To specify a role that exists in a different database, specify the role with a document.

Considerations¶

The db.addUser() method returns a duplicate user error if the user exists.

When interacting with 2.6 and later MongoDB instances, db.addUser() sends unencrypted passwords. To encrypt the password in transit use SSL.

In the 2.6 version of the shell, db.addUser() is backwards compatible with both the 2.4 version of db.addUser() and the 2.2 version of db.addUser(). In 2.6, for backwards compatibility db.addUser() creates users that approximate the privileges available in previous versions of MongoDB.

Example¶

The following db.addUser() method creates a user Carlos on the database where the command runs. The command gives Carlos the clusterAdmin and readAnyDatabase roles on the admin database and the readWrite role on the current database:

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{ user: "Carlos",
  pwd: "cleartext password",
  customData: { employeeId: 12345 },
  roles: [
    { role: "clusterAdmin", db: "admin" },
    { role: "readAnyDatabase", db: "admin" },
    "readWrite"
  ],
  writeConcern: { w: "majority" , wtimeout: 5000 }
}

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