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Clarify the VirtualBox warning #528

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Mar 21, 2016
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Clarify the VirtualBox warning #528

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Clarify the VirtualBox warning
DieterDePaepe Mar 21, 2016
fb49e23
Remove extra space from markdown
DieterDePaepe Mar 21, 2016
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion mongo/content.md
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Expand Up @@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ Important note: There are several ways to store data used by applications that r
- Let Docker manage the storage of your database data [by writing the database files to disk on the host system using its own internal volume management](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockervolumes/#adding-a-data-volume). This is the default and is easy and fairly transparent to the user. The downside is that the files may be hard to locate for tools and applications that run directly on the host system, i.e. outside containers.
- Create a data directory on the host system (outside the container) and [mount this to a directory visible from inside the container](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockervolumes/#mount-a-host-directory-as-a-data-volume). This places the database files in a known location on the host system, and makes it easy for tools and applications on the host system to access the files. The downside is that the user needs to make sure that the directory exists, and that e.g. directory permissions and other security mechanisms on the host system are set up correctly.

**WARNING**: because MongoDB uses memory mapped files it is not possible to use it through vboxsf to your host ([vbox bug](https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/819)). VirtualBox shared folders are not supported by MongoDB (see [docs.mongodb.org](https://docs.mongodb.org/manual/administration/production-notes/#fsync-on-directories) and related [jira.mongodb.org](https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-8600) bug). This means that it is not possible with the default setup using Docker Toolbox to run a MongoDB container with the data directory mapped to the host.
**WARNING (Windows & OS X)**: The default Docker setup on Windows and OS X uses a VirtualBox VM to host the Docker daemon. Unfortunately, the mechanism VirtualBox uses to share folders between the host system and the Docker container is not compatible with the memory mapped files used by MongoDB (see [vbox bug](https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/819), [docs.mongodb.org](https://docs.mongodb.org/manual/administration/production-notes/#fsync-on-directories) and related [jira.mongodb.org](https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-8600) bug). This means that it is not possible to run a MongoDB container with the data directory mapped to the host.

The Docker documentation is a good starting point for understanding the different storage options and variations, and there are multiple blogs and forum postings that discuss and give advice in this area. We will simply show the basic procedure here for the latter option above:

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