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How do I connect to a Spinup DocumentDB database?

How do I connect to a Spinup DocumentDB database?

Spinup offers Amazon DocumentDB—MongoDB-compatible, fully managed, and TLS-secured. You can connect to your database using the MongoDB Shell (mongosh) or a supported IDE on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

Prerequisites

Before connecting, you’ll need:

  • A running DocumentDB instance in Spinup

  • The following from your Spinup resource:

    • Cluster endpoint (e.g. docdb-abc123.cluster-xyz.us-east-1.docdb.amazonaws.com)

    • Username

    • Password

  • Access to the Amazon RDS TLS certificate

  • Your Spinup space’s firewall configured to allow traffic on port 27017

Step 1: Allow Access in Your Firewall

  1. In the Spinup portal, open your space

  2. Go to the Firewall tab

  3. Add an inbound rule:

    • Protocol: TCP

    • Port: 27017

    • Source: Your IP address (or your network range)

Avoid using 0.0.0.0/0 unless for brief testing—this exposes your database to the public internet.

Step 2: Install mongosh

You’ll use MongoDB Shell (mongosh) to securely connect.

On Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

# Import MongoDB public key wget -qO- https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-7.0.asc | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/server-7.0.asc # Add MongoDB repo echo "deb [ arch=amd64 ] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu focal/mongodb-org/7.0 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-7.0.list # Update and install sudo apt update sudo apt install -y mongodb-mongosh

On Windows

  1. Download the installer from the official MongoDB site:
    👉 MongoDB Shell for Windows

  2. Follow the installer prompts

  3. Once installed, run mongosh from Command Prompt or PowerShell

Confirm installation with:

mongosh --version

Step 3: Download the RDS TLS Certificate

All connections to DocumentDB must use TLS.

Download the Amazon RDS CA bundle:

On Linux/macOS:

wget https://truststore.pki.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.pem

On Windows:

  1. Open a browser and visit:
    https://truststore.pki.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.pem

  2. Right-click → Save As → Save the file as global-bundle.pem

Place it in an accessible directory like C:\Users\YourName\certs\

Step 4: Connect with mongosh

Connection Template

mongosh --tls \ --tlsCAFile /path/to/global-bundle.pem \ "docdb-endpoint:27017" \ --username your-username

Linux/macOS Example:

mongosh --tls \ --tlsCAFile ./global-bundle.pem \ "docdb-abc123.cluster-xyz.us-east-1.docdb.amazonaws.com:27017" \ --username admin

Windows (PowerShell) Example:

mongosh --tls ` --tlsCAFile "C:\Users\YourName\certs\global-bundle.pem" ` "docdb-abc123.cluster-xyz.us-east-1.docdb.amazonaws.com:27017" ` --username admin

You will be prompted for your password after running the command. Authentication typically occurs against your default database (not admin).

Optional: Use VS Code to Connect

You can use the MongoDB for VS Code extension for GUI-style connections.

  1. Install the MongoDB for VS Code extension

  2. Open the MongoDB sidebar

  3. Click “Connect” → “From Connection String”

  4. Paste a URI like:

mongodb://your-username:your-password@docdb-endpoint:27017/?tls=true&tlsCAFile=C:\Users\YourName\certs\global-bundle.pem

You can also save and reuse connections from the sidebar.

Troubleshooting

Symptom

Check

Symptom

Check

Connection timeout

Ensure firewall port 27017 is open and IP is correct

TLS certificate errors

Confirm correct global-bundle.pem path and syntax

Auth errors

Use the correct database name and not admin (unless configured)

“mongosh not recognized”

Ensure mongosh is installed and your PATH is updated (Windows)

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