Last year ObjectRocket launched a migration tool to help Heroku customers that used Compose’s MongoDB add-on migrate to the ObjectRocket service as the Compose service approached end of life. After months of migrations we gave the tool a much needed rest, but it wasn’t long before we found we needed to call it back into service, so now the migration tool is officially back!
This time mLab has announced that they will be removing their service from the Heroku marketplace. We’d love to give the users of mLab’s Heroku add-on an easy way to stay in the Heroku ecosystem, so we’ve adjusted and improved the migration tool to support migrations from the mLab add-on to the ObjectRocket Heroku add-on.
Welcome Heroku mLab Users
We’re happy you’ve found us, and I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and our ObjectRocket MongoDB add-on. As one of the earliest fully-managed MongoDB DBaaS services, ObjectRocket has been providing managed MongoDB clusters for years and has always backed that service up with always-on DBA support. As we state in our Add-on listing, we offer MongoDB with:
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- Dedicated instances: All ObjectRocket instances run on dedicated containers and are never shared among multiple users.
- Highly Available: All ObjectRocket instances are 3-node replica sets with a master +2 replica and automated failover, compactions, and stepdowns.
- High performance: All PCIe Flash and generous RAM allocations for high performance.
- 24×7 support: All customers of all sizes get 24×7 ObjectRocket support with assisted migrations, upgrades, and patches.
We currently advertise sizes up to 100GB, but also support custom deployments of TBs and beyond. Simply reach out to our team and we’ll happily work with you to build the right solution for your needs.
Easier, Better, Faster, Stronger
As a quick refresher, the ObjectRocket MongoDB Migration Tool provides an online migration wizard that allows users to easily migrate their MongoDB data to the ObjectRocket service without downtime. You can find a deeper dive on how the migration tool works in a previous blog. However, what’s the fun in just re-releasing the same thing? We knew we could improve the process by adding a couple of new capabilities to the Migration tool.
In many ways, the mLab Heroku add-on is more complex than Compose’s was, so we had to update the migration tool to accommodate the multiple instance types that mLab supports: Sandbox, Shared, and Dedicated instances. Though all ObjectRocket MongoDB instances run on dedicated MongoDB instances, we support migration from all three mLab instance types and tune the wizard’s flow based on the type of mLab instance being migrated. We’re also still able to support zero-downtime migration for both Shared and Dedicated instances.
To offset the additional configuration required for those three instance types, we’ve made entering your mLab instance information easier by providing fewer fields, more validation of the data entered, and customized forms based on the type of instance being migrated. Read our documentation for a walkthrough of the full migration process.
Fewer Questions, More Answers
One of the biggest improvements we’ve made is that we now ask you fewer questions in the wizard and instead learn as much as we can from your current MongoDB instance directly. Once we’ve gathered the minimum information we need to connect to your existing instance, we then connect and determine:
- MongoDB Version
- Storage Engine
- Instance Storage Usage
This serves the dual benefit of making the data entry easier for you as well as easier for us to recommend the right instance for your needs. Based on the information we gather, we then recommend the optimal size and type of instance based on your use and even provide you with the ability to connect with us for white glove service if you need it.
We’re Here and Ready to Help
Though we’ve improved the migration process and tooling, we can never anticipate every question and configuration, so we back all of this up with smart people. We’re ready and willing to take your questions as you plan a migration service and are able to provide custom plan sizes and white glove service if the standard options in the migration tool don’t meet your needs. We look forward to working with you and would love the opportunity to earn your business.