#13823·NodeBB

Problems with mongoDB statefulsets in Kubernetes

Author: tibz7Created Dec 11, 2025Updated Aug 23, 2026
Labelsbug

NodeBB version

v3.7.4

NodeBB git hash

No response

NodeJS version

v20.19.4

Installed NodeBB plugins

When a member of the mongodb replicaset is not available, nodebb fails to start and enters in crashloops. Both are happening with both connection string types so mongodb:// or mongodb+srv:// :

mongodb://nodebb:[email protected],nodebb-stack-mongo-1.mongodb-replicaset-svc,mongo-2.mongodb-replicaset-svc/nodebb?tls=false&replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=primaryPreferred

I removed a pod from mongodb replicaset (2/3), and restarted a nodebb pod and it fails to start. Once I add it back, nodebb starts correctly. I also simulated a node down when testing the connection string using mongosh from an other pod and it can connect even if a member does not exist. (The service is a headless one.):

mongodb://nodebb:[email protected],nodebb-stack-mongo-1.mongodb-replicaset-svc,mongo-2.mongodb-replicaset-svc,mongo-3.mongodb-replicaset-svc/nodebb?tls=false&replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=primaryPreferred

For me this looks like a bug in the application or the mongodb driver, but it is quite problematic since that is not resilient to failure. I tried changing connectTimeoutMS=100000&serverSelectionTimeoutMS=100000 to the connection string but it does not help.

It could be a misconfiguration on the nodebb side but I would suspect the driver

Database type

No response

Database version

No response

Exact steps to cause this issue

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What you expected

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What happened instead

No response

Anything else?

No response