MongoDB 2.4.8 capped collection and tailable cursor consuming all memory

Question

We are currently exploring Capped Collections and Tailable Cursors within MongoDB to create a queueing system for notifications. However, after creating a simple LinqPad test (code below) we noticed when running, Mongo constantly allocates memory until there are no more resources available, even though we are not inserting any records. This allocation continues until all system RAM is used, at which point Mongo simply stops responding.

As we are new to Capped Collections and Tailable Cursors, I wanted to ensure we havent missed something obvious before submitting a bug.

Note: We tried the code below with journaling on and off with the same results.

Platform: Windows Server 2012 64bit
MongoDB: Version 2.4.8 64bit
Driver: Official C# 10gen v1.8.3.9

Linqpad script

var conn = new MongoClient("mongodb://the.server.url").GetServer().GetDatabase("TestDB");

if(!conn.CollectionExists("Queue")) {

    conn.CreateCollection("Queue", CollectionOptions
        .SetCapped(true)
        .SetMaxSize(100000)
        .SetMaxDocuments(100)
    );

    //Insert an empty document as without this 'cursor.IsDead' is always true
    var coll = conn.GetCollection("Queue");
    coll.Insert(
        new BsonDocument(new Dictionary<string, object> {
            { "PROCESSED", true },
        }), WriteConcern.Unacknowledged
    );
}

var coll = conn.GetCollection("Queue");
var query = coll.Find(Query.EQ("PROCESSED", false))
    .SetFlags(QueryFlags.AwaitData | QueryFlags.NoCursorTimeout | QueryFlags.TailableCursor);

var cursor = new MongoCursorEnumerator<BsonDocument>(query);

while(true) {
    if(cursor.MoveNext()) {
        string.Format(
            "{0:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} - {1}",
            cursor.Current["Date"].ToUniversalTime(),
            cursor.Current["X"].AsString
        ).Dump();

        coll.Update(
            Query.EQ("_id", cursor.Current["_id"]),
            Update.Set("PROCESSED", true),
            WriteConcern.Unacknowledged
        );
    } else if(cursor.IsDead) {
        "DONE".Dump();
        break;
    }
}

Can you run db.currentOp() while this is running a post the results? Can you also post your mongod log file covering the run? — James Wahlin, Jan 08 '14 at 19:03
I ran into the same problem... It seems, mongoDB holds the entire oplog in RAM while this is running. For info, i use a single machine, adding replication only for this functionality. Here is my currentOp and log: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/853035/currentOp.txt https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/853035/log.txt — Frank Pfattheicher, Jan 10 '14 at 13:30
Now i found that the memory usage is about 2.4GB entering MoveNext the first time. After the first document is returned it drops to 1.2GB, after the second document it is back at the original value??? See picture here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/853035/memory_usage.png — Frank Pfattheicher, Jan 10 '14 at 14:42
@Needleski, when you say "MongoDB" consumes all memory, are you referring to the server or the driver? — Craig Wilson, Jan 21 '14 at 14:44

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '14 at 12:38

It seems I found the solution to the problem!!

The issue in the above code revolves around the query:

Query.EQ("PROCESSED", false)

When I removed this and replaced it with a query based on the id of the document, the memory consumption problem disappeared. On further reflection, this "PROCESSED" property really isnt required in the query as cursor.MoveNext() will always return the next new document (if there is one). Heres the refactored LinqPad script based on the above code....

var conn = new MongoClient("mongodb://the.server.url").GetServer().GetDatabase("TestDB");

if(conn.CollectionExists("Queue")) {
    conn.DropCollection("Queue");
}

conn.CreateCollection("Queue", CollectionOptions
    .SetCapped(true)
    .SetMaxSize(100000)
    .SetMaxDocuments(100)
    .SetAutoIndexId(true)
);

//Insert an empty document as without this 'cursor.IsDead' is always true
var coll = conn.GetCollection("Queue");
coll.Insert(
    new BsonDocument(new Dictionary<string, object> {
        { "PROCESSED", true },
        { "Date", DateTime.UtcNow },
        { "X", "test" }
    }), WriteConcern.Unacknowledged
);

//Create query based on latest document id
BsonValue lastId = BsonMinKey.Value;
var query = coll.Find(Query.GT("_id", lastId))
    .SetFlags(QueryFlags.AwaitData | QueryFlags.NoCursorTimeout | QueryFlags.TailableCursor);

var cursor = new MongoCursorEnumerator<BsonDocument>(query);

while(true) {
    if(cursor.MoveNext()) {
        string.Format(
            "{0:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} - {1}",
            cursor.Current["Date"].ToUniversalTime(),
            cursor.Current["X"].AsString
        ).Dump();
    } else if(cursor.IsDead) {
        "DONE".Dump();
        break;
    }
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '15 at 09:21

Same here - without that additional query.

After some more investigation (in fact VERY MUCH MORE) i found the problem looks like this:

If the first MoveNext does not return a record the problem exists. It doesn't matter what kind the query is. It doesn't matter how many entries are in the collection.

If you change the query returning the last entry as the first result everything works fine. You may discard this as you know this already...

The upper example succeeds becaus you get initially ALL records already in the collection.

MongoDB 2.4.8 capped collection and tailable cursor consuming all memory

2 Answers2