validate (original) (raw)

Changed in version 6.2.

validate

The validate command checks a collection's data and indexes for correctness and returns the results. If you don't run the command in the background, the command also repairs any inconsistencies in the count and data size of a collection.

Tip

In mongosh, this command can also be run through the validate() helper method.

Helper methods are convenient for mongosh users, but they may not return the same level of information as database commands. In cases where the convenience is not needed or the additional return fields are required, use the database command.

Changed in version 5.0.

Starting in version 5.0, the validate command can also find inconsistencies in the collection and fix them if possible.

Index inconsistencies include:

An index is multikey but there are no multikey fields.
An index has multikeyPaths covering fields that are not multikey.
An index does not havemultikeyPaths but there are multikey documents (for indexes built before 3.4).

If any inconsistencies are detected by thedb.collection.validate() command, a warning is returned and the repair flag on the index is set to true.

db.collection.validate() also validates any documents that violate the collection'sschema validation rules.

Note

The validate command does not support views and raises an error when run against a view.

The db.collection.validate() method inmongosh provides a wrapper aroundvalidate.

This command is available in deployments hosted in the following environments:

MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

Important

This command is not supported in M0, M2, M5, and Flex clusters or in serverless instances. For more information, see Unsupported Commands.

MongoDB Enterprise: The subscription-based, self-managed version of MongoDB
MongoDB Community: The source-available, free-to-use, and self-managed version of MongoDB

The command has the following syntax:


db.runCommand(

   {

     validate: <string>,  // Collection name

     full: <boolean>,  // Optional

     repair: <boolean>,  // Optional, added in MongoDB 5.0

     metadata: <boolean>,  // Optional, added in MongoDB 5.0.4

     checkBSONConformance: <boolean>  // Optional, added in MongoDB 6.2

     background: <boolean> // Optional

   }

)

The command takes the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
validate	string	The name of the collection to validate.
full	boolean	Optional. A flag that determines whether the command performs a slower but more thorough check or a faster but less thorough check.If true, performs a more thorough check with the following exception:Full validation on the oplog for WiredTiger skips the more thorough check. The validate.warnings includes a notice of the behavior.If false, omits some checks for a faster but less thorough check.The default is false.For the WiredTiger storage engine, only the full validation process will force a checkpoint and flush all in-memory data to disk before verifying the on-disk data.
repair	boolean	Optional. A flag that determines whether the command performs a repair.If true, a repair is performed.If false, no repair is performed.The default is false.A repair can only be run on a standalone node.The repair fixes these issues:If missing index entries are found, the missing keys are inserted into the index.If extra index entries are found, the extra keys are removed from the index.If multikey documents are found for an index that is not a multikey index, the index is changed to a multikey index.If multikey documents are found that are not specified by an index's multikey paths, the index's multikey paths are updated.If corrupt documents with invalid BSON data are found, the documents are removed.For more information, see the --repair option for mongodNew in version 5.0.
metadata	boolean	Optional. A flag which allows users to perform a quick validation to detect invalid index options without scanning all of the documents and indexes.If true, a metadata validation scan is performed.If false, no metadata validation scan is not performed.The default is false.Running the validate command with { metadata: true } is not supported with any other validate options.The metadata validation option:Provides you a faster way of identifying invalid indexes by scanning only collections metadata.Provides an alternative to dropping and recreating multiple invalid indexes when used with the collModcommand.The metadata validation option only scans collection metadata to find invalid indexes more quickly.If there is an invalid index detected, the validate command will prompt you to use the collMod command to remove invalid indexes.db.runCommand( { collMod: <collectionName> } )New in version 5.0.4.
checkBSONConformance	boolean	Optional. If true, the collection is checked to ensure theBSON documents conform to the BSON specifications. The checks increase the time to complete the validation operation. Any issues are returned as a warning.checkBSONConformance:Default is false.Is enabled when full is set to true.Cannot be used with:repair set to true.metadata set to true.New in version 6.2.
background	boolean	Optional. If true, MongoDB runs the validate command in the background. If false, the command repairs any inconsistencies in the count and data size of a collection.The default is false.

The validate command can be slow, particularly on larger data sets.

The validate command obtains an exclusive lock W on the collection. This will block all reads and writes on the collection until the operation finishes. When run on a secondary, thevalidate operation can block all other operations on that secondary until it finishes.

Warning

Due to the performance impact of validation, consider runningvalidate only on secondary replica set nodes. You can use rs.stepDown() to instruct the currentprimary node to become a secondary to avoid impacting a live primary node.

The $currentOp and the currentOp command include dataThroughputAverage anddataThroughputLastSecond information for validate operations in progress.

The log messages for validate operations includedataThroughputAverage and dataThroughputLastSecondinformation.

Starting in MongoDB 6.2, the validate command anddb.collection.validate() method:

Check collections to ensure theBSON documents conform to the BSON specifications.
Check time series collectionsfor internal data inconsistencies.
Have a new option checkBSONConformance that enables comprehensive BSON checks.

The validate command no longer supports afterClusterTime. As such, validate cannot be associated with causally consistent sessions.

Starting in MongoDB 6.0, the validate command returns a message if aunique index has a key format that is incompatible. The message indicates an old format is used.

The validate command updates the collection's count and data size statistics in the collStats output with their correct values.

Note

In the event of an unclean shutdown, the count and data size statistics might be inaccurate.

To validate a collection myCollection using the default validation setting (specifically, full: false):

db.runCommand( { validate: "myCollection" } )

To perform a full validation of collection myCollection, specifyfull: true:

db.runCommand( { validate: "myCollection", full: true } )

To repair collection myCollection, specifyrepair: true:

db.runCommand( { validate: "myCollection", repair: true } )

To validate the metadata in the myCollection collection, specify metadata: true:

db.runCommand( { validate: "myCollection", metadata: true } )

To perform additional BSON conformance checks in myCollection, specify checkBSONConformance: true:

db.runCommand( { validate: "myCollection", checkBSONConformance: true } )

Note

The output may vary depending on the version and specific configuration of your MongoDB instance.

Specify full: true for more detailed output.

validate.uuid

The universally unique identifier (UUID) for the collection.

New in version 6.2.

validate.nInvalidDocuments

The number of invalid documents in the collection. Invalid documents are those that are not readable, which means the BSONdocument is corrupt and has an error or a size mismatch.

validate.nNonCompliantDocuments

The number of documents not conforming to the collection's schema. Non-compliant documents are not counted as invalid innInvalidDocuments.

Starting in MongoDB 6.2, nNonCompliantDocuments also includes the number of documents that do not conform to the BSONor time series collectionrequirements.

validate.nrecords

The number of documents in the collection.

validate.nIndexes

The number of indexes on the collection that were validated.

validate.keysPerIndex

A document that contains the name and index entry count for each index on the collection.


"keysPerIndex" : {

   "_id_" : <num>,

   "<index2_name>" : <num>,

   ...

}

keysPerIndex identifies the index by its name only.

validate.indexDetails

A document that contains the status of the index validation for each index.


"indexDetails" : {

   "_id_" : {

      "valid" : <boolean>

   },

   "<index2_name>" : {

      "valid" : <boolean>

   },

   ...

}

indexDetails identifies the specific index (or indexes) that is invalid. Earlier versions of MongoDB would mark all indexes as invalid, if any of the indexes were invalid.
indexDetails identifies the index by its name only. Earlier versions of MongoDB displayed the full namespace of the index; i.e. <db>.<collection>.$<index_name>.

validate.ns

The full namespace name of the collection. Namespaces include the database name and the collection name in the formdatabase.collection.

validate.valid

A boolean that is true if validate determines that all aspects of the collection are valid. When false, see theerrors field for more information.

validate.repaired

A boolean that is true if validate repaired the collection.

validate.warnings

An array that contains warning messages, if any, regarding the validate operation itself. The warning messages do not indicate that the collection is itself invalid. For example:


"warnings" : [

   "Could not complete validation of table:collection-28-6471619540207520785. This is a transient issue as the collection was actively in use by other operations."

],

validate.errors

If the collection is not valid (i.evalid is false), this field will contain a message describing the validation error.

validate.extraIndexEntries

An array that contains information for each index entry that points to a document that does not exist in the collection.


"extraIndexEntries" : [

   {

      "indexName" : <string>,

      "recordId" : <NumberLong>,  // for the non-existent document

      "indexKey" : {

         "<key1>" : <value>,

         ...

      }

   }

   ...

]

Note

For the extraIndexEntries array, the sum of all the indexKey field sizes has a limit of 1MB where the sizes include both the keys and values for the indexKey. If the sum exceeds this size, the warning field displays a message.

validate.missingIndexEntries

An array that contains information for each document that is missing the corresponding index entry.


"missingIndexEntries" : [

   {

      "indexName" : <string>,

      "recordId" : <NumberLong>,

      "idKey" : <_id key value>,     // The _id value of the document. Only present if an ``_id`` index exists.

      "indexKey" : {                 // The missing index entry

         "<key1>" : <value>,

         ...

      }

   }

   ...

 ]

Note

For the missingIndexEntries array, the sum of the idKey field size and all its indexKey field sizes has a limit of 1MB where the field sizes include both the keys and values for the idKey and indexKey. If the sum exceeds this size, the warning field displays a message.

validate.corruptRecords

An array of RecordId values for documents that are unreadable, possibly because the data is damaged. These documents are reported as corrupt during validation. A RecordId is a 64-bit integer internal key that uniquely identifies a document in a collection.


"corruptRecords" : [

   NumberLong(1),  // RecordId 1

   NumberLong(2)   // RecordId 2

]

New in version 5.0.

validate.ok

An integer with the value 1 when the command succeeds. If the command fails the ok field has a value of 0.