In this post, i will discuss how to migrate from mongoDB (in my case the database was hosted on AWS) to Azure CosmosDB, i searched online about different articles how to do that, the problem i faced most of them were discussing the same way which is Online and using 3rd party software which is not applicable for me due to security reason, thefore i decided to post about it maybe it will useful for someone else.
Usually the easiet way which is use Azure Database Migration Service to perform an offline/online migration of databases from an on-premises or cloud instance of MongoDB to Azure Cosmos DB’s API for MongoDB.
There are some prerequisite before start the migration to know more about it read here, the same link explained different ways for migrations, however before you start you should create an instance for Azure Cosmos DB.
Preparation of target Cosmos DB account
Create an Azure Cosmos DB account and select MongoDB as the API. Pre-create your databases through the Azure portal

from the search bar just search for “Azure Cosmos DB”

You have add new account for the new migration Since we are migrating from MongoDB then The API should be “Azure CosmosDB for MongoDB API”

The target is ready for migration but we have to check the connection string so we can use them in our migration from AWS to Azure.
Get the MongoDB connection string to customize
- the Azure Cosmos DB blade, select the API.
- the left pane of the account blade, click Connection String.
- The Connection String blade opens. It has all the information necessary to connect to the account by using a driver for MongoDB, including a preconstructed connection string.

From MongoDB (Source server) you have to take backup for the database, now after the backup is completed, no need to move the backup for another server , mongo providing two way of backup either mongodump (dump) or mongoexport and will generate JSON file.
For example using monogdump
mongodump --host <hostname:port> --db <Databasename that you want to backup > --collection <collectionname> --gzip --out /u01/user/
For mongoexport
mongoexport --host<hostname:port> --db <Databasename that you want to backup > --collection <collectionname> --out=<Location for JSON file>
After the the above command will be finished, in my advice run them in the background specially if the database size is big and generate a log for the background process so you can check it frequently.
Run the restore/import command from the source server , do you remember the connection string, now we will use them to connect to Azure Cosmos DB using the following, if you used mongodump then to restore you have to use mongorestore like the below :-
mongorestore --host testserver.mongo.cosmos.azure.com --port 10255 -u testserver -p w3KQ5ZtJbjPwTmxa8nDzWhVYRuSe0BEOF8dROH6IUXq7rJgiinM3DCDeSWeEdcOIgyDuo4EQbrSngFS7kzVWlg== --db test --collection test /u01/user/notifications_service/user_notifications.bson.gz --gzip --ssl --sslAllowInvalidCertificates
notice the follwing :-
- host : From Azure portal/connection string.
- Port : From Azure portal/connection string.
- Password : From Azure portal/connection string.
- DB : The name of the database you want to be created in azure cosmo,this name will be created during the migration to azure.
- Collection : The name of the collection you want to be created in azure cosmo,this name will be created during the migration to azure.
- Location for the backup.
- gzip because i compressed the backup
- Migration required to use ssl authication otherwise it will fail.
using mongoimport.
mongoimport --host testserver.mongo.cosmos.azure.com:10255 -u testserver -p w3KQ5ZtJbjPwTmxa8nDzWhVYRuSe0BEOF8dROH6IUXq7rJgiinM3DCDeSWeEdcOIgyDuo4EQbrSngFS7kzVWlg== --db test --collection test --ssl --sslAllowInvalidCertificates --type json --file /u01/dump/users_notifications/service_notifications.json
Once you run the command

Note: if you migrating huge or big databases you need to increase the cosmosdb throughout and database level after the migration will be finished return everything to the normal situation because of the cost.
Cheers
Osama