{"id":668,"date":"2017-12-26T11:38:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T19:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenwalger.com\/blog\/?p=668"},"modified":"2017-12-26T11:38:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T19:38:13","slug":"little-schema-design-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenwalger.com\/blog\/nosql\/mongodb\/little-schema-design-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Little Mongo DB Schema Design Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned in a previous post on Schema Design<\/a> I mentioned a book on the subject and that I hadn’t, at the time, read it. After hearing\u00a0The Little Mongo DB Schema Design Book<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Christian Kvalheim<\/a> mentioned elsewhere I thought I would see what it was all about. The book<\/a> was published in May of 2015. Even though it is a bit old, the coverage of schema design is still relevant.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

MongoDB Overview<\/h3>\n

Kvalheim starts off the book with a quick introduction to MongoDB<\/a> and some basic principles of schema design before moving into some examples of data modeling patterns. I thought his discussion of One-To-One, One-To-Many, and Many-To-Many data models was well done. He used some good examples of blogs and users to explain the concepts in an easy to follow fashion.<\/p>\n

Kvalheim moves on from there to cover an overview of storage engines available in MongoDB. Specifically the MMAP<\/a> and WiredTiger<\/a> storage engines. This provides nice coverage for those using older, pre version 3.2 instances of MongoDB, as well as those who have opted to upgrade to more recent versions. At the time of this writing, version 3.6 is the most current.<\/p>\n

After the discussion on storage engines, we are provided with information indexes<\/a> and sharding<\/a> concepts before diving into specifics about schema design itself.<\/p>\n

Schema Design Patterns<\/h3>\n

Once we move into the design pattern section of the book, Kvalheim does a nice job of breaking each design option down. He follows a consistent format for each pattern discussing the unique aspects of typical data modeling patterns. He showcases their operations and provides recommendations for indexing, scaling, and performance implications.<\/p>\n

The examples are done very well and provide some great coverage of a wide variety of use cases for data storage. Some example schema designs covered are:<\/p>\n