The goal of this tutorial is to show a way to backup and restore a MongoDB without the need of using file system snapshots by only using MongoDB shipped tools. In my case I did not have the option to use LVM snapshots, which would have been my primary choice. The restored Cluster will have the same distribution of chunks like it was when the backup was done. My MongoDB cluster setup looks like this:

The following list contains some facts and problems that I stumbled across in my MongoDB journey. It was a good lesson on what problems you can face in a production environment when you or your company decide to jump onto the latest Hype Train of technology. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I will update this post from time to time to mark the fixed problems - the current speed is 1 fixed ticket per year.