Meteor react on Gcloud - node.js

Question

I am trying to deploy my Meteor React app on Google's cloud but when I try deploying it, I get the error saying that MONGO_URL needs to be specified. I build my meteor app and cd to my bundle folder where I do gcloud app deploy. Here is my package.json
{
"private": true,
"scripts": {
"start": "node main.js",
"install": "(cd programs/server && npm install)"
},
"engines": {
"node": "6.6.0"
}
}
How can I find out my meteor mongo username and password. Running regular meteor did not ask me for my username and password. And here is my app.yaml
runtime: nodejs
env: flex
threadsafe: true
automatic_scaling:
max_num_instances: 1
env_variables:
MONGO_URL: 'mongodb://[user]:[pass]#[host]:[port]/[db]'
ROOT_URL: 'https://...'
METEOR_SETTINGS: '{}'
I don't know what to put for MONGO_URL and ROOT_URL if I am deploying on gcloud. Also I have settings file for my project. Should it go under METER_SETTINGS in app.yaml? I apologize for asking too many question but this is my first time dealing with gcloud :)

Answer 1

This question is a little old, but it's still getting some views from Google so let's answer by parts, first you need to understand how Meteor interacts with MongoDB in development and production. When you're coding your app, just executing meteor run does all the magic, because Meteor deploys an internal MongoDB. This is not recommended for real production usage and won't work well under any container based architecture (such as Docker, Google App Engine, Heroku etc.).
Given that, you'll need to deploy a separate instance in Google Compute Engine based on MongoDB. Google has them ready to launch in the Google Cloud Launcher, just search for "MongoDB".
I recommend the Bitnami's one, which is easier to configure if you're just beginning.
Google will create an instance automatically and you'll be given a root username and password, alongside a public IP address to connect to the instance.
Run the command below to access Mongo from a terminal:
# Use this template for the command
mongo "mongodb://root:PASSWORD#IP_ADDRESS/" --authenticationDatabase admin
# For example, with sample values
mongo "mongodb://root:8sdjkfh8876#127.0.0.1/" --authenticationDatabase admin
Now, create a new user for Meteor to connect on your newly created database. Never give it the root credentials, it won't work and it's not safe. For example, naming the database as myapp.
use myapp;
db.createUser({
user: "meteor_app",
pwd: "A_SECURE_PASSWORD",
roles: [ "readWrite", "dbAdmin" ]
})
Now, you exit this connection and test your new user.
mongo "mongodb://meteor_app:A_SECURE_PASSWORD#IP_ADDRESS/myapp"
If everything is OK, you now have your MONGO_URL.
# Put this in the app.yaml file, env variables sections
MONGO_URL: "mongodb://meteor_app:A_SECURE_PASSWORD#IP_ADDRESS/myapp"