MongoDB Documentation, Release 3.0.4 use config db.settings.update( { _id : "balancer" }, { $set : { activeWindow : { start : "6:00", stop : Procedure If you have an automated backup schedule, you can disable all balancing operations for a period of time. For instance, consider the following command: This operation configures the balancer to run between 6:00am and 11:00pm, server time. Schedule your backup operation to run and complete outside of this time. Ensure that the backup can complete outside the window when the balancer is running and that the balancer can effectively balance the collection among the shards in the window allotted to each. Overview Restoring a single shard from backup with other unaffected shards requires a number of special consider- ations and practices. This document outlines the additional tasks you must perform when restoring a single shard. Consider the following resources on backups in general as well as backup and restoration of sharded clusters specifi- cally: Procedure Always restore sharded clusters as a whole. When you restore a single shard, keep in mind that the balancer process might have moved chunks to or from this shard since the last backup. If that’s the case, you must manually move those chunks, as described in this procedure. Step 1: Restore the shard as you would any other mongod instance. See MongoDB Backup Methods (page 184) for overviews of these procedures. Step 2: Manage the chunks. For all chunks that migrate away from this shard, you do not need to do anything at this time. You do not need to delete these documents from the shard because the chunks are automatically filtered out from queries by mongos . You can remove these documents from the shard, if you like, at your leisure. For chunks that migrate to this shard after the most recent backup, you must manually recover the chunks using back- ups of other shards, or some other source. To determine what chunks have moved, view the changelog collection in the Config Database (page 737). Overview You can restore a sharded cluster either from snapshots (page 243) or from BSON database dumps (page 258) created by the mongodump tool. This document describes procedures to Restore a Sharded Cluster Restore a Single Shard Procedures • Restore a Sharded Cluster with Filesystem Snapshots (page 261) • Restore a Sharded Cluster with Database Dumps (page 262) • MongoDB Backup Methods (page 184) • Restore a Sharded Cluster (page 260) • Backup and Restore Sharded Clusters (page 254) Chapter 5. Administration 260