Node.js + MongoDB, part 2: here comes memcached!

Let's elaborate on the Node.js + MongoDB app. I lied: it's not really worth $1 billion... yet. It surely will once we've added memcached to the mix ;)

Once again, we'll use a couple of EC2 instances running Ubuntu 12.04: one for the Node.js web server and one for the memcached server. MongoDB will still be served from MongoLab.

Start your instances and let's configure our memcached server first. Since it requires port 11211 to be open, we have to add a couple of rules for 11211/UDP and 11211/TCP in the security group attached to the instance.

Then, let's install memcached:
ubuntu@ip-10-234-177-74:~$ sudo apt-get install memcached

We also need to edit /etc/memcached.conf in order to set the '-l' parameter to the correct IP address (running ifconfig eth0 will confirm the right one to use). In my case, it is 10.234.177.74.

Then, we need to restart memcached:

ubuntu@ip-10-234-177-74:~$ sudo service memcached restart

Now, let's go to the Node.js instance and check that we can access the memcached server:

ubuntu@ip-10-48-161-115:~$ echo stats|nc 10.234.177.74 11211

If you see a lot of stats like I do, you're good to go. If not, double-check the steps above (rules, config file, restart).

Now, let's install the memcached client for Node.js with npm, the Node.js package manager. There are several clients out there, mc looks pretty good and well-maintained :)

ubuntu@ip-10-48-161-115:~$ npm install mc

That's it. Now, let's write some code, yeah! Here's the idea:

call the web server with a MongoDB ObjectId, e.g. http://ec2-54-216-3-139.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com:8080/?id=51e3ce08915082db3df32bf7
query the memcached server
if we hit, job done!
if we miss, query the MongoDB server and update the cache

var http = require('http');
var url = require('url');
var mc = require('mc');

var MongoClient = require('mongodb').MongoClient;
var ObjectId = require('mongodb').ObjectID;
var collection;

function onRequest(request, response) {
        // No id parameter -->  do nothing
        // id=0 --> list all documents
        // id=SOME_OBJECT_ID --> show the 'x' value for this document
        var query = url.parse(request.url,true).query;
        console.log("Request received, id="+query.id);

response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/html"});
        response.write("<html>");

// XXX Missing check: query.id must be a proper ObjectId, i.e. 12-byte hex value

if (query.id == null) {
                // No id parameter -->  do nothing
                response.write("Nothing to do, bleh");
                response.write("</HTML>");
                response.end();
        }
        else if (query.id == "0") {
                // id=0 --> list all documents
                collection.find().toArray(function (err, items) {
                        console.log ("Finding all documents");
                        for (var i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
                                response.write(JSON.stringify(items[i])+"<br>");
                        }
                        response.write("</HTML>");
                        response.end();
                });
        }
        else {
                // id=SOME_OBJECT_ID --> show the 'x' value for this document
                // Check the cache first
                MemcacheClient.get(query.id, function(err, result) {
                if (!err) {
                        // Key found, display value
                        console.log("Cache hit,  key="+query.id+", value="+result[query.id]);
                        response.write("x="+result[query.id]);
                        response.write("</HTML>");
                        response.end();
                }
                else {
                        // Key not found, fetch value from DB
                        console.log("Cache miss, key "+query.id+". Querying...");
                        collection.findOne({"_id": new ObjectId(query.id)}, function (err, item) {
                                if (item == null) {
                                        response.write("Item does not exist, duh");
                                }
                                else {
                                console.log("Item found: "+JSON.stringify(item));
                                // Display value
                                response.write(JSON.stringify(item));
                                // Store value in cache with a 60 second TTL
                                MemcacheClient.set(query.id, item.x, { flags: 0, exptime: 60}, function(err, status) {
                                        if (!err) {
                                                console.log("Stored key="+query.id+", value="+item.x);
                                        }
                                        else {
                                                console.log("Couldn't store key="+query.id+", error="+err);
                                        }
                                });
                                }
                                response.write("</HTML>");
                                response.end();
                        });
                }
                });
        }
}

// Connect to the memcached server with its private AWS IP address
MemcacheClient = new mc.Client("10.234.177.74");
MemcacheClient.connect(function() {
        console.log("Connected to memcache");
});

// Connect to the MongoDB server hosted at MongoLab
MongoClient.connect("mongodb://USER:PASSWD@ds051067.mongolab.com:51067/mongolab-test", function(err, db) {
        if (!err) {
                console.log("Connected to database");
                collection = db.collection("collection1");
        }
        else {
                console.log("Dude, where's my DB?");
        }
});

// Start the web server on port 8080 and wait for incoming requests
http.createServer(onRequest).listen(8080);
console.log("Web server started");

Alright, let's run this and hit it with some requests :
Mac:~ julien$ curl http://ec2-54-216-3-139.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com:8080/?id=0
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf0","x":1}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf1","x":2}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf2","x":3}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf3","x":4}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf4","x":5}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf5","x":6}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf6","x":7}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf7","x":8}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf8","x":9}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bf9","x":10}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfa","x":11}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfb","x":12}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc","x":13}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfd","x":14}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfe","x":15}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bff","x":16}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c00","x":17}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c01","x":18}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c02","x":19}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c03","x":20}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c04","x":21}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c05","x":22}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c06","x":23}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c07","x":24}
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32c08","x":25}

Mac:~ julien$ curl http://ec2-54-216-3-139.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com:8080/?id=51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc
{"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc","x":13}

Console output:
Request received, id=51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc
Cache miss, key 51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc. Querying...
Item found: {"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc","x":13}
Stored key=51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc, value=13

Memcached stats:

ubuntu@ip-10-234-177-74:~$ echo stats|nc 10.234.177.74 11211|grep [s,g]et

STAT cmd_get 1
STAT cmd_set 1
STAT get_hits 0
STAT get_misses 1

Let's try the same request again (within 60 seconds!): +1 get, +1 hit!
Request received, id=51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc
Cache hit, key=51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc, value=13

STAT cmd_get 2
STAT cmd_set 1
STAT get_hits 1
STAT get_misses 1

And 60 seconds later, the memcached item should have disappeared: +1 get, +1 miss, +1 set

Cache miss, key 51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc. Querying...

Item found: {"_id":"51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc","x":13}

Stored key=51e3ce08915082db3df32bfc, value=13

STAT cmd_get 3
STAT cmd_set 2
STAT get_hits 1
STAT get_misses 2

Pretty cool, huh? A basic Node.js + memcached + MongoDB app in less than 100 lines of code, comments and logging included.

However, the really great stuff is what you DON'T see:

Node.js automatically handles asynchronous requests and callbacks,
Building a memcached cluster will hardly have any impact on the application code,
Building a MongoDB cluster (replica sets, sharding) will be completely transparent.
And of course, you can easily create your own pool of Node.js servers and load balance them.

That's A LOT of scalability for free as far as the application developer is concerned.

Food for thought... Something tells me this isn't the last post on these topics. I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. Time for a drink, I'm exhausted. Cheers!

About the Author

Julien Simon is the Chief Evangelist at Arcee AI , specializing in Small Language Models and enterprise AI solutions. Recognized as the #1 AI Evangelist globally by AI Magazine in 2021, he brings over 30 years of technology leadership experience to his role.

With 650+ speaking engagements worldwide and 350+ technical blog posts, Julien is a leading voice in practical AI implementation, cost-effective AI solutions, and the democratization of artificial intelligence. His expertise spans open-source AI, Small Language Models, enterprise AI strategy, and edge computing optimization.

Previously serving as Principal Evangelist at Amazon Web Services and Chief Evangelist at Hugging Face, Julien has helped thousands of organizations implement AI solutions that deliver real business value. He is the author of "Learn Amazon SageMaker," the first book ever published on AWS's flagship machine learning service.

Julien's mission is to make AI accessible, understandable, and controllable for enterprises through transparent, open-weights models that organizations can deploy, customize, and trust.