MongoDB Wire Compression

MongoDB Wire Compression

Wire compression reduces the size of messages exchanged between DecisionRules server and the database. It can lower bandwidth usage and improve large-document or large-result-set transfers, at the cost of additional CPU usage.

Wire compression is separate from database storage compression and TLS encryption.

Configuration

DecisionRules Docker reads the MongoDB connection string from MONGO_DB_URI. Enable compression with its compressors parameter:

mongodb://user:password@host:27017/database?compressors=zstd,zlib

When multiple algorithms are listed, the driver and server negotiate the first mutually supported option. If none is shared, the connection is normally left uncompressed. MongoDB connection options

DecisionRules does not enable compression automatically.

Compressor options

Compressor	Characteristics	DecisionRules 1.26.2+
zstd	Good balance of compression ratio and CPU usage; recommended by MongoDB for most workloads.	Supported
zlib	Broad MongoDB compatibility and configurable compression level, but generally higher CPU usage.	Supported

Recommendations

• Use compressors=zstd,zlib for MongoDB or Atlas after measuring CPU and network usage.

• Do not configure compression on DocumentDB versions earlier than 8.0.1.

• Leave compression disabled for Cosmos RU and Azure DocumentDB until it has been verified against the deployed service.

• Test with representative large payloads. Small messages may become slower because compression overhead can exceed the bandwidth savings.

• Confirm the negotiated compressor rather than treating a successful connection as proof that compression is active. Unsupported algorithms can silently result in an uncompressed connection.