Start pbm-agent using the configuration file¶

Version added: 2.9.0

A pbm-agent requires a MongoDB connection string URI to start. You can define it either via the environment variable or use the configuration file. The latter option enables you to specify additional configuration like the number of parallel connections for backups and custom logging configuration.

This document explains how to start a pbm-agent using the configuration file. For how to use environment variables, see the Configure authentication in MongoDB

The steps vary slightly based on your installation method. In the following example, we provide all available configuration options for reference. Note that for initial pbm-agent start, mongodb-uri is mandatory.

For installation from packages¶

Create a configuration file. For example, /etc/pbm-agent.yaml.

/etc/pbm-agent.yaml

mongodb-uri: mongodb://pbm:mysecret@localhost:27017/
backup:
  dump-parallel-collections: 10
log:
  path: "/var/log/pbm.json"
  level: "I"
  json: true

Modify the pbm-agent.service systemd unit file. Specify the path to the configuration file for the ExecStart parameter.
pbm-agent.service
```
....

[Service]
....
ExecStart=/usr/bin/pbm-agent -f /etc/pbm-agent.yaml

....
```
Start the pbm-agent.
```
$ sudo systemctl start pbm-agent
```

For installation from the source code and tarballs¶

For the initial pbm-agent start, you require the credentials of a pbm user. See the Create a pbm user section for how to create this user.

Create the configuration file. Specify the pbm user credentials in the MongoDB connection string URI.

/etc/pbm-agent.yaml

mongodb-uri: mongodb://pbm:mysecret@localhost:27017/
backup:
  dump-parallel-collections: 10
log:
  path: "/var/log/pbm.json"
  level: "I"
  json: true

Check that you have exported the location of the PBM binaries to the $PATH variable
Start the pbm-agent:
```
$ pbm-agent -f /etc/pbm-agent.yaml
```

Last update: October 23, 2025
Created: October 23, 2025