How to reclaim storage space on two-node MongoDB replica sets

At mongodb.org they seem to assume we can create MongoDB replica sets using unlimited numbers of instances which have infinite amounts of storage. In practice, however, we often need to use replica sets with only two nodes (plus arbiter) which have limited storage. The problem then is that MongoDB has the tendency to use vast amounts of disk space without reclaiming the space from dropped data, so it consumes ever-increasing amounts of storage. It’s then hard to deal with this storage problem given the limited options available in a two-node replica set.

A solution to this is clearing all the data from each node in turn, which forces MongoDB to rebuild its data using only the disk space it needs. When performed on a regular basis, this stops the amount of storage which MongoDB is using from constantly increasing at an unacceptable rate.

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