Question: I tried to export a settings.json as documented in the meteor.js documentation in order to connect my Meteor.js app with an external MongoHQ database :

```
{
    "env": {
        "MONGO_URL" : "mongodb://xxx:xxxx@troup.mongohq.com:10037/xxx"
    }
}

```

with the command : 

```
mrt deploy myapp.meteor.com --settings settings.json

```

It doesn't even work, My app continue to connect the local database provided with the Meteor.app !
My MONGO\_URL env variable didnt changed.

Is there any solution to export my MONGO\_URL env variable to connect an external MongoDB database ? 

I saw that is possible to change it while using heroku or modulus, what about the standard deploying meteor.com solution ?

Answer: 
You are not able to use your own `MONGO_URL` with Meteor deploy hosting.

Meteor deploy hosting takes care of the Email with Mailgun (if you use it), and provides mongodb for all apps deployed there.

It is possible to change the `MAIL_URL`, but it is not possible to use a different mongodb.

You can try, though im not sure it will work:

Place this in your server side code somewhere

```
process.env.MONGO_URL = '..';

```
Regarded to the Unoficial Meteor.js FAQ, thats not possible to do it easily, that might be tricky.

So i signed up for a modulus Account, with MongoHQ Database.
It works right now.