This document provides an overview and instructions for deploying, upgrading, and troubleshooting a MongoDB sharded cluster. It describes the components of a sharded cluster including shards, config servers, and mongos processes. It provides recommendations for initial deployment including using replica sets for shards and config servers, DNS names instead of IPs, and proper user authorization. The document also outlines best practices for upgrading between minor and major versions, including stopping the balancer, upgrading processes in rolling fashion, and handling incompatible changes when downgrading major versions.