Mongodb server ignores --smallfiles if other paramethers are set in the command line

[Braiam Peguero]

I've found out that while `mongodb --smallfiles --conf=something` makes mongodb actually using small files, while something more large like `/usr/bin/mongod --auth --dbpath=/home/braiam/.juju/local/db --sslOnNormalPorts --sslPEMKeyFile '/home/braiam/.juju/local/server.pem' --sslPEMKeyPassword ignored --bind_ip 0.0.0.0 --port 37017 --noprealloc --syslog --smallfiles` completely fails with the following log:

Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] options: { auth: true, bind_ip: "0.0.0.0", dbpath: "/home/braiam/.juju/local/db", noprealloc: true, port: 37017, smallfiles: true, sslOnNormalPorts: true, sslPEMKeyFile: "/home/braiam/.juju/local/server.pem", sslPEMKeyPassword: "<password>", syslog: true }
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] journal dir=/home/braiam/.juju/local/db/journal
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] recover : no journal files present, no recovery needed
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten]
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] ERROR: Insufficient free space for journal files
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] Please make at least 422MB available in /home/braiam/.juju/local/db/journal or use --smallfiles
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten]
Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] exception in initAndListen: 15926 Insufficient free space for journals, terminating

This of course should happen if the `--smallfiles` parameter is passed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: mongodb-server 1:2.2.4-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.9.0-0.4userns5-generic 3.9.0
Uname: Linux 3.9.0-0-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: atm xt_recent ipt_REJECT xt_LOG xt_limit xt_tcpudp xt_addrtype xt_state iptable_filter bluetooth veth aufs ebt_ip ebtable_broute ebtable_nat ebtable_filter ebtables ipt_MASQUERADE iptable_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_nat_ipv4 nf_nat nf_conntrack ip_tables x_tables bridge stp llc ip_gre gre dm_crypt psmouse microcode i2c_piix4 joydev serio_raw mac_hid rbd virtio_balloon libceph libcrc32c acpiphp hid_generic usbhid hid crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel aesni_intel aes_x86_64 xts lrw gf128mul ablk_helper cryptd floppy cirrus syscopyarea sysfillrect sysimgblt ttm drm_kms_helper drm
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Oct 20 02:56:51 2013
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: mongodb
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Dave Cheney (dave-cheney)]

HA! Ja'cuse Mongo! I always suspected something like this was
happening, thanks for confirming Kapil.

On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 12:38 AM, Kapil Thangavelu
<email address hidden> wrote:
> ** Also affects: juju-core
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to juju-
> core.
> Matching subscriptions: MOAR JUJU SPAM!
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1242237
>
> Title:
> Mongodb server ignores --smallfiles if other paramethers are set in
> the command line
>
> Status in juju-core:
> New
> Status in “mongodb” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> I've found out that while `mongodb --smallfiles --conf=something`
> makes mongodb actually using small files, while something more large
> like `/usr/bin/mongod --auth --dbpath=/home/braiam/.juju/local/db
> --sslOnNormalPorts --sslPEMKeyFile
> '/home/braiam/.juju/local/server.pem' --sslPEMKeyPassword ignored
> --bind_ip 0.0.0.0 --port 37017 --noprealloc --syslog --smallfiles`
> completely fails with the following log:
>
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] options: { auth: true, bind_ip: "0.0.0.0", dbpath: "/home/braiam/.juju/local/db", noprealloc: true, port: 37017, smallfiles: true, sslOnNormalPorts: true, sslPEMKeyFile: "/home/braiam/.juju/local/server.pem", sslPEMKeyPassword: "<password>", syslog: true }
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] journal dir=/home/braiam/.juju/local/db/journal
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] recover : no journal files present, no recovery needed
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten]
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] ERROR: Insufficient free space for journal files
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] Please make at least 422MB available in /home/braiam/.juju/local/db/journal or use --smallfiles
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten]
> Oct 20 02:41:05 vm-2 mongod.37017[5159]: Sun Oct 20 02:41:05 [initandlisten] exception in initAndListen: 15926 Insufficient free space for journals, terminating
>
> This of course should happen if the `--smallfiles` parameter is
> passed.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
> Package: mongodb-server 1:2.2.4-0ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.9.0-0.4userns5-generic 3.9.0
> Uname: Linux 3.9.0-0-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: atm xt_recent ipt_REJECT xt_LOG xt_limit xt_tcpudp xt_addrtype xt_state iptable_filter bluetooth veth aufs ebt_ip ebtable_broute ebtable_nat ebtable_filter ebtables ipt_MASQUERADE iptable_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_nat_ipv4 nf_nat nf_conntrack ip_tables x_tables bridge stp llc ip_gre gre dm_crypt psmouse microcode i2c_piix4 joydev serio_raw mac_hid rbd virtio_balloon libceph libcrc32c acpiphp hid_generic usbhid hid crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel aesni_intel aes_x86_64 xts lrw gf128mul ablk_helper cryptd floppy cirrus syscopyarea sysfillrect sys...

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

Hi! I realize this is a relatively old bug, but we are going back through and attempting to get a list of bugs to work on and gather status. Because this was reported on 13.10 and that release is no longer supported I attempted my triage on the next supported release, namely Trusty (14.04).

I installed Ubuntu and setup some certs via:
$ cd /etc/ssl
$ openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out mongodb-cert.crt -keyout mongodb-cert.key
$ cat mongodb-cert.key mongodb-cert.crt > mongodb.pem

Then attempted to run with all those options you had:
$ mongod --smallfiles --bind_ip 0.0.0.0 --port 37017 --noprealloc --syslog --auth --dbpath=/data/db --sslOnNormalPorts --sslPEMKeyPassword ignored --sslPEMKeyFile /etc/ssl/mongodb.pem

Which based on the output from syslog appears to have worked:
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.919 [initandlisten] MongoDB starting : pid=6596 port=37017 dbpath=/data/db 64-bit host=mongo
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.919 [initandlisten] db version v2.4.9
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.919 [initandlisten] git version: nogitversion
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.919 [initandlisten] build info: Linux orlo 3.2.0-58-generic #88-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 3 17:37:58 UTC 2013 x86_64 BOOST_LIB_VERSION=1_54
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.919 [initandlisten] allocator: tcmalloc
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.919 [initandlisten] options: { auth: true, bind_ip: "0.0.0.0", dbpath: "/data/db", noprealloc: true, port: 37017, smallfiles: true, sslOnNormalPorts: true, sslPEMKeyFile: "/etc/ssl/mongodb.pem", sslPEMKeyPassword: "<password>", syslog: true }
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.924 [initandlisten] journal dir=/data/db/journal
Mar 10 22:33:05 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:05.924 [initandlisten] recover : no journal files present, no recovery needed
Mar 10 22:33:06 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:06.498 [initandlisten] waiting for connections on port 37017 ssl
Mar 10 22:33:06 mongo mongod.37017[6596]: Fri Mar 10 22:33:06.499 [websvr] admin web console waiting for connections on port 38017 ssl

Without further information I am unsure of what else to do on this defect and I am therefore marking it invalid. If additional information can be obtained or if you are still having the issue after 3 years ;) please feel free to update the bug and mark it as New for additional triage. Thanks!