MongoDB: Setting up Windows Service - mongodb

Question

I have just installed MongoDB 2.6 and I am trying to run it as a Windows Service on Windows 8, by following the instructions at http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-windows/.
Here's my directory structure within the C drive:
MongoDB (MongoDB installation)
bin
Project
DB
Log
mongo.conf
mongod.cfg
The contents of mongo.conf is:
storage:
dbPath: "C:\Project\DB"
And the contents of mongod.cfg is:
logpath="C:\Project\Log\mongo.log"
As directed to in the tutorial, from the command line (in administrator mode) I then type:
"C:\MongoDB\bin\mongod.exe" --config "C:\Project\mongod.cfg" --install
However, I get an error message:
SEVERE: Failed global initialization: FileNotOpen Failed to open ""C:\MongoDB\bin\Project\Log\mongo.log""
Please can somebody explain what I'm doing wrong? I've followed the instructions as dictated in the tutorial (except changed some of the directory names).
I'm also very confused as to the difference between mongo.conf and mongod.cfg...
Thanks!

Answer 1

I was having a similar problem with Mongo 2.6.3. I was trying to set the log path to C:\Users\Public\Public Databases\Mongo\log\mongo.log and the service installer kept responding with Failed to open ""C:\Program Files\MongoDB 2.6 Standard\bin\Users\Public\Public
Databases\Mongo\log\mongo.log"".
It started working for me when I stopped quoting the log path in the config file. (i.e. I changed logpath="C:\Users\Public\Public Databases\Mongo\log\mongo.log" to logpath=C:\Users\Public\Public Databases\Mongo\log\mongo.log).

Answer 2

There is a known issue installing MongoDB 2.6.0 as a Windows service using the --install command - see SERVER-13515. A fix has been committed for the MongoDB 2.6.1 release.
As a workaround,
I've provided instructions on how to install the service manually on that SERVER issue.
The short version is:
open an Administrator cmd prompt
make directories for your database and log files
create a configuration file
create the service definition, similar to:
sc create MongoDB binPath= "\"C:\Program Files\MongoDB 2.6 Standard\bin\mongod.exe\" --service --config=\"C:\Program Files\MongoDB 2.6 Standard\mongod.cfg\"" DisplayName= "MongoDB 2.6 Standard" start= "auto"
start the MongoDB service
net start MongoDB
For full instructions please refer to SERVER-13515.
I'm also very confused as to the difference between mongo.conf and mongod.cfg
The MongoDB server doesn't care about the name/extension of the file you specify with --config (as long as the file can be read). Your confusion on the format is because the mongo.conf example uses the new YAML config file format supported by MongoDB 2.6+, while mongod.cfg uses the older format supported by 2.6 as well as earlier versions.
I used the older mongod.cfg format in my workaround example, as technically someone could adapt these instructions to manually create a service definition for MongoDB 2.4 as well.

Answer 3

I got the same problem not only when installing as a Windows service but also when running "mongodb.exe" file. I tried to remove double quote (") characters but the error was still there:
2014-08-16T14:14:49.166Z SEVERE: Failed global initialization: FileNotOpen Failed to open "D:\MongoDB\log\mongo.log"
Please note that I was using config file in new YAML format. I had no problem when using the old format. I tried several ways on the new YAML configuration file and finally I found that it doesn't accept the absolute path. Just change to relative path and it works like a charm!
My folder structure is:
MongoDB\
bin\
data\
log\
Here is my YAML configuration file that works on the build MongoDB 2.6.4 - Windows 64 bit version, installed on my Windows 7 - Professional x64:
systemLog:
timeStampFormat: iso8601-utc
destination: file
path: ..\log\mongo.log
quiet: false
logAppend: true
net:
bindIp: 127.0.0.1
port: 27017
storage:
dbPath: ..\data
directoryPerDB: true
journal:
enabled: true

Answer 4

I tried a lot of things, in the end I had to remove config file and pass dbpath and logpath settings directly. Following command worked for me:-
C:>mongod --dbpath d:\mongodb\data --logpath d:\mongodb\logs\mongo.log --instal
l --serviceName MongoDB --serviceDisplayName MongoDB

Answer 5

There is a JIRA on that topic for the last version of MongoDB and a workaround too. A solution is to install a previous version then install the service ans re-use the last version of the driver.
Hope this helps !

Answer 6

#Stennie 's answer, as well as the manual service installation instructions on the mongoDB site were adequate for me. One thing to note though, is that the quoted items in the instructions need double backslashes (\\) in order to work correctly. Probably obvious to most developers, but I had it slip my mind, and the error response was simply that the service fails to start up. Also, be wary of the spaces after the equals signs.
sc.exe create MongoDB binPath= "\"C:\\Program Files\\MongoDB 2.6 Standard\\bin\\mongod.exe\" --service --config=\"C:\\Program Files\\MongoDB 2.6 Standard\\mongod.cfg\"" DisplayName= "MongoDB 2.6 Standard" start= "auto"

Answer 7

Observing your error log, it's passing two "s instead of one. Omit one(edit your config file content and remove "s) and you should be good.

Answer 8

Sometimes when you have error like : "Failed global initialization: FileNotOpen Failed to open .../mongodb.log", if you have log file you can delete it and try again.

Answer 9

Stop MongoDB from Windows Services and then try again. It worked for me!

Answer 10

My previous logpath=c:\programfiles\......
the alternative is logpath="c:\program files\......"
it works
I think the reason is that the system must visit the log file through c:\program files\......, but there comes error when I write logpath=c:\program files\......because there is a space between program and files. Then I add "", and it works. I hope it helps.