sudo service mongod start failed on RHEL system

Question

I have followed the instructions on MongoDB's website to install MongoDB on RHEL systems. Whenever I use the command sudo service mongod start I get the message Starting mongod: [FAILED] . Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I already changed the permissions to the /var/lib/mongo and /var/log/mongodb directories.

In addition, this is what my log file reads for the last time I tried to start mongoDB

2014-11-28T16:52:42.532-0600 ***** SERVER RESTARTED *****
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] MongoDB starting : pid=2846 port=27017 dbpath=/var/lib/mongo$
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] db version v2.6.5
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] git version: e99d4fcb4279c0279796f237aa92fe3b64560bf6
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] build info: Linux build8.nj1.10gen.cc 2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86$
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] allocator: tcmalloc
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] options: { config: "/etc/mongod.conf", net: { bindIp: "127.0$
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] exception in initAndListen: 10310 Unable to lock file: /var/$
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] dbexit:
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to close listening sockets...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to flush diaglog...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to close sockets...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: waiting for fs preallocator...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: lock for final commit...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.535-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: final commit...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.536-0600 [initandlisten] shutdown: closing all files...
2014-11-28T16:52:42.536-0600 [initandlisten] closeAllFiles() finished
2014-11-28T16:52:42.536-0600 [initandlisten] dbexit: really exiting now

Answer 1

that looks very similar to the output when you have a mongo already running.

probably you have a startup script installed in /etc/init.d/mongod

Answer 2

Your log file is clipped. Please include an unclipped version where we can see the entire line. From what's there, mongod couldn't lock something, which likely means you already have a mongod running in that directory or the permissions aren't set to allow mongod to take the lock.