Issue
In attempting to run the command
mongod --fork --logpath /var/log/mongodb.log
On a amazon ec2 32 bit instance (Amazon Linux AMI release 2014.09), I run into the following error:
2015-02-18T18:14:09.007+0000
2015-02-18T18:14:09.007+0000 warning: 32-bit servers don't have journaling
enabled by default. Please use --journal if you want durability.
2015-02-18T18:14:09.007+0000
about to fork child process, waiting until server is ready for connections.
forked process: 17116
ERROR: child process failed, exited with error number 1
I also notice no log file is created in the process.
Solution
I had the same thing and it turned out to be a permissions issue. If the owner of the child process cannot access the log path or the log path does not exist, it will fail.
What I did was put the log directory in my home directory:
mkdir ~/log
mongod --fork --logpath ~/log/mongodb.log
If you really want to put it in your /var/log directory, just change the permissions.
Answered By - onetwopunch