Can't show dbs: TypeError: malformed UTF-8 character sequence at offset 1

[Doug Mayer]

I'm running a 3-server replica set with MongoDB 1.6.4. Sometime
yesterday the master stopped allowing me to "show dbs" with the
following error:

> show dbs
Mon Apr 4 14:38:01 decode failed. probably invalid utf-8 string [@??]
Mon Apr 4 14:38:01 why: TypeError: malformed UTF-8 character
sequence at offset 1
Mon Apr 4 14:38:01 Error: invalid utf8 (anon):467

None of the other servers in the replica set give me this error, and I
get it in both the mongo shell and from the pymongo driver
(ServerDensity's agent for MongoDB bombs because of it too). I tried
Googling that for myself with no luck. Has anyone experienced this
before, or give me some pointers?

Without any other options, I'm planning on trying a repair on this
server later tonight. I'm using the C-driver via nginx-gridfs (which
is still lacking replica set support) so rolling this server as master
mid-day isn't the greatest option.

Thanks!
Doug

[Kyle Banker]

This error could indicate some kind of corruption on the master db.
Any unclean shutdowns you know of?

The C driver and nginx plugin will support replica sets by the end of the week.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mongodb-user" group.
> To post to this group, send email to mongod...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mongodb-user...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mongodb-user?hl=en.
>
>

[Doug Mayer]

No unclean shutdowns that we've seen since it started doing this, it appears to have happened out of the blue, which is why I'm hoping a repairDatabase would fix it. We're looking to upgrade to 1.8 soon, but want to make sure we don't have anything else going on first.

Great news about the C driver and nginx stuff - you're the man.

[Doug Mayer]

I'm still not sure what could have happened, but after a restart of the service didn't fix the issue, running a repair on that server and starting it back up did fix it. I'll try to keep a close eye on it so I can provide a little more info if it happens again.

Thanks,

Doug

[Kyle Banker]

Hi Doug,

Just wanted to let you know that I've added support for replica sets
to the Nginx GridFS module. If could take it for a spin, I'd be much
obliged. Docs are in the README:

https://github.com/mdirolf/nginx-gridfs

Kyle