MongoDB Replica Set SECONDARY Stuck in `ROLLBACK` State

During a recent automated update of our mongodb PRIMARY, when the PRIMARY stepped down it permanently went into a ROLLBACK state.

After several hours in the ROLLBACK state, there was still no rollback .bson file in the rollback directory in the mongodb database directory. That, and also this line in our log file: [rsSync] replSet syncThread: 13410 replSet too much data to roll back, seems to indicate that the ROLLBACK process failed.

I would like some help analyzing what exactly went wrong.

• It appears two different rollbacks occurred in our logs. Is that the case or was it one that took 3 hours?
• If the first rollback (at 19:00 hours) was successful, why didnt anything appears in ou rollback directory?
• Any guess as to the cause of all those warnings? Could that be related to the rollback failure?
• Did we lose 18 seconds of data due to the first ROLLBACK?
• Is there a generic solution to the "stuck in ROLLBACK state" problem? We ended up having to hose our entire DB and re-sync from primary.

The relevant log lines are:

# Primary coming back after restart...
Tue May 15 19:01:01 [initandlisten] MongoDB starting : pid=3684 port=27017 dbpath=/var/lib/mongodb 64-bit host=magnesium
Tue May 15 19:01:01 [initandlisten] db version v2.0.5, pdfile version 4.5
# ... init stuff
Tue May 15 19:01:01 [initandlisten] journal dir=/var/lib/mongodb/journal
Tue May 15 19:01:01 [initandlisten] recover : no journal files present, no recovery needed
# ... More init stuff
Tue May 15 19:01:03 [rsStart] trying to contact rs1arb1.c9w.co:27017
Tue May 15 19:01:03 [rsStart] trying to contact rs1m2.c9w.co:27017
Tue May 15 19:01:03 [rsStart] replSet STARTUP2
Tue May 15 19:01:03 [rsHealthPoll] replSet member rs1arb1.c9w.co:27017 is up
Tue May 15 19:01:03 [rsHealthPoll] replSet member rs1arb1.c9w.co:27017 is now in state ARBITER
Tue May 15 19:01:03 [rsSync] replSet SECONDARY
Tue May 15 19:01:05 [rsHealthPoll] replSet member rs1m2.c9w.co:27017 is up
Tue May 15 19:01:05 [rsHealthPoll] replSet member rs1m2.c9w.co:27017 is now in state PRIMARY
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet syncing to: rs1m2.c9w.co:27017
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet our last op time written: May 15 19:00:51:6
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet rollback 0
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet ROLLBACK
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet rollback 1
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet rollback 2 FindCommonPoint
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet info rollback our last optime:   May 15 19:00:51:6
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet info rollback their last optime: May 15 19:01:09:19
Tue May 15 19:01:09 [rsSync] replSet info rollback diff in end of log times: -18 seconds
Tue May 15 19:01:10 [rsSync] replSet WARNING ignoring op on rollback no _id TODO : nimbus.system.indexes { ts: Timestamp 1337108400000|17, h: 1628369028235805797, op: "i", ns: "nimbus.system.indexes", o: { unique: true, name: "pascalquery_ns_key_start_ts_keyvals", key: { __ns__: 1, _key: 1, start_ts: 1, _keyval.a: 1, _keyval.b: 1, _keyval.c: 1, _keyval.d: 1, _keyval.e: 1, _keyval.f: 1, _keyval.g: 1, _keyval.h: 1 }, ns: "nimbus.wifi_daily_series", background: true } }
# ...
# Then for several minutes there are similar warnings
# ...
Tue May 15 19:03:52 [rsSync] replSet WARNING ignoring op on rollback no _id TODO : nimbus.system.indexes { ts: Timestamp 1337097600000|204, h: -3526710968279064473, op: "i", ns: "nimbus.system.indexes", o: { unique: true, name: "pascalquery_ns_key_start_ts_keyvals", key: { __ns__: 1, _key: 1, start_ts: 1, _keyval.a: 1, _keyval.b: 1, _keyval.c: 1, _keyval.d: 1, _keyval.e: 1, _keyval.f: 1, _keyval.g: 1, _keyval.h: 1 }, ns: "nimbus.wifi_daily_series", background: true } }
Tue May 15 19:03:54 [rsSync] replSet rollback found matching events at May 15 15:59:13:181
Tue May 15 19:03:54 [rsSync] replSet rollback findcommonpoint scanned : 6472020
Tue May 15 19:03:54 [rsSync] replSet replSet rollback 3 fixup

Then later for some reason another rollback occurs…

Tue May 15 22:14:24 [rsSync] replSet rollback re-get objects: 13410 replSet too much data to roll back
Tue May 15 22:14:26 [rsSync] replSet syncThread: 13410 replSet too much data to roll back
Tue May 15 22:14:37 [rsSync] replSet syncing to: rs1m2.c9w.co:27017
Tue May 15 22:14:37 [rsSync] replSet syncThread: 13106 nextSafe(): { $err: "capped cursor overrun during query: local.oplog.rs", code: 13338 }
Tue May 15 22:14:48 [rsSync] replSet syncing to: rs1m2.c9w.co:27017
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet our last op time written: May 15 19:00:51:6
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet rollback 0
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet rollback 1
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet rollback 2 FindCommonPoint
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet info rollback our last optime:   May 15 19:00:51:6
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet info rollback their last optime: May 15 22:15:30:9
Tue May 15 22:15:30 [rsSync] replSet info rollback diff in end of log times: -11679 seconds
# More warnings matching the above warnings
Tue May 15 22:17:30 [rsSync] replSet rollback found matching events at May 15 15:59:13:181
Tue May 15 22:17:30 [rsSync] replSet rollback findcommonpoint scanned : 7628640
Tue May 15 22:17:30 [rsSync] replSet replSet rollback 3 fixup

The only useful information on rollbacks I've found are these notes which dont address the "stuck in rollback situation".
http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Replica+Sets+-+Rollbacks
http://www.snailinaturtleneck.com/blog/2011/01/19/how-to-use-replica-set-rollbacks/