title: Mongodb Replication Set Server Status: What does FATAL status actually mean?
body: <p>I have a mongo db replication set with three servers. The 3rd node shows that it is in a FATAL status:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{
          "_id" : 3,
          "name" : "slave2-1:27017",
          "health" : 1,
          "state" : 4,
          "stateStr" : "FATAL",
          "uptime" : 276,
          "optime" : {
              "t" : 1321929689000,
              "i" : 1
          },
          "optimeDate" : ISODate("2011-11-22T02:41:29Z"),
          "lastHeartbeat" : ISODate("2011-11-22T02:46:05Z"),
          "pingMs" : 0
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I log into the server in question, the mongo shell prompt shows that it is in fatal status. What does the FATAL status actually mean and how can I fix this?</p>