Hi Deirdre,
Please try the below solution and let me know if it works for you or not:
1. using debug mode- For example assuming the conf is in a directory called flume-samples/conf Command : flume-ng agent --conf flume-samples/conf/ -f flume-samples/conf/flume.conf -Dflume.root.logger=DEBUG,console -n spoolAgent

2. Create a manual log folder: Create a manual logs folder under flume_home and assign permission to it. Considering we are under flume home directory.
For example:
- sudo mkdir ./logs
- sudo chown `whoami` ./logs
- bin/flume-ng agent -n $agent_name -c conf -f conf/flume-conf

Hope this helps.
Thanks.