RabbitMQ failed install/start on Debian Stretch

Question

Following a

sudo apt-get install rabbitmq-server

I'm hitting errors when the service attempts to start (also when using systemctl start):

● rabbitmq-server.service - RabbitMQ Messaging Server
  Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rabbitmq-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2017-07-26 15:59:41 IDT; 4min 28s ago
  Process: 17895 ExecStartPost=/usr/lib/rabbitmq/bin/rabbitmq-server-wait (code=exited, status=70)
  Process: 17894 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/rabbitmq-server (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 17894 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

That's in systemctl status. In journalctl -xe:

-- Unit rabbitmq-server.service has begun starting up.
Jul 26 15:59:37 myhost rabbitmq[17895]: Waiting for rabbit@myhost ...
Jul 26 15:59:37 myhost rabbitmq[17895]: pid is 17903 ...
Jul 26 15:59:40 myhost systemd[1]: rabbitmq-server.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 26 15:59:41 myhost rabbitmq[17895]: Error: process_not_running
Jul 26 15:59:41 myhost systemd[1]: rabbitmq-server.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=70
Jul 26 15:59:41 myhost systemd[1]: Failed to start RabbitMQ Messaging Server.
-- Subject: Unit rabbitmq-server.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
-- 
-- Unit rabbitmq-server.service has failed.
-- 
-- The result is failed.
Jul 26 15:59:41 myhost systemd[1]: rabbitmq-server.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jul 26 15:59:41 myhost systemd[1]: rabbitmq-server.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Tonguetied

Hi! Could you please post the RabbitMQ log files, located in /var/log/rabbitmq? – Hasseman

@Jean-SébastienPédron Sorry, I got it working so they don't show any error now. I didn't know about them so the comment should be helpful for other people looking here. – Tonguetied

Ok, great that you solved it :) – Hasseman

Answer 1

OK, this was a rough one:

1. Make sure your hostname is correct. you can run

   sudo hostname --file /etc/hostname

   to make sure. If it isn't change it by changing /etc/hostname. a.b.c.d should be enough.

2. If you're behind a company firewall rabbitmq will fail to connect to all the interfaces. Change /etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-env.conf, setting NODE=rabbit@localhost. This is enough for development.

Now you can sudo apt-get install --fix-broken to complete the installation (will complain it was scheduled for more stuff). Use sudo rabbitmqctl status to make sure the node is properly running - it will say it clearly if not.

Tonguetied

Beautiful, this worked for me after several hours of searching. To further clarify for anyone else arriving here, hostname displays the hostname but calling hostname --file /etc/hostname will set the hostname to whatever is in the --file arg. – Cousingerman

Note /etc/hostname is the usual file on many Linux flavors your hostname is saved. If someone thinks, it's a different file, please don't edit it in replace of this name, instead, add it along side with the flavor of Linux it is relevant to. – Tonguetied

Answer 2

You should check log files at /var/log/rabbitmq/ location

See if there is more information about why it fails. Most error details are available in the file named rabbit@<host_name>.log

Also, check /etc/rabbitmq/enabled_plugins permissions and grant permissions if needed.

Unsustainable