This is the RabbitMQ Server Administrator's Guide. (Note: it is still under development. Please contact us if you have any suggestions or wished-for features!)
See also this list of new community tools have appeared for 'dashboard' access to core management functionality.
Table of Contents
Building and installation
Please see the build and installation guides for instructions on compiling, installing, starting and shutting down the server. See the service guide for instructions on running the server as a Windows Service.
Default database contents
When the server first starts running, and detects that its database is uninitialised or has been deleted, it initialises a fresh database with the following resources:
-
a virtual host named
/ -
a user named
guestwith a default password ofguest, granted full access to the/virtual host.
It is advisable to change the
password of the guest user to something
private, particularly if your broker is accessible publicly.
Management overview
rabbitmqctl is a command line tool for managing
a RabbitMQ broker. It performs all actions by connecting to
one of the broker's node. By default that is the node named
"rabbit" on the local host. This can be overridden by
explicitly specifying the node name before the command using
the "-n" flag, e.g.
rabbitmqctl -n rabbit@shortstop add_user tonyg changeit
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker at the Erlang node rabbit@shortstop to create a user named tonyg with (initial) password changeit.
On a host named "server.example.com", the node name of the
RabbitMQ Erlang node will usually be
rabbit@server (unless RABBITMQ_NODENAME
has been set to some non-default value at broker startup
time). The output of hostname -s is usually the
correct suffix to use after the "@" sign.
rabbitmqctl produces verbose output by default.
Quiet mode can be selected by specifying the "-q" flag, e.g.
rabbitmqctl -q status
This option enables quiet mode and is useful when post-processing the results. Informational messages are suppressed when quiet mode is in effect.
Flags must precede all other parameters to rabbitmqctl.
Application and cluster management
Stopping the RabbitMQ node
rabbitmqctl stop
Stops the Erlang node on which RabbitMQ is running. To restart the node follow the instructions for Running the Server in the installation guide.
For example:
rabbitmqctl stop
This command instructs the RabbitMQ node to terminate.
Stopping the RabbitMQ application
rabbitmqctl stop_app
Stops the RabbitMQ application, leaving the Erlang node running.
This command is typically run prior to performing other
management actions that require the RabbitMQ application
to be stopped, e.g. reset.
For example:
rabbitmqctl stop_app
This command instructs the RabbitMQ node to stop the RabbitMQ application.
Starting the RabbitMQ application
rabbitmqctl start_app
Starts the RabbitMQ application.
This command is typically run after performing other
management actions that required the RabbitMQ application
to be stopped, e.g. reset.
For example:
rabbitmqctl start_app
This command instructs the RabbitMQ node to start the RabbitMQ application.
Displaying the RabbitMQ broker status
rabbitmqctl status
Displays various information about the RabbitMQ broker, such as whether the RabbitMQ application on the current node, its version number, what nodes are part of the broker, which of these are running.
For example:
rabbitmqctl status
This command displays information about the RabbitMQ broker.
Resetting a RabbitMQ node
rabbitmqctl reset
rabbitmqctl force_reset
Return a RabbitMQ node to its virgin state.
Removes the node from any cluster it belongs to, removes all data from the management database, such as configured users and vhosts, and deletes all persistent messages.
The force_reset command differs from
reset in that it resets the node
unconditionally, regardless of the current management
database state and cluster configuration. It should only
be used as a last resort if the database or cluster
configuration has been corrupted.
For reset and force_reset to
succeed the RabbitMQ application must have been stopped,
e.g. with stop_app.
For example:
rabbitmqctl reset
This command resets the RabbitMQ node.
Rotating log files
rabbitmqctl rotate_logs [suffix]
Instruct the RabbitMQ node to rotate the log files.
The RabbitMQ broker will attempt to append the current contents of the log file to the file with name composed of the original name and the suffix. It will create a new file if such a file does not already exist. When no suffix is specified, the empty log file is simply created at the original location; no rotation takes place.
When an error occurs while appending the contents of the old log file, the operation behaves in the same way as if no suffix was specified.
This command might be helpful when you are e.g. writing your own logrotate script and you do not want to restart the RabbitMQ node.
Example:
rabbitmqctl rotate_logs .1
This command instructs the RabbitMQ node to append the current content of the log files to the files with names consisting of the original logs' names and ".1" suffix, e.g. rabbit.log.1. Finally, the old log files are reopened.
Cluster management
rabbitmqctl cluster clusternode ...
- clusternode
- Subset of the nodes of the cluster to which this node should be connected.
Instruct the node to become member of a cluster with the specified nodes.
Cluster nodes can be of two types: disk or ram. Disk nodes replicate data in ram and on disk, thus providing redundancy in the event of node failure and recovery from global events such as power failure across all nodes. Ram nodes replicate data in ram only and are mainly used for scalability. A cluster must always have at least one disk node.
If the current node is to become a disk node it needs to appear in the cluster node list. Otherwise it becomes a ram node. If the node list is empty or only contains the current node then the node becomes a standalone, i.e. non-clustered, (disk) node.
After executing the cluster command, whenever
the RabbitMQ application is started on the current node it
will attempt to connect to the specified nodes, thus
becoming an active node in the cluster comprising those
nodes (and possibly others).
The list of nodes does not have to contain all the cluster's nodes; a subset is sufficient. Also, clustering generally succeeds as long as at least one of the specified nodes is active. Hence adjustments to the list are only necessary if the cluster configuration is to be altered radically.
For this command to succeed the RabbitMQ application must
have been stopped, e.g. with stop_app. Furthermore,
turning a standalone node into a clustered node requires
the node be reset first,
in order to avoid accidental destruction of data with the
cluster command.
For more details see the clustering guide.
Example:
rabbitmqctl cluster rabbit@tanto hare@elena
This command instructs the RabbitMQ node to join the
cluster with nodes rabbit@tanto and
hare@elena. If the node is one of these then
it becomes a disk node, otherwise a ram node.
User management
Creating a user
rabbitmqctl add_user username password
- username
- The name of the user to create.
- password
- The password the created user will use to log in to the broker.
For example:
rabbitmqctl add_user tonyg changeit
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to create a
user named tonyg with (initial) password
changeit.
Deleting a user
rabbitmqctl delete_user username
- username
- The name of the user to delete.
For example:
rabbitmqctl delete_user tonyg
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to delete the
user named tonyg.
Changing a user's password
rabbitmqctl change_password username newpassword
- username
- The name of the user whose password is to be changed.
- newpassword
- The new password for the user.
For example:
rabbitmqctl change_password tonyg newpass
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to change the
password for the user named tonyg to
newpass.
Access control
When an AMQP client establishes a connection to an AMQP server, it specifies a virtual host within which it intends to operate. A first level of access control is enforced at this point, with the server checking whether the user has any permissions to access the virtual hosts, and rejecting the connection attempt otherwise.
Resources, i.e. exchanges and queues, are named entities inside a particular virtual host; the same name denotes a different resource in each virtual host. A second level of access control is enforced when certain operations are performed on resources.
RabbitMQ distinguishes between configure, write and read operations on a resource. The configure operations create or destroy resources, or alter their behaviour. The write operations inject messages into a resource. And the read operations retrieve messages from a resource.
In order to perform an operation on a resource the user must have been granted the appropriate permissions for it. The following table shows what permissions on what type of resource are required for all the AMQP commands which perform permission checks.
| AMQP command | configure | write | read |
|---|---|---|---|
| exchange.declare | exchange | ||
| exchange.delete | exchange | ||
| queue.declare | queue | ||
| queue.delete | queue | ||
| queue.bind | queue | exchange | |
| basic.publish | exchange | ||
| basic.get | queue | ||
| basic.consume | queue | ||
| queue.purge | queue |
Permissions are expressed as a triple of regular expressions - one each for configure, write and read - on per-vhost basis. The user is granted the respective permission for operations on all resources with names matching the regular expressions. (Note: For convenience RabbitMQ maps AMQP's default exchange's blank name to 'amq.default' when performing permission checks.)
Some AMQP operations can create resources with server-generated names. Every user has configure, write and read permissions for such resources. However, the names are strong and not discoverable as part of the protocol, only through management functionality. Therefore these resources are in effect private to the user unless they choose to dilvuge their names to other users.
RabbitMQ may cache the results of access control checks on a per-connection or per-channel basis. Hence changes to user permissions may only take effect when the user reconnects.
Creating a virtual host
rabbitmqctl add_vhost vhostpath
- vhostpath
- The name of the virtual host entry to create.
For example:
rabbitmqctl add_vhost test
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to create a new
virtual host called test.
Deleting a virtual host
rabbitmqctl delete_vhost vhostpath
- vhostpath
- The name of the virtual host entry to delete.
Deleting a virtual host deletes all its exchanges, queues, user mappings and associated permissions.
For example:
rabbitmqctl delete_vhost test
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to delete the
virtual host called test.
Listing virtual hosts
rabbitmqctl list_vhosts
For example:
rabbitmqctl list_vhosts
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to list all virtual hosts.
Setting user permissions
rabbitmqctl set_permissions [-p vhostpath] username regexp regexp regexp
- vhostpath
-
The name of the virtual host to which to grant the user
access, defaulting to
/. - username
- The name of the user to grant access to the specified virtual host.
- regexp
- The regular expressions for matching resource names for which the user is granted configure, write and read permissions, respectively.
For example:
rabbitmqctl set_permissions -p /myvhost tonyg "^tonyg-.*" ".*" ".*"
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to grant the
user named tonyg access to the virtual host
called /myvhost, with configure permissions
on all resources whose names starts with "tonyg-", and
write and read permissions on all resources.
Clearing user permissions
rabbitmqctl clear_permissions [-p vhostpath] username
- vhostpath
-
The name of the virtual host to which to deny the user
access, defaulting to
/. - username
- The name of the user to grant access to the specified virtual host.
For example:
rabbitmqctl clear_permissions -p /myvhost tonyg
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to deny the
user named tonyg access to the virtual host
called /myvhost.
Listing permissions in a virtual host
rabbitmqctl list_permissions [-p vhostpath]
- vhostpath
-
The name of the virtual host for which to list the users
that have been granted access to it, and their
permissions. Defaults to
/.
For example:
rabbitmqctl list_permissions -p /myvhost
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to list all the
users which have been granted access to the virtual host
called /myvhost, and the permissions they
have for operations on resources in that virtual host.
Listing user permissions
rabbitmqctl list_user_permissions username
- username
- The name of the user for which to list the permissions.
For example:
rabbitmqctl list_user_permissions tonyg
This command instructs the RabbitMQ broker to list all the
virtual hosts to which the user named tonyg
has been granted access, and the permissions the user has
for operations on resources in these virtual hosts.
Server Status
The server status queries interrogate the server and return a list of
results with tab-delimited columns. Some queries (list_queues,
list_exchanges and list_bindings) accept an
optional vhost parameter. This parameter, if present, must be
specified immediately after the query.
Listing queues of a virtual host
rabbitmqctl list_queues [-p vhostpath] [queueinfoitem ...]
Returns queue details. Queue details of the / virtual host
are returned if the "-p" flag is absent. The "-p" flag can be used to
override this default.
The queueinfoitem parameter is used to indicate which queue
information items to include in the results. The column order in the
results will match the order of the parameters. If no
queueinfoitems are specified then queue name and depth are
displayed. queueinfoitem can take any value from the list
that follows:
- name
- The name of the queue with non-ASCII characters URL-escaped.
- durable
- Whether or not the queue survives server restarts.
- auto_delete
- Whether the queue will be deleted automatically when no longer used.
- arguments
- Queue arguments.
- node
- Node on which the process associated with the queue resides.
- messages_ready
- Number of messages ready to be delivered to clients.
- messages_unacknowledged
- Number of messages delivered to clients but not yet acknowledged.
- messages_uncommitted
- Number of messages published in as yet uncommitted transactions
- messages
- Sum of ready, unacknowledged and uncommitted messages (queue depth).
- acks_uncommitted
- Number of acknowledgements received in as yet uncommitted transactions.
- consumers
- Number of consumers.
- transactions
- Number of transactions.
- memory
- Bytes of memory consumed by the Erlang process associated with the queue, including stack, heap and internal structures.
For example:
rabbitmqctl list_queues -p /myvhost messages consumers
This command displays the depth and number of consumers for each
queue of the virtual host named /myvhost.
Listing exchanges of a virtual host
rabbitmqctl list_exchanges [-p vhostpath] [exchangeinfoitem ...]
Returns exchange details. Exchange details of the / virtual host
are returned if the "-p" flag is absent. The "-p" flag can be used to
override this default.
The exchangeinfoitem parameter is used to indicate which
exchange information items to include in the results. The column order in the
results will match the order of the parameters. If no
exchangeinfoitems are specified then exchange name and type are
displayed. exchangeinfoitem can take any value from the list
that follows:
- name
- The name of the exchange with non-ASCII characters URL-escaped.
- type
-
The exchange type (one of [
direct,topic,headers,fanout]). - durable
- Whether or not the exchange survives server restarts.
- auto_delete
- Whether the exchange will be deleted automatically when no longer used.
- arguments
- Exchange arguments.
For example:
rabbitmqctl list_exchanges -p /myvhost name type
This command displays the name and type for each
exchange of the virtual host named /myvhost.
Listing bindings of a virtual host
rabbitmqctl list_bindings [-p vhostpath]
By default the bindings for the / virtual host are
returned. The "-p" flag can be used to override this default.
Each result row will contain an exchange name, routing key, queue
name and binding arguments, in that order. Non-ASCII characters will
be URL-encoded.
Listing connections of a virtual host
rabbitmqctl list_connections
[connectioninfoitem ...]
Returns TCP/IP connection statistics.
The connectioninfoitem parameter is used to indicate
which connection information items to include in the results. The
column order in the results will match the order of the parameters. If
no connectioninfoitems are specified then user, peer
address and peer port are displayed. connectioninfoitem
can take any value from the list that follows:
- node
- Node on which the process associated with the connection resides.
- address
- Server IP address.
- port
- Server port.
- peer_address
- Peer address.
- peer_port
- Peer port.
- state
-
Connection state (one of [
starting,tuning,opening,running,closing,closed]). - channels
- Number of channels using the connection.
- user
- Username associated with the connection.
- vhost
- Virtual host name with non-ASCII characters URL-escaped.
- timeout
- Connection timeout.
- frame_max
- Maximum frame size (bytes).
- recv_oct
- Octets received.
- recv_cnt
- Packets received.
- send_oct
- Octets send.
- send_cnt
- Packets sent.
- send_pend
- Send queue size.
For example:
rabbitmqctl list_connections send_pend server_port
This command displays the send queue size and server port for each connection.