RabbitMQ failed to start, TCP connection succeeded but Erlang distribution failed

Question

I'm a new one just start to learn and install RabbitMQ on Windows System.

I install Erlang VM and RabbitMQ in custom folder, not default folder (Both of them).

Then I have restarted my computer.

By the way，My Computer name is "NULL"

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I cd to the RabbitMQ/sbin folder and use command：

rabbitmqctl status

But the return message is：

Status of node rabbit@NULL ...

Error: unable to perform an operation on node 'rabbit@NULL'. Please see diagnostics information and suggestions below.

Most common reasons for this are:

• Target node is unreachable (e.g. due to hostname resolution, TCP connection or firewall issues)
• CLI tool fails to authenticate with the server (e.g. due to CLI tool's Erlang cookie not matching that of the server)
• Target node is not running

In addition to the diagnostics info below:

• See the CLI, clustering and networking guides on http://rabbitmq.com/documentation.html to learn more
• Consult server logs on node rabbit@NULL

DIAGNOSTICS

attempted to contact: [rabbit@NULL]

rabbit@NULL:

• connected to epmd (port 4369) on NULL
• epmd reports node 'rabbit' uses port 25672 for inter-node and CLI tool traffic

• TCP connection succeeded but Erlang distribution failed

• Authentication failed (rejected by the remote node), please check the Erlang cookie

Current node details:

• node name: rabbitmqcli70@NULL
• effective user's home directory: C:\Users\Jerry Song
• Erlang cookie hash: 51gvGHZpn0gIK86cfiS7vp==

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I have try to RESTART RabbitMQ, What I get is：

ERROR: node with name "rabbit" already running on "NULL"

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By the way，My Computer name is "NULL" And I have enable all ports in firewall.

Answer 1

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rabbitmq-users/a6sqrAUX_Fg describes the problem where there is a cookie mismatch on a fresh installation of Rabbit MQ. The easy solution on windows is to synchronize the cookies

Also described here: http://www.rabbitmq.com/clustering.html#erlang-cookie

Ensure cookies are synchronized across 1, 2 and Optionally 3 below

1. %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.erlang.cookie (usually C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.erlang.cookie for user %USERNAME%) if both the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH environment variables are set

2. %USERPROFILE%\.erlang.cookie (usually C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.erlang.cookie) if HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH are not both set

3. For the RabbitMQ Windows service - %USERPROFILE%\.erlang.cookie (usually C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile)

The cookie file used by the Windows service account and the user running CLI tools must be synchronized by copying the one from C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile folder.

Answer 2

If you are using dedicated drive folder locations for your development tools/software in Windows10(Not the windows default location), one way you can synchronize the erlang cookie as described by https://www.rabbitmq.com/cli.html is by copying the cookie as explained below.

Please note in my case HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH environment variables both are not set.

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After copying the "C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\.erlang.cookie" to "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.erlang.cookie" ,

the error "tcp connection succeeded but Erlang distribution failed" is resolved.

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Now I am able to use "rabbitmqctl.bat status" command successfully. Hence there is no mandatory need to install in default location to resolve this error as synchronizing cookie will resolve that error.

Answer 3

In my case similar issue (Authentication failed because of Erlang cookies mismatch) solved by copying .erlang.cookie file from Windows system dir - C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\.erlang.cookie to %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.erlang.cookie (where %HOMEDRIVE% was set to H: and %HOMEPATH% to \ respectively)

Quick setup TODO for Windows, Erlang OTP 24 and RabbitMQ 3.8.19:

1. Download & Install Erlang [OTP 24] (needs Admin rights) from: https://www.erlang.org/downloads
2. set ERLANG_HOME (should point to install dir)
3. Download & Install recent [3.8.19] RabbitMQ (needs Admin rights) from: https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/
4. Follow: https://www.rabbitmq.com/install-windows.html and/or https://www.rabbitmq.com/install-windows-manual.html
5. set RABBITMQ_SERVER (should point to install dir)
6. update %PATH% by adding: ;%RABBITMQ_SERVER%\sbin
7. Fix Erlang-cookie issue from above, follow: https://www.rabbitmq.com/cli.html#erlang-cookie
8. Enable Web UI by running command: %RABBITMQ_SERVER%/sbin/rabbitmq-plugins.bat enable rabbitmq_management
9. From item #8 (above) got error because of missing file: %USERPROFILEDIR%/AppData/Roaming/RabbitMQ/enabled_plugins -> had to create it and run %RABBITMQ_SERVER%/sbin/rabbitmq-plugins.bat enable rabbitmq_management again!
10. Run/restart on the way might be required
11. Finally, login to: http://localhost:15672/ (guest:guest)

, or check by cURL: curl -i -u guest:guest http://localhost:15672/api/vhosts should receive response like:

        HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    cache-control: no-cache
    content-length: 186
    content-security-policy: script-src 'self' 'unsafe-eval' 'unsafe-inline'; 
    object-src 'self'
    content-type: application/json
    date: Tue, 13 Jul 2021 11:21:12 GMT
    server: Cowboy
    vary: accept, accept-encoding, origin
        [{"cluster_state":{"rabbit@hostname":"running"},"description":"Default virtual host","metadata":{"description":"Default virtual host","tags":[]},"name":"/","tags":[],"tracing":false}]

P.S. Some useful RabbitMQ CLI commands (copy-paste):

• %RABBITMQ_SERVER%/sbin/rabbitmqctl start_app
• %RABBITMQ_SERVER%/sbin/rabbitmqctl stop_app
• %RABBITMQ_SERVER%/sbin/rabbitmqctl status

P.P.S. UPDATE: great article for this subject: https://www.journaldev.com/11655/spring-rabbitmq