rabbitmqctl.bat on Windows XP: unable to connect to node rabbit@MYPCNAME: nodedown

Question

I have just installed RabbitMQ on my WindowsXP PC. I have fulfilled the Erlang OPC15 prereq as well.

My rabitmq seems to be working. I did a simple test using pika in python and it seems to work. The service is urnning.

The problem is that I cannot do anything with rabbitmqctl.bat. I always get the response:

Status of node rabbit@MYPCNAME ...
Error: unable to connect to node rabbit@MYPCNAME: nodedown
diagnostics:
- nodes and their ports on MYPCNAME: [{rabbit,3097},{rabbitmqctl17251,1132}]
- current node: rabbitmqctl17251@mypcname
- current node home dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Myuser
- current node cookie hash: NOTSUREIFTHISISSENSITIVESOREMOVED==

In my rabbitmq log file I get:

=ERROR REPORT==== 12-Feb-2012::17:01:22 ===
** Connection attempt from disallowed node rabbitmqctl17251@mypcname **

From various forums I deduce this has something to do with cookies. What cookies are we talking about? What do I need to do to be able to manage my RabbitMQ instance using rabbitmqctl.bat? Please word your answer in a way that a non-erlang non-functional programmer would understand.

Answer 1

Had the same problem, this instruction straight out of the manual installation guide solved my problem:

Synchronise Erlang Cookies (when running a manually installed Windows Service)

Erlang Security Cookies used by the service account and the user running rabbitmqctl.bat must be synchronised for rabbitmqctl.bat to function.

To ensure Erlang cookie files contain the same string, copy the .erlang.cookie file from the Windows directory (normally C:\WINDOWS\.erlang.cookie) to replace the user .erlang.cookie. The user cookie will be in the user's home directory (%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%), e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\.erlang.cookie or C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.erlang.cookie (Windows Vista and later).

Answer 2

Shortcut command for @Lining answer:

copy C:\Windows\.erlang.cookie %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.erlang.cookie 

Answer 3

Try to create a file called .erlang.cookie in your $HOME directory and put a simple passphrase in there.

Then restart rabbitmq and it might work. If it doesn't then rabbitmq is doing something to make sure you cannot put a system wide cookie in place.