carstenj

Installing RabbitMQ on Windows

2018-05-17

I recently had to install RabbitMQ manually on a Windows box. This is just checklist documenting the steps that I took so I can remember it at a later stage. Don’t do this a home unless you absolute have to. You should always prefer to run RabbitMQ on Linux or in a Docker container.

Here is a basic list of tasks that will get RabbitMQ up and running. Please consider security before you blindly apply this recipe.

Here we go:

Install Erlang OTP 20.3 64-bit version

a. Download from http://erlang.org/download/otp_win64_20.3.exe

b. You must install Erlang using an administrative account

c. Install in d:\app\ or where ever your preferred location is. Accept all default setting

d. Verify that ERLANG_HOME system variable is set to correct path D:\APP\erl9.3. I have experienced that ERLANG_HOME was not set by the installer and then you need to define it manually
Install RabbitMQ Server 3.7.4

a. Download from https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/download/v3.7.4/rabbitmq-server-3.7.4.exe

b. Define system variable RABBITMQ_BASE to d:\app\RabbitMQ

c. Install in d:\app\rabbitmq server

Enable Management Plugin from elevated command prompt

 cd d:\app\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.7.4\sbin
 rabbitmq-plugins.bat enable rabbitmq_management
 rabbitmq-service.bat stop
 rabbitmq-service.bat remove
 rabbitmq-service.bat install
 rabbitmq-service.bat start

Verify that RabbitMQ is up and running on the server by browse to
```
 http://localhost:15672/#/
```
and log in with standard default username and password: guest/guest
Install Handle.exe for monitoring purposes

a. Download from https://download.sysinternals.com/files/Handle.zip

b. Install in d:\app\tools\handle

c. Add d:\app\tools\handle to system path

d. Restart the RabbitMQ
```
 from command prompt
 cd d:\app\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.7.4\sbin
 rabbitmq-service.bat stop
 rabbitmq-service.bat start 	
```

Open Ports

Open Control Panel and navigate to System & Security. Now, open Windows Firewall. In the left-hand menu, click “Advanced settings” and create the following new inbound rules to the Windows firewall.

The first one is for RabbitMQ, which uses 5672 as its main port and 15672 for its web admin:

Rule	Value
Rule Type	Port
Protocols and Ports	TCP
Specified local ports	5672, 15672
Action	Allow the connection
Profile	Domain, Private, Public
Name	RabbitMQ

The next three rules are for Erlang:

Rule	Value
Rule Type	Program
Program path	D:\APP\erl9.3\bin\erl.exe
Action	Allow the connection
Profile	Domain, Private, Public
Name	Erlang

Rule	Value
Rule Type	Program
Program path	D:\APP\erl9.3\erts-9.3\bin\erl.exe
Action	Allow the connection
Profile	Domain, Private, Public
Name	Erlang Run-Time System

Rule	Value
Rule Type	Program
Program path	D:\APP\erl9.3\erts-9.3\bin\epmd.exe
Action	Allow the connection
Profile	Domain, Private, Public
Name	Erlang Port Mapper Daemon

Use correct Erlang cookie copy C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\.erlang.cookie to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.erlang.cookie

Create admin role from elevated command prompt

 cd d:\app\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.7.4\sbin
 rabbitmqctl.bat add_user admin admin
 rabbitmqctl.bat set_user_tags admin administrator
 rabbitmqctl.bat set_permissions -p / admin ``".*" ".*" ".*"``

Verify that RabbitMQ web management can be accessed from external machine From external machine by browsing to http://<machine-id>:15672/#/ and log in with admin/admin

Create vhosts from elevated command prompt

cd d:\app\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.7.4\sbin
rabbitmqctl.bat add_vhost my_vhost
rabbitmqctl.bat list_vhosts

Create users and grant access rights from elevated command prompt

cd d:\app\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.7.4\sbin
rabbitmqctl.bat add_user my_user my_user
rabbitmqctl.bat set_permissions -p my_vhost my_user ".*" ".*" ".*"

Delete default user
```
rabbitmqctl.bat delete_user guest
```

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Content of this blog by Carsten Jørgensen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.