How to Install, Configure, and Manage RabbitMQ on CentOS 7

Practice Environment

CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2009.iso

rabbitmq-server-3.9.16-1.el7.noarch.rpm (last RabbitMQ version supporting CentOS 7)

https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v3.9.16

https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/download/v3.9.16/rabbitmq-server-3.9.16-1.el7.noarch.rpm

erlang-23.3.4.11-1.el7.x86_64.rpm (last Erlang version supporting CentOS 7)

https://github.com/rabbitmq/erlang-rpm/releases

https://github.com/rabbitmq/erlang-rpm/releases/download/v23.3.4.11/erlang-23.3.4.11-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

Practice Operations

Download RabbitMQ and Erlang Packages

RabbitMQ is built with Erlang, so an Erlang runtime matching the RabbitMQ version is required. Compatibility information can be found at https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/which-erlang.

Install Packages

# rpm -ivh erlang-23.3.4.11-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh rabbitmq-server-3.9.16-1.el7.noarch.rpm

Additional dependencies such as socat and logrotate are listed in the official docs, but they were not installed in this practice.

Run RabbitMQ

After installation the server does not start as a daemon by default. Enable it to start on boot as a daemon: # systemctl enable rabbitmq-server Start/Stop Server

# systemctl start rabbitmq-server
# systemctl status rabbitmq-server
# systemctl stop rabbitmq-server

Reference: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/install-rpm#running-rpm

Enable Management Plugin

# rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management

After enabling, the management UI is available at http://<em>node-hostname</em>:15672/. Example screenshot:

Configuration File Management

Locate Configuration Files

# rabbitmq-diagnostics status
... Config files ...
Log file(s):
 * /var/log/rabbitmq/[email protected]
 * /var/log/rabbitmq/rabbit@localhost_upgrade.log

Typical config files are /etc/rabbitmq/advanced.config and /etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq.conf.

Reference: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/configure#configuration-files

User Management

Default User Access

The broker creates a default user guest / guest that can only connect from localhost. To allow remote access, add loopback_users = none to rabbitmq.conf and restart the service.

# vi /etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq.conf
loopback_users = none
# systemctl restart rabbitmq-server

Reference: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/install-rpm#default-user-access

Add User

# rabbitmqctl add_user "testacc"
Adding user "testacc" ...
Password: test1234
Done.

List Users

# rabbitmqctl list_users
Listing users ...
user	tags
testacc	[]
guest	[administrator]
# rabbitmqctl list_users --formatter=json
[{"user":"testacc","tags":[]},{"user":"guest","tags":["administrator"]}]

Delete User

# rabbitmqctl delete_user 'username'

Set Permissions

Grant permissions on a virtual host:

# rabbitmqctl set_permissions -p "custom-vhost" "username" ".*" ".*" ".*"

The three .* patterns correspond to configure, write, and read permissions respectively.

Clear Permissions

# rabbitmqctl clear_permissions -p 'custom-vhost' 'username'

Set User Tags

# rabbitmqctl set_user_tags testacc administrator

Without the administrator tag the user cannot access the management UI (error: "Not management user").

References: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/man/rabbitmqctl.8#set_user_tags, https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/access-control#user-management

Login to Management UI

Enable MQTT‑Related Plugins

# rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_mqtt
# rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_web_mqtt
# rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_web_mqtt_examples

After enabling, the web MQTT example UI is reachable at http://<em>host-ip</em>:15670/.

Overview (Web UI Metrics)

Totals

Ready

: Number of messages ready for delivery. High values may indicate insufficient consumer capacity. Unacked: Messages awaiting consumer acknowledgments. Large numbers suggest consumers are not acking or manual ack is mis‑used. Total: Sum of Ready and Unacked.

Message Rates

Publish

: Rate of messages entering the broker. Publish confirm: Rate at which the broker confirms publishes (requires channel confirm mode). Deliver (manual ack) / Deliver (auto ack): Delivery rates for consumers using manual or automatic acknowledgments. Consumer ack: Rate of consumer acknowledgments. Redelivered: Rate of messages marked as redelivered. Get (manual ack) / Get (auto ack) / Get (empty): Rates related to basic.get requests. Return: Rate of mandatory‑flagged undeliverable messages returned to publishers. Disk read / Disk write: Queue disk I/O rates.

Global Counts

Connections

: Number of client TCP connections. Channels: Total channels. Exchanges: Total exchanges. Queues: Total queues. Consumers: Total consumers.

Nodes

Name

: Node name. File descriptors: OS‑reported file descriptor count and limit. Socket descriptors: RabbitMQ‑managed network socket count and limit. Erlang processes: Number of Erlang processes. Memory: Memory used by the node. Disk space: Disk space used. Uptime: How long the node has been running.

Churn Statistics

Connection Operations

Created

: Rate of new connections. Closed: Rate of closed connections.

Channel Operations

Created

: Rate of new channels. Closed: Rate of closed channels.

Queue Operations

Declared

: Rate of queue declarations. Created: Rate of actual queue creations. Deleted: Rate of queue deletions.

Ports and Contexts

Typical ports:

5672 – AMQP client connections

15672 – RabbitMQ web management console

25672 – Cluster communication

Export / Import Definitions

The exported definitions include users, virtual hosts, permissions, parameters, exchanges, queues, policies, and bindings, but not queue contents. Exclusive queues are omitted.

Import merges definitions with the current configuration; errors do not roll back changes.

Admin

The Admin tab allows management of users, virtual hosts, tags, policies, limits, and clustering.