RabbitMQ cheatsheet

Service and ports

Check	Description
`systemctl status rabbitmq-server`	Broker service
`ss -tlnp \| grep 5672`	AMQP port
`ss -tlnp \| grep 15672`	Management UI port
`rabbitmq-diagnostics ping`	Node responding?

rabbitmqctl — status

Command	Description
`rabbitmqctl status`	Node info, memory, alarms
`rabbitmqctl list_queues name messages consumers`	Queue depth and consumers
`rabbitmqctl list_queues name messages_ready messages_unacknowledged`	Ready vs unacked
`rabbitmqctl list_connections`	Active connections
`rabbitmqctl list_consumers`	Which queues have consumers
`rabbitmqctl list_exchanges name type`	Exchanges

Users and vhosts

rabbitmqctl add_user myuser secret
rabbitmqctl set_permissions -p / myuser ".*" ".*" ".*"
rabbitmqctl set_user_tags myuser administrator
rabbitmqctl list_users
rabbitmqctl list_vhosts

Management plugin (dashboard)

rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management
rabbitmq-plugins list

# Browser: http://HOST:15672
# Overview → message rates, alarms
# Queues → Ready / Unacked / Total — watch for steady growth
# Admin → Users, vhosts, policies

HTTP API (scripting)

# Queue overview (needs management plugin)
curl -s -u user:pass http://localhost:15672/api/queues | jq '.[].name, .[].messages'

# Single queue
curl -s -u user:pass http://localhost:15672/api/queues/%2F/myqueue | jq '{messages, consumers}'

Policies

# Max queue length (drop or reject publish when full)
rabbitmqctl set_policy maxlen ".*" '{"max-length":100000}' --apply-to queues

# Message TTL (ms)
rabbitmqctl set_policy ttl "^temp\." '{"message-ttl":3600000}' --apply-to queues

Purge and admin (careful)

Command	Description
`rabbitmqctl purge_queue QUEUE -p /`	Delete all messages in queue
`rabbitmqctl delete_queue QUEUE -p /`	Remove queue
`rabbitmqctl close_connection "127.0.0.1:port" "reason"`	Force-close connection

Diagnostics

Command	Description
`rabbitmq-diagnostics check_running`	Is app running?
`rabbitmq-diagnostics memory_breakdown`	Memory use by category
`rabbitmq-diagnostics check_alarms`	Memory/disk alarms active?
`tail -f /var/log/rabbitmq/rabbit@hostname.log`	Follow node log

Pro tips

Open the dashboard first — queue graphs expose backlog instantly
Queue Ready always climbing → add/fix consumers before disk fills
High Unacked → slow handlers or missing acks; check prefetch
guest only works from localhost — create users for remote apps
Set max-length or DLX policies before a runaway queue takes the node down

Practice scenarios

Hands-on RabbitMQ scenarios on live Linux VMs: rabbitmq