If you are having problems setting up a cluster on a single machine, then the following post might help answer some questions. I assume that you have already set up RabbitMQ on your local machine (rabbit@localhost) and want to know how to add two more nodes and cluster them.

These instructions relate to installation on a MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite.

As you already have an installation of RabbitMQ. all you need to do is instantiate instances on new nodes. The following command will instantiate an instance of Rabbit on a node called hare@localhost.

    RABBITMQ_NODE_PORT=5674
        RABBITMQ_NODENAME=hare@localhost
        rabbitmq-server &

Ensure the port number is different to the port currently in use.

A sticking point are the ports bound by Rabbit to plug-ins. You might see the following error:

BOOT FAILED
===========

Error description:
 {could_not_start,rabbitmq_mqtt,
    {{shutdown,
      {failed_to_start_child,'rabbit_mqtt_listener_sup_:::1883',
         {shutdown,
            {failed_to_start_child,tcp_listener,
              {cannot_listen,{0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0},1883,eaddrinuse}}}}},
     {rabbit_mqtt,start,[normal,[]]}}}

This means that the Rabbit MQTT for the currently running node is using port 1883.

BOOT FAILED
===========

Error description:
 {could_not_start,rabbitmq_stomp,
    {{shutdown,
        {failed_to_start_child,'rabbit_stomp_listener_sup_:::61613',
           {shutdown,
              {failed_to_start_child,tcp_listener,
         {cannot_listen,{0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0},61613,eaddrinuse}}}}},
     {rabbit_stomp,start,[normal,[]]}}}

This means that the Rabbit STOMP for the currently running node is using port 61613.

To resolve this conflict add an argument to RABBITMQ_SERVER_START_ARGS specifying a new port for the plug-in.

A list of installed plug-in is shown in the RabbitMQ web interface in the overview tab under ports and contexts.

The following shows how to configure ports for the Rabbit management and Rabbit MQTT

RABBITMQ_NODE_PORT=5674
    RABBITMQ_NODENAME=hare@localhost
    RABBITMQ_SERVER_START_ARGS="
        -rabbitmq_management listener [{port,15674}]
        -rabbitmq_mqtt tcp_listeners [1884]"
    rabbitmq-server &

Now add the node to the cluster. Stop the instance, join it to another node and start.

rabbitmqctl -n hare@localhost stop_app
rabbitmqctl -n hare@localhost join_cluster rabbit@localhost
rabbitmqctl -n hare@localhost start_app