Create a RabbitMQ cluster in 5 minutes

This guide walks you through creating your first RabbitMQ cluster from the Hikube console, up to sending a first message.

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Objectives

By the end of this guide, you will have:

• A working RabbitMQ cluster in your project
• A vhost and a user with their rights
• The password of this user and the connection address of the cluster
• A first message published with an AMQP client

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Prerequisites

• A Hikube account and a project (see the Hikube quick start)
• Enough project quota for the cluster (CPU, memory and storage)
• Python 3 with the pika module installed, for the test in step 5 (pip install pika)

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Step 1: Open the creation wizard

1. Log in to the Hikube console and select your project.
2. In the side menu, open DB & Messaging → RabbitMQ. The RabbitMQ Clusters page is displayed.
3. Click Create a cluster. The Create a RabbitMQ cluster wizard opens.

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Step 2: Configure and create the cluster

The wizard has five steps. A banner shows the estimated cost and, at the Configuration step, the project's quota consumption.

General

Enter the Cluster Name (a name is suggested by default). It must be 3 to 16 characters long: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, start with a letter and end with a letter or a digit. Example: rabbit-demo.

Configuration

Field	Recommended value for this guide	Note
RabbitMQ Version	4.2	Available versions: 4.2, 4.1, 4.0, 3.13
Preset	s1.small — 1 CPU / 2Gi	No preset is preselected; cannot be changed after creation
Disk size (GB)	10	Capacity per node
Number of replicas	3 (Max High Availability)	1 (Standalone), 3 or 5; cannot be changed after creation
External access	Enabled	Exposes the cluster on the Internet; needed for the test from your workstation

note

If the project's storage quota is exceeded, the console displays "Storage quota exceeded for this project" and the Next button stays disabled. Reduce the size or the number of replicas, or have the project quota increased.

VHosts

Enter a VHost Name (for example demo; lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, starting with a letter and ending with a letter or a digit) then click Add. At least one vhost is required to move on to the next step.

Users

1. In Add a new user, enter the Username (for example app-user; lowercase letters, digits and hyphens).
2. In VHost access, choose Administrator for the demo vhost.
3. Click Add user.

At least one user is required to continue.

Summary

Review the summary (name, version, preset, replicas, size, Public or Private network, estimated cost, number of vhosts and users to create), then click Create cluster.

Done: copy the password

At the end of the deployment, the Done screen displays Creation complete! and, for each user created, their Password.

Password displayed only once

Copy the password immediately and keep it in a password manager. It will not be displayed again once you leave this screen. If it is lost, generate a new one with the Change Password action (see Manage vhosts and users).

Then click Finish to return to the cluster list.

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Step 3: Check the cluster status

1. In the RabbitMQ Clusters list, the cluster appears with the status Creating, then Ready once it is operational.
2. Click the cluster to open its detail page:
   • General Information: Version, Replicas, Volume Size;
   • VHosts and Users: the items created by the wizard;
   • Connection: the Internal and External address zones, and the Status.

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Step 4: Retrieve the credentials

To connect, you need:

Information	Where to find it
Username	Users section of the cluster page
Password	Copied from the wizard's Done screen (step 2)
VHost	VHosts section of the cluster page
Host	Connection section: Internal zone from the project, External zone from the Internet
Port	5672 (AMQP)

The Internal zone always shows the cluster's internal host, reachable from the project's VMs and Kubernetes clusters. The External zone shows the public address when External Access is enabled; otherwise it shows Disabled, and "Waiting for allocation…" as long as the address has not been assigned. Copy the address with the copy button.

When the host is already known, the wizard's Done screen also displays a connection string of the form:

amqp://app-user:<password>@<host>:5672

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Step 5: Connect and test

Create the following script, replacing the host and password with your values:

test_rabbitmq.py

import pika

credentials = pika.PlainCredentials('app-user', '<password>')
parameters = pika.ConnectionParameters(
    host='<host>',
    port=5672,
    virtual_host='demo',
    credentials=credentials,
)

connection = pika.BlockingConnection(parameters)
channel = connection.channel()

# Declare a quorum queue (replicated across the cluster nodes)
channel.queue_declare(queue='test', durable=True, arguments={'x-queue-type': 'quorum'})

# Send a message
channel.basic_publish(exchange='', routing_key='test', body='Hello Hikube!')
print("Message sent successfully")

# Read the message
method, properties, body = channel.basic_get(queue='test', auto_ack=True)
print(f"Message received: {body.decode()}")

connection.close()

python test_rabbitmq.py

Expected result:

Message sent successfully
Message received: Hello Hikube!

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Step 6: Quick troubleshooting

Symptom	Common causes	Action
The cluster stays Creating	Provisioning in progress	Wait a few minutes; if the status does not change, see troubleshooting
Error status	The platform could not apply the cluster's creation or its last change	Contact support, giving the name and identifier of the cluster
ACCESS_REFUSED on connection	Wrong password, or user without rights on the vhost	Check the vhost in Manage Access; regenerate the password if needed
Unable to connect (timeout)	External access disabled, wrong host or port	Check the External zone of the Connection section (from the project, the Internal zone); the AMQP port is 5672
NOT_FOUND - no vhost	Wrong vhost name in the client	Use exactly the name displayed in the VHosts section

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Step 7: Cleanup

1. Open the cluster detail page and click Delete (or, from the list, open the cluster's action menu and choose Delete cluster).
2. In the confirmation window, enter the exact name of the cluster in Resource name to confirm.
3. Click Permanently delete.

warning

This action is irreversible: the cluster, its vhosts, its users and all stored messages are permanently deleted.

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Summary

From the console, you have created:

• A highly available RabbitMQ cluster with 3 nodes
• A vhost and an administrator user for this vhost
• A working AMQP connection from your workstation