Windows x64 RabbitMQ install error with Erlang environment var (ERLANG_HOME)

Question

I'm ask/answering this question because it hung me up & it's likely someone else will have the same problem.

Install of RabbitMQ x64 v2.8.6 on Windows Server 2008 x64.

After Erlang install using default install location to C:\Program Files\erl5.9.2, I'm attempting to start the server via running the rabbitmq-service.bat. Fail:

Please either set ERLANG_HOME to point to your Erlang installation 
or place the RabbitMQ server distribution in the Erlang lib folder.

Problem is the .bat file does not have the correct subpath. with 5.9.2 (R15B02) version of erlang. My ERLANG_HOME directory is set correctly, but the script does not use it correctly for this version of Erlang, which, it appears to this Erlang noob to have a new subdirectory called "erts-5.9.2" which is causing the problems. Maybe someone intimate with these scripts can describe how to make this work correctly without the hack workaround I'm about to describe?

restart will solve the problem, i was facing same issue, but it is resolved once i restart my machine — Girdhar Singh Rathore, Nov 09 '18 at 11:11

score 24 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 20 '16 at 07:16

24

1- Set environment variable:

Variable name : ERLANG_HOME
Variable value: C:\Program Files (x86)\erl6.4

note: don't include bin on above step.

2- Add %ERLANG_HOME%\bin to the PATH environmental variable:

Variable name : PATH
Variable value: %ERLANG_HOME%\bin

This works well.

edited Sep 20 '16 at 07:16

answered Sep 20 '16 at 06:48

John Davis

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5
12

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '12 at 18:39

There are several RabbitMQ control .bat files on windows. Every one you use needs to get changed to reflect the Erlang path correctly. In this example, I'm editing the rabbitmq-server.bat because it's one of the easier ones... any of the .bat files you want to run will need this hack to get them to work, with the rabbitmq_service.bat file being the most involved to adjust.

editing that rabbitmq_server.bat file, you can see on about line 48 or so there's a check to see if the erl.exe is found, but the path isn't correct:

if not exist "!ERLANG_HOME!\bin\erl.exe" (

that path does not match the file structure for the 5.9.2 version of Erlang. I fixed this by simply removing this path check from about line 48 to 58, then, where the .bat actually makes a call to the erl.exe on about line 129 which reads:

"!ERLANG_HOME!\bin\erl.exe"

I simply hardcoded the path to my erl.exe:

"C:\Program Files\erl5.9.2\erts-5.9.2\bin\erl.exe"

With the pathing correct, the rabbitmq .bat files will run.

Before editing the .bat files, I suggest verifying the ERLANG_HOME variable in the Environment Variables. Somehow the erlang installer set it with a typo. Use the Windows Explorer to copy the path and paste it so that it fits nicely when inserted into this expression "!ERLANG_HOME!\bin\erl.exe" (avoid \\ for example) — Andrei, Dec 13 '15 at 18:32
Your ERLANG_HOME was probably C:\Program Files\erl5.9.2, and just changing to C:\Program Files\erl5.9.2\erts-5.9.2, should have fixed the problem. Main point being RabbitMQ and likely anything else using erlang is expecting the home folder to be the parent of "bin" so making sure the variable points to that folder should make for happy apps. — eselk, Apr 26 '17 at 01:08

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 07 '16 at 15:41

11

I had the similar issue, modifying ERLANG_HOME in .bat files did not work. Then I tried echo %ERLANG_HOME% in command prompt, that did not print the environment variable value(I could see that ERLANG_HOME environment variable has been created under advance system settings), that lead me to believe that I need to restart server for 64 bit installation of Erlang. After rebooting server, It worked like a charm. I hope this helps someone.

answered Jul 07 '16 at 15:41

VRK

400
2
5

1

restarting the server after erlang/rabbit mq installation worked for me. thanks! – Migs Aug 07 '19 at 14:34
Any idea why a reboot is required? Environment variables can be set without a reboot normally. – duct_tape_coder Nov 08 '19 at 16:22
2

Response to my own question: the global environment variable seems to get loaded when a new 'session' (cmd or PS window) gets opened. On the other hand, if the script sets the variable and tries to use it, it doesn't seem to work quite right. I found also that I had to set the variable, start a new session, then install RabbitMQ for it to use the new context. Otherwise, RabbitMQ would install in the user context rather than the new variable context. Else, I had to use the "(re)install" option to reset it to the new context. – duct_tape_coder Jan 07 '20 at 16:35

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 02 '17 at 21:46

This problem still occurs in Erlang 18.3 (erl7.3) and RabbitMQ 3.6.9 on Windows when upgrading from any older version of RabbitMQ to version 3.6.9. The solution as already stated here is to manually set ERLANG_HOME with 'setx -m ERLANG_HOME "C:\Program Files\erl7.3"' before starting the service.

What happens is that the RabbitMQ 3.6.9 installer removes the environment variable ERLANG_HOME from the system while removing the older version of RabbitMQ. Then, when it proceeds to the installation step, it does not put back the ERLANG_HOME variable. Then, the batch files that start up RabbitMQ cannot find Erlang. They try to find Erlang's home directory using "where.exe" but it always fails after an upgrade.

RabbitMQ's installer also does not kill all of the Erlang background processes, causing many of its files to be undeletable due to the Windows "file in use" problem. This leaves behind "files in use" in %APPDATA%\RabbitMQ and "C:\Program Files\RabbitMQ." These processes are "erl.exe," "erlsrv.exe," and "epmd.exe." The RabbitMQ installer should taskkill these processes after shutting down the RabbitMQ Windows service.

RabbitMQ is rather clunky on Windows.

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered May 29 '19 at 10:06

5

Just to share an up-to-date answer as of 2019: On Windows Server 2019, after setting up the environment variable, a restart is required to solve the problem.

answered May 29 '19 at 10:06

l001d

723
9
15

I would guess this is likely standard environment variable behavior; you'd just need to open a new shell so that it gets the new environment variable, not completely restart your system. – Kdawg Feb 03 '22 at 00:21

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 08 '16 at 14:10

I got into same kind of problem. I solved it by doing three changes as given below.

Update Path variable "ERLANG_HOME" : "C:\Program Files\erl8.0" in Environment Variables.
Upadte "Path" variable "Path" : ";%ERLANG_HOME%\bin;"
Give urself FULL CONTROL permissions over "Program Files" in C drive.

It worked for me in this way.

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 16 '20 at 09:04

Download Erlang or OTP - Only one Version of OTP should be installed
Download RabbitMQ installer
Install both exe file as Administrator
Set class path for Erlang. (Setting classpath is a bit troublesome, so follow these steps)
1. Set a new path with name ERLANG_HOME and value C:\Program Files\erl-23.1 (do not copy bin folder here)
2. Edit System "path" and add %ERLANG_HOME%\bin
Go to Start - Open rabbitmq command promt and run
```
rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management
```
Navigate to localhost:15672
Use guest/guest to login

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 28 '12 at 01:51

Interesting that this worked for you. There is record of a two bugs in Erl5.9.2 that cause an incomplete installation where %ERLANG_HOME%\bin is not installed.

Either of * Installed 64bit erlang on 32bit machine * "The program can't start because MSVCR100.dll is missing from your computer."

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/erlang-programming/wGtFLzapiQ0/discussion

Try 5.9.1 or any other version. They also mention making the future versions of the installer alert you if it fails.

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 03 '12 at 12:28

I just had the same problem mentioned here. I installed otp_win64_R15B02 on a Windows 7 machine and everything worked perfectly, but I used the same installer on a Windows 2008 server and the bin directory was not created. I then uninstalled otp_win64_R15B02 and downloaded the otp_win64_R15B02_with_MSVCR100_installer_fix and the bin directory was created.

I suspect the reason it worked on my Windows 7 system is that I have Visual Studio installed and the required libraries were already available which allowed the otp_win64_R15B02 installer to work correctly.

Oh, and if you're installing Erlang to run RabbitMQ the RabbitMQ install will succeed with the broken installer but installing otp_win64_R15B02_with_MSVCR100_installer_fix after RabbitMQ will not work, just un-install and re-install RabbitMQ to resolve this.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 10 '20 at 21:30

1

Just give C:\Program Files\erl10.6\ not C:\Program Files\erl10.6\bin\erl.exe in the environment variable. If you open the server.bat file I came to know the issueenter image description here

answered Apr 10 '20 at 21:30

Kumar Shanoo

125
4

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 26 '17 at 15:34

I think this is encoding issue on windows.I see a correct value but I write echo %ERLANG_HOME% on console the value come with question mark. These steps fix it.

1.go environment variable window

2.edit ERLANG_HOME item

3.copy the value, open notepad and paste there

4.copy again on notepad and paste to edit window

5.apply and exit window

6.close command line tools and reopen

7.run rabbitmq bat file.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered May 11 '19 at 15:48

I solved it in a quick and dirty way,without naming path variables I've opened the bat file and replaced every occurrence of

!ERLANG_HOME!\bin\erl.exe

with hard coded path for example might be diffrent path for you because of diffrent version

C:\Program Files\erl10.3\erts-10.3\bin\erl.exe

and replaced

%RABBITMQ_HOME%\escript\rabbitmq-plugins

with

C:\Program Files\RabbitMQ Server\rabbitmq_server-3.7.14\escript\rabbitmq-plugins

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered May 27 '19 at 09:54

Even I was this problem. The issue was the environment variable ERLANG_HOME=c:\Program Files\erl9.0 which was never existed.

I cross checked the path. The correct path was c:\Program Files\erl9.3.

After correcting the

ERLANG_HOME=c:\Program Files\erl9.3

the problem solved. So, definitely it is a path issue.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 02 '20 at 05:10

0

In my case, it should be installed erlang using admin role running

answered Apr 02 '20 at 05:10

zhaoyou

308
4
19

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 25 '23 at 23:26

In case anyone else has a similar issue where there's a "neighbours" error with erlsrv or erlsvr, it's in the same realm of troubleshooting. Had to change from a remote file share to a local destination.

set HOMEDRIVE=C:/conf/rabbitmq :: Or your favorite dir

Solution found at Stack Overflow: Failed to Create Cookie file RabbitMQ in Windows

score -1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 04 '19 at 18:49

If above solutions doesn't work for you then you can try following

Find another compatible version of erlang for your rabbit mq e.g. for rabbit 3.7.x erlang version 20.3.x to 22.0.x all are compatible .
Right click newly downloaded erlang version and from properties select the option to unblock the file .
Run the erlang with admin persssion .
Re run rabbit mq exe

Windows x64 RabbitMQ install error with Erlang environment var (ERLANG_HOME)

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