New to KubeDB? Please start here.
Reconfigure RabbitMQ Cluster
This guide will show you how to use KubeDB Ops-manager operator to reconfigure a RabbitMQ cluster.
Before You Begin
At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the
kubectlcommand-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster.Install
KubeDBProvisioner and Ops-manager operator in your cluster following the steps here.You should be familiar with the following
KubeDBconcepts:
To keep everything isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in examples directory of kubedb/docs repository.
Now, we are going to deploy a RabbitMQ cluster using a supported version by KubeDB operator. Then we are going to apply RabbitMQOpsRequest to reconfigure its configuration.
Prepare RabbitMQ Standalone Database
Now, we are going to deploy a RabbitMQ cluster with version 3.13.2.
Deploy RabbitMQ standalone
At first, we will create rabbitmq.conf file containing required configuration settings.
$ cat rabbitmq.conf
default_vhost = /customvhost
Here, default_vhost is set to /customvhost instead of the default vhost /.
Now, we will create a secret with this configuration file.
$ kubectl create secret generic -n demo rabbit-custom-config --from-file=./rabbitmq.conf
secret/rabbit-custom-config created
In this section, we are going to create a RabbitMQ object specifying spec.configSecret field to apply this custom configuration. Below is the YAML of the RabbitMQ CR that we are going to create,
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: RabbitMQ
metadata:
name: rm-cluster
namespace: demo
spec:
version: "3.13.2"
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
configSecret:
name: rabbit-custom-config
Let’s create the RabbitMQ CR we have shown above,
$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.2.19/docs/examples/rabbitmq/cluster/rabbit-custom-config.yaml
rabbitmq.kubedb.com/rm-cluster created
Now, wait until rm-cluster has status Ready. i.e,
$ kubectl get rm -n demo
NAME TYPE VERSION STATUS AGE
rm-cluster kubedb.com/v1alpha2 3.13.2 Ready 79m
Now, we will check if the database has started with the custom configuration we have provided.
First we need to get the username and password to connect to a RabbitMQ instance,
$ kubectl get secrets -n demo rm-cluster-admin-cred -o jsonpath='{.data.\username}' | base64 -d
admin
$ kubectl get secrets -n demo rm-cluster-admin-cred -o jsonpath='{.data.\password}' | base64 -d
m6lXjZugrC4VEpB8
Now let’s check the configuration we have provided by using rabbitmq’s inbuilt cli.
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo rm-cluster-0 -- bash
Defaulted container "rabbitmq" out of: rabbitmq, rabbitmq-init (init)
rm-cluster-0:/$ rabbitmqctl list_vhosts
Listing vhosts ...
name
/customvhost
Provided custom vhost is there and is defaulted.
Reconfigure using new secret
Now we will update this default vhost to /newvhost using Reconfigure Ops-Request.
Now, Let’s edit the rabbitmq.conf file containing required configuration settings.
$ echo "default_vhost = /newvhost" > rabbitmq.conf
Then, we will create a new secret with this configuration file.
$ kubectl create secret generic -n demo new-custom-config --from-file=./rabbitmq.conf
secret/new-custom-config created
Create RabbitMQOpsRequest
Now, we will use this secret to replace the previous secret using a RabbitMQOpsRequest CR. The RabbitMQOpsRequest yaml is given below,
apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: RabbitMQOpsRequest
metadata:
name: reconfigure-rm-cluster
namespace: demo
spec:
type: Reconfigure
databaseRef:
name: rm-cluster
configuration:
configSecret:
name: new-custom-config
timeout: 5m
apply: IfReady
Here,
spec.databaseRef.namespecifies that we are reconfiguringmops-reconfigure-standalonedatabase.spec.typespecifies that we are performingReconfigureon our database.spec.configuration.configSecret.namespecifies the name of the new secret.- Have a look here on the respective sections to understand the
readinessCriteria,timeout&applyfields.
Let’s create the RabbitMQOpsRequest CR we have shown above,
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.2.19/docs/examples/rabbitmq/opsrequests/rabbit-reconfigure-with-secret.yaml
rabbitmqopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/reconfigure-rm-cluster created
Verify the new configuration is working
If everything goes well, KubeDB Ops-manager operator will update the configSecret of RabbitMQ object.
Let’s wait for RabbitMQOpsRequest to be Successful. Run the following command to watch RabbitMQOpsRequest CR,
$ watch kubectl get rabbitmqopsrequest -n demo
Every 2.0s: kubectl get rabbitmqopsrequest -n demo
NAME TYPE STATUS AGE
reconfigure-rm-cluster Reconfigure Successful 3m
We can see from the above output that the RabbitMQOpsRequest has succeeded. If we describe the RabbitMQOpsRequest we will get an overview of the steps that were followed to reconfigure the database.
$ kubectl describe rabbitmqopsrequest -n demo reconfigure-rm-cluster
Name: reconfigure-rm-cluster
Namespace: demo
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
API Version: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind: RabbitMQOpsRequest
Metadata:
Creation Timestamp: 2024-09-10T11:09:16Z
Generation: 1
Resource Version: 70651
UID: 5c99031f-6604-48ac-b700-96f896c5d0b3
Spec:
Apply: IfReady
Configuration:
Config Secret:
Name: new-custom-config
Database Ref:
Name: rm-cluster
Timeout: 5m
Type: Reconfigure
Status:
Conditions:
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:16Z
Message: RabbitMQ ops-request has started to reconfigure RabbitMQ nodes
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: Reconfigure
Status: True
Type: Reconfigure
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:24Z
Message: successfully reconciled the RabbitMQ with new configure
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: UpdatePetSets
Status: True
Type: UpdatePetSets
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:29Z
Message: get pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:rm-cluster-0
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: GetPod--rm-cluster-0
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:29Z
Message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:rm-cluster-0
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: EvictPod--rm-cluster-0
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:34Z
Message: running pod; ConditionStatus:False
Observed Generation: 1
Status: False
Type: RunningPod
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:49Z
Message: Successfully restarted all nodes
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: RestartNodes
Status: True
Type: RestartNodes
Last Transition Time: 2024-09-10T11:09:50Z
Message: Successfully completed reconfigure RabbitMQ
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: Successful
Status: True
Type: Successful
Observed Generation: 1
Phase: Successful
Events:
Type Reason Age From Message
---- ------ ---- ---- -------
Normal Starting 6m13s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Start processing for RabbitMQOpsRequest: demo/reconfigure-rm-cluster
Normal Starting 6m13s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Pausing RabbitMQ databse: demo/rm-cluster
Normal Successful 6m13s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Successfully paused RabbitMQ database: demo/rm-cluster for RabbitMQOpsRequest: reconfigure
Normal UpdatePetSets 6m5s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator successfully reconciled the RabbitMQ with new configure
Warning get pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:rm-cluster-0 6m KubeDB Ops-manager Operator get pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:rm-cluster-0
Warning evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:rm-cluster-0 6m KubeDB Ops-manager Operator evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:rm-cluster-0
Warning running pod; ConditionStatus:False 5m55s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator running pod; ConditionStatus:False
Normal RestartNodes 5m40s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Successfully restarted all nodes
Normal Starting 5m40s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Resuming RabbitMQ database: demo/rm-cluster
Normal Successful 5m39s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Successfully resumed RabbitMQ database: demo/rm-cluster for RabbitMQOpsRequest: reconfigure-rm-cluster
Now let’s check the configuration we have provided after reconfiguration.
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo rm-cluster-0 -- bash
Defaulted container "rabbitmq" out of: rabbitmq, rabbitmq-init (init)
rm-cluster-0:/$ rabbitmqctl list_vhosts
Listing vhosts ...
name
/newvhost
/customvhost
As we can see from the configuration of running RabbitMQ, /newvhost is in the list of vhosts.
Reconfigure using apply config
Let’s say you are in a rush or, don’t want to create a secret for updating configuration. You can directly do that using the following manifest.
Create RabbitMQOpsRequest
Now, we will use the new configuration in the configuration.applyConfig field in the RabbitMQOpsRequest CR. The RabbitMQOpsRequest yaml is given below,
apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: RabbitMQOpsRequest
metadata:
name: reconfigure-apply
namespace: demo
spec:
type: Reconfigure
databaseRef:
name: rm-cluster
configuration:
applyConfig:
rabbitmq.conf: |
default_vhost = /newvhost
timeout: 5m
apply: IfReady
Here,
spec.databaseRef.namespecifies that we are reconfiguringrm-clusterdatabase.spec.typespecifies that we are performingReconfigureon our database.spec.configuration.applyConfigspecifies the new configuration that will be merged in the existing secret.
Let’s create the RabbitMQOpsRequest CR we have shown above,
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.2.19/docs/examples/rabbitmq/opsrequests/rabbitmq-reconfigure-apply.yaml
rabbitmqopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/reconfigure-apply created
Cleaning Up
To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
kubectl delete rm -n demo rm-cluster
kubectl delete rabbitmqopsrequest -n demo reconfigure-apply reconfigure-rm-cluster