rabbitmqctl does not have to run as root

[jbg]

If you execute the rabbitmqctl executable (usually in /usr/libexec/rabbitmq), rather than the shell script that is usually installed in /usr/sbin, you can run it as the rabbitmq user and avoid having to run your monitoring scripts as root. Here’s a demonstration:

myserver ~ # cd /var/lib/rabbitmq/
myserver rabbitmq # su rabbitmq -s /bin/sh -c "/usr/libexec/rabbitmq/rabbitmqctl -p myvhost list_queues name"
Listing queues ...
amq.gen-Oiq9xZO6FXr3_0oVpS_LEQ
api
celery
celery@api.myserver.celery.pidbox
celery@recurring.myserver.celery.pidbox
recurring
...done.

The monitoring scripts could run as the rabbitmq user and execute the real rabbitmqctl executable without needing to use su.

[dspaeth-faber]

For all trying this, you have to change HOME within the plugin scripts to match the right place. In this case /var/lib/rabbitmq/