unable to start rabbitmq-server - erlang

Question

I installed rabbitmq using homebrew. I am trying to start rabbitmq server but I always get this error which I am unable to figure out why!
I have erlang installed and there is no other application running on the same port.
$ rabbitmq-server
{error_logger,{{2013,2,11},{22,37,49}},"Can't set short node name!\nPlease check your configuration\n",[]}
{error_logger,{{2013,2,11},{22,37,49}},crash_report,[[{initial_call,{net_kernel,init,['Argument__1']}},{pid,},{registered_name,[]},{error_info,{exit,{error,badarg},[{gen_server,init_it,6,[{file,"gen_server.erl"},{line,320}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,227}]}]}},{ancestors,[net_sup,kernel_sup,]},{messages,[]},{links,[]},{dictionary,[{longnames,false}]},{trap_exit,true},{status,running},{heap_size,610},{stack_size,24},{reductions,249}],[]]}
{error_logger,{{2013,2,11},{22,37,49}},supervisor_report,[{supervisor,{local,net_sup}},{errorContext,start_error},{reason,{'EXIT',nodistribution}},{offender,[{pid,undefined},{name,net_kernel},{mfargs,{net_kernel,start_link,[[rabbitmqprelaunch1593,shortnames]]}},{restart_type,permanent},{shutdown,2000},{child_type,worker}]}]}
{error_logger,{{2013,2,11},{22,37,49}},supervisor_report,[{supervisor,{local,kernel_sup}},{errorContext,start_error},{reason,shutdown},{offender,[{pid,undefined},{name,net_sup},{mfargs,{erl_distribution,start_link,[]}},{restart_type,permanent},{shutdown,infinity},{child_type,supervisor}]}]}
{error_logger,{{2013,2,11},{22,37,49}},std_info,[{application,kernel},{exited,{shutdown,{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}},{type,permanent}]}
{"Kernel pid terminated",application_controller,"{application_start_failure,kernel,{shutdown,{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}}"}
Crash dump was written to: erl_crash.dump
Kernel pid terminated (application_controller) ({application_start_failure,kernel,{shutdown,{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}})
btw, erl -sname abc gives the same output
Update:
This is what I have in /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

Answer 1

check your computer name and your short host name or alias name in /etc/hosts, match this
Check your computer name [wendy#nyc123]$
nyc123 is your computer name
Check your short hostname
[wendy#nyc123]$ hostname -s
[wendy#nyc123]$ nyc456
This error could happen because your computer name and short host name didn't match. To match this, you can change the computer hostname or alias name.
Change computer host name
[wendy#nyc123]$ hostname nyc456
close your terminal and open again
[wendy#nyc456]$
the computer name has changed
or
Change alias name in /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 nyc123.com nyc123
save and check again
[wendy#nyc123]$ hostname -s
[wendy#nyc123]$ nyc123
Restart your rabbitmq!
[root#nyc123]$ rabbitmq-server start</p>
RabbitMQ 3.6.0. Copyright (C) 2007-2015 Pivotal Software, Inc.</p>
## ## Licensed under the MPL. See http://www.rabbitmq.com/</p>
## ##</p>
########## Logs: /var/log/rabbitmq/rabbitmq#nyc123.com.log</p>
###### ## /var/log/rabbitmq/rabbitmq#nyc123.com-sasl.log</p>
##########</p>
Starting broker... completed with 6 plugins.</p>

Answer 2

I looked for a similar error on google, and it looks like it can happen if your /etc/hosts file is in the wrong format. Try fixing it and see if that helps.
References:
http://www.ejabberd.im/node/18
Explanation on RabbitMQ Mailing list
Edit: For completeness, it seems like setting a long name (of the form abc#abc) worked.

Answer 3

Found the answer here:
control rabbitmq 'name' not 'sname'
Set your machine name to something simple and make it an alias to locahost

Answer 4

I also encountered this problem yesterday and found the root cause:
I had changed my system's hostname to a "long" name, pm3(hc desktop).
If your server's hostname is long or invalid, Linux can still work and no error message is prompted to you. As you just modify the /etc/hostname file and reboot. However, the rabbitmq server may not work and give this "short-name" error message to you.
I changed hostname back to "pm3", rebooted and everything went well.

Answer 5

I solved this issue changing the computer name (on windows 8.1). The problem was that the name had a strange character (é) spanish letter. My computer name was Andrés and I changed it to Andres, restarted my computer and everything worked well. I think that Rabbit could not recognize that name (Andrés) for that strange character.

Answer 6

remove old style config file /etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq.config
and use rabbitmq.conf
with listeners.tcp.default = 5672
after that restart rabbitmq server again
In my case that solved the issue in ec2 instance