rabbitmq-server Fails to Start After Updating Erlang Packages

[SeanSith]

Current Behavior

Following an apt-get dist-upgrade, the packages 'erlang-mode' and 'esl-erlang' were upgraded above the highest version which supports the available version of 'rabbitmq-server', causing RabbitMQ to crash on startup. No logs were produced.

Possible Solution

Ensure appropriately versioned Erlang packages are installed along side their corresponding RabbitMQ server.

Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)

1. Existing Ubuntu 16.04 server with the following packages installed:
   • rabbitmq-server=3.6.15-1
   • esl-erlang=1:20.3
   • erlang-mode=1:20.3-1
2. apt-get dist-upgrade which took versions to the following:
   • esl-erlang=1:21.0.5
   • erlang-mode=1:21.0.5-1
3. Attempt to start rabbitmq-server service. Failure.
4. Downgrade 'esl-erlang' and 'erlang-mode' to versions listed in Step 1
5. rabbitmq-server service starts appropriately.

Context

Merely attempting to patch the system with updated packages from Ubuntu.

Your Environment

• Version of this cookbook used: 5.3.0
• Version of Sensu used: 1.4.3-1
• Version of Chef used: 14.3.37
• Operating System and version (e.g. CentOS 7, Ubuntu 14.04): Ubuntu 16.04

Tagging @majormoses per thread in Sensu Community Slack #help channel from 29 August 2018 @ 21:27 UTC.

[majormoses]

This link may not work in the future (as we have limited retention on free slack) but here is the discussion: https://sensucommunity.slack.com/archives/C68LV5M9U/p1535578029000100

[SeanSith]

From a question in the Slack channel: The rabbitmq cookbook pulled in:

rabbitmq (5.6.1)
    dpkg_autostart (>= 0.0.0)
    erlang (>= 0.0.0)
    logrotate (>= 0.0.0)
    yum-epel (>= 0.0.0)
    yum-erlang_solutions (>= 0.0.0)

[majormoses]

Sorry what I needed was what version of the rabbitmq cookbook got pulled in, based on what I see (the version of rabbitmq itself) you are on at least 5.x but I'd like to confirm.

[SeanSith]

Sorry, for whatever reason, when I put that in, the code block wasn't formatted properly and the rabbitmq line didn't show up. Fixed it.

[majormoses]

Can you confirm if you modified this attribute? https://github.com/rabbitmq/chef-cookbook/blob/v5.x/attributes/default.rb#L6 from what I can tell from the defaults this should not have happened via an apt upgrade unless that was changed. You can set node['esl']['version'] similar to this: https://github.com/rabbitmq/chef-cookbook/blob/v5.x/.kitchen.yml#L29

[SeanSith]

I did not modify that attribute, no. Other than enabling TLS and setting a hostname and credentials using the attributes in this cookbook, I did not modify the RabbitMQ setup. I felt that the least amount that I could do to it would be best as I don't understand RabbitMQ well enough, and Redis wasn't going to be secure enough for my deployment pattern.

[majormoses]

I opened a PR on the upstream erlang cookbook which might help your scenerio: https://github.com/chef-cookbooks/erlang/pull/65

[majormoses]

@SeanSith you could try pulling in erlang cookbook 7.0.0 I think that should work, if you have a server to test with you can remove your hold and see if this prevents the issue from manifesting? The fix I made only fix debian based distros as you need some non standard repos to pin versions with yum.