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RabbitMQ

What is RabbitMQ?​

RabbitMQ is a mature, widely-used message broker implementing AMQP, commonly used as a Laravel queue backend or for service-to-service messaging. Laradock builds it with the management plugin enabled, so you get the web dashboard out of the box.

Start RabbitMQ​

./laradock start rabbitmq

The container depends_on php-fpm in compose.yml, so Compose starts php-fpm first automatically. Your data (queues, exchanges, users) is created on first start and kept between restarts.

Stop RabbitMQ​

Stopping just pauses the container; your data is safe:

./laradock stop rabbitmq

To delete the container entirely (the data on disk is still untouched, it lives under DATA_PATH_HOST/rabbitmq):

./laradock remove rabbitmq

Configuration​

All settings live in rabbitmq/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

VariableDefaultWhat it does
RABBITMQ_NODE_HOST_PORT5672Host-side port for the AMQP protocol (host:5672).
RABBITMQ_MANAGEMENT_HTTP_HOST_PORT15672Host-side port for the management web UI over HTTP.
RABBITMQ_MANAGEMENT_HTTPS_HOST_PORT15671Host-side port for the management web UI over HTTPS.
RABBITMQ_WEB_STOMP_HOST_PORT15674Host-side port for Web STOMP (STOMP-over-WebSockets).

Default login credentials are set in rabbitmq/rabbitmq.conf: default_user = guest, default_pass = guest.

Open the management UI​

Once the container is running, open http://localhost:15672 (or your custom RABBITMQ_MANAGEMENT_HTTP_HOST_PORT) and log in with guest / guest. The rabbitmq_management plugin is enabled at build time in rabbitmq/Dockerfile, so the dashboard is available without any extra setup.

Connect from Laravel​

Inside Laradock, other containers reach RabbitMQ by container name: use host rabbitmq, port 5672, with the credentials from rabbitmq.conf. Install a client such as vladimir-yuldashev/laravel-queue-rabbitmq in your app to wire it up as a queue driver.

Change the default credentials​

Edit rabbitmq/rabbitmq.conf:

default_user = your_user
default_pass = your_password

That file is bind-mounted into the container (not baked into the image), so a restart is enough, no rebuild needed:

./laradock restart rabbitmq

This only changes the credentials used for new installs (an empty DATA_PATH_HOST/rabbitmq). If the broker already has users provisioned from a previous boot, manage them from the management UI instead (Admin tab), or with rabbitmqctl add_user/rabbitmqctl delete_user after ./laradock enter rabbitmq.

Inspect queues​

Open a terminal inside the container and use rabbitmqctl:

./laradock enter rabbitmq

Then, inside the container:

rabbitmqctl list_queues name messages consumers

This lists every queue with its current depth (messages waiting) and consumer count, useful for spotting a stuck or backed-up queue without opening the management UI. The same UI shows this under Queues and Streams.

Backup and restore​

RabbitMQ's own backup mechanism exports definitions (queues, exchanges, bindings, users, vhosts, policies), not the messages currently sitting in queues, since queues are meant to drain, not archive:

./laradock exec -T rabbitmq rabbitmqctl export_definitions - > definitions.json

The - path tells rabbitmqctl to write to stdout instead of a file inside the container; the -T disables the container's pseudo-terminal so the JSON isn't corrupted when redirected to a file, always include it when piping output to or from a file.

Restore (import) definitions from that file:

./laradock exec -T rabbitmq rabbitmqctl import_definitions - < definitions.json

If you need the in-flight messages themselves preserved (not just topology), stop the broker and copy the whole data folder instead, see Start completely fresh for where it lives.

Start completely fresh (wipe all data)​

To throw away everything and start RabbitMQ from a clean, empty state (⚠️ this permanently deletes every queue, exchange, and user in this container, export your definitions first if you need them):

./laradock stop rabbitmq
./laradock remove rabbitmq
rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/rabbitmq"
./laradock start rabbitmq

DATA_PATH_HOST is whatever you have set in .env (~/.laradock/data by default), so the folder above (mounted to /var/lib/rabbitmq in the container) is where RabbitMQ's node data actually lives on your machine. Deleting it and starting again re-creates the default guest/guest user and an empty broker, exactly like a brand-new install.

Talk to this broker from another Laradock project​

Each Laradock project is its own isolated Docker network by default, so a second project's containers can't reach this RabbitMQ by container name out of the box. Easiest fix: publish the port (already done, RABBITMQ_NODE_HOST_PORT) and have the other project connect to your host machine's address instead of rabbitmq, for example host.docker.internal (Docker Desktop) on this project's RABBITMQ_NODE_HOST_PORT. Make sure the two projects use different RABBITMQ_*_HOST_PORT values if they're both running at once.

Common issues​

  • Can't log in to the management UI. Credentials come from rabbitmq/rabbitmq.conf (guest/guest by default), not from .env. If you changed that file, restart: ./laradock restart rabbitmq.
  • Port already in use on your host. Another local RabbitMQ (or another Laradock project) is bound to one of the default ports. Change the relevant RABBITMQ_*_HOST_PORT variable in .env and restart.
  • App can't connect but the container is running. Confirm the app's config uses host rabbitmq (the container name), not localhost or 127.0.0.1, those only work from your host machine, not from inside another container.
  • Queue keeps growing / nothing is consuming it. Check rabbitmqctl list_queues name messages consumers (see Inspect queues) — a consumer count of 0 means no worker is listening on that queue.
  • Two Laradock projects overwrite each other's data. Running more than one Laradock on the same machine? Set both COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME and DATA_PATH_HOST to unique values per project, otherwise they share the same RabbitMQ data on disk.

Need something lighter for pub/sub? See Mosquitto or NATS. New to Laradock? Start at Getting Started.