[rabbitmq-discuss] Really bizarre startup issue...

[Robert Nickel]

First, thank you.

I have two hosts (sdcloudsh01 and sdcloudsh02) with the following specifications:
  CentOS 5.1
  erlang R13B03
  rabbitmq-server 1.7.2
  selinux is disabled

Both are identically configured using puppet. 02 works fine but 01 has
interesting startup issues.

On sdcloudsh01, contents of /etc/rabbitmq files:
  rabbitmq.conf:
    NODENAME=regsvc at sdcloudsh01
  rabbitmq.config:
    [
      {rabbit, []}
    ].
  rabbitmq_cluster.config:
    [ 'regsvc at sdcloudsh01','regsvc at sdcloudsh02' ].

When starting the rabbitmq server using /sbin/service rabbitmq-server start,
the service fails and the following outputs are in
/var/log/rabbitmq/startup_err and log:

  _log:
    Starting all nodes...
    Starting node regsvc at sdcloudsh01...
  _err:
    Error: {node_start_failed,normal}

When the node fails, there is not erl_dump file to be found and the epmd
process is running.

After a bunch of troubleshooting, I noticed that if I strace the above
command, everything works fine:

  strace -f /sbin/service rabbitmq-server start

Terminating the strace leaves the rabbit server running happily.

I have no idea what this could be.

Any pointers are greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
--Robert