[rabbitmq-discuss] Erlang version for Rabbit MQ 2.2.0 on Redhat Enterprise 5.5

[Simon MacMullen]

On 11/01/11 17:39, Jon Rowland wrote:
> I'm looking to install rabbitmq server onto a production machine, and am
> a little confused as to the erlang dependencies. I see that version
> R12-B3 is mentioned in one place, and R13-B5 in another (admittedly
> Windows which could be different).

I don't see a reference to R13-B5 anywhere, but yes, we do end up 
mentioning a lot of versions.

We support back to R12-B3, but we tend to only test that on Unix since 
the main reason to run an old Erlang is "it comes with Red Hat / Debian".

> We will be installing version 2.2.0 from RPM on a RedHat Enterprise 5.5
> server. Following the yum/EPEL route gives me the erlang version R12-B5.
>
> Could anyone please clarify if this combination is suitable?

That will work. However:

* SSL support is quite unreliable
* Performance of garbage collection is not as good
* Many plugins will not work

Whether to go down the route of trying to get a more modern Erlang 
depends on how you feel about these things versus how you feel about 
using the official packages.

If you decide you do need a newer Erlang, I've heard that RPM users have 
had success with the following procedure:

* Open the SRPM
* Replace the R12-B5 tarball with the latest version
* Replace various references to the version in the spec file
* Repack the SRPM
* Build the RPM from the SRPM

This is likely to be less ugly than installing from source directly on a 
production server.

Cheers, Simon

-- 
Simon MacMullen
Staff Engineer, RabbitMQ
SpringSource, a division of VMware