RabbitMQ: Existing setup with different credentials

This issue occurs when a previous RabbitMQ setup already exists on the machine and was initialized with different credentials than the ones currently configured for SpaceDF.

Symptoms

SpaceDF services fail to start or keep restarting
Logs show RabbitMQ authentication errors such as:
- ACCESS_REFUSED
- authentication failed
Updating RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER or RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS does not fix the issue

Cause

RabbitMQ stores credentials in persistent volumes on first startup.

If RabbitMQ was previously started with different credentials:

Updating environment variables alone is not enough
RabbitMQ will continue using the old credentials stored in volumes
This results in a credential mismatch between SpaceDF services and RabbitMQ

How to verify

Check if an existing RabbitMQ container or volume is present:


docker ps -a | grep rabbitmq


docker volume ls | grep rabbitmq

If RabbitMQ volumes exist, they may contain credentials from a previous setup.

Fix (reset RabbitMQ credentials)

This will remove all RabbitMQ data. Only assume safe in development or fresh setups.

Stop all SpaceDF services:


docker compose down

Remove existing RabbitMQ volumes:


docker volume rm <rabbitmq_volume_name>

Verify credentials in `.env`:


RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=your_username
RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=your_password

Restart SpaceDF:


docker compose up -d

RabbitMQ will be re-initialized using the new credentials.

Notes

Changing RabbitMQ credentials always requires resetting volumes
Do not reuse RabbitMQ credentials across projects on the same host
For production systems, plan credential changes carefully to avoid data loss