CHECK_R...IVENESS(1p)

💖 check_rabbitmq_aliveness(1p) 💖

okay bestie, so this is check_rabbitmq_aliveness — a Nagios plugin that uses the RabbitMQ management API to check liveness by send/receive a message through a vhost. yeah it's a mouthful, but it's ICONIC and it just works 🐰✨

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✨ NAME ✨

check_rabbitmq_aliveness — a Nagios plugin that hits up the RabbitMQ management API to check liveness by send/receive a message through a vhost. periodt 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

check_rabbitmq_aliveness [options] -H hostname

like, you give it a host, it does the whole thing. the -H hostname is literally the only thing you have to bring to the party 🎀

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So the way this works is: it slides into the management interface of RabbitMQ to check that the server is alive. it declares a test queue, then publishes and consumes a message. that's the whole vibe check — real message in, real message out, server is breathing, we're so back 😌🔥

It uses Monitoring::Plugin and accepts all standard Nagios options. so all your usual faves still work, no notes 🫶

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -h | --help — displays the help text, for when you need a lil refresher 💖
• -v | --verbose — verbose output, aka it tells you EVERYTHING, no gatekeeping 💬
• -t | --timeout — sets a timeout for the check in seconds. so it doesn't just sit there waiting forever like a situationship ⏰
• -H | --hostname | --host — the host to connect to. the main character of this whole operation 🏠
• --port — the port to connect to (default: 55672) 🔌
• --ssl — use SSL when connecting (default: false) 🔒
• --vhost — the vhost to create the test queue within (default: /) 🌐
• --username | --user — the user to connect as (default: guest) 🙋
• --pass — the password for the user (default: guest) 🔑

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

The defaults all work with a standard fresh install of RabbitMQ, and all that is needed is to specify the host to connect to:

check_rabbitmq_aliveness -H rabbit.example.com

This returns a standard Nagios result:

RABBITMQ_ALIVENESS OK - vhost: /

You can choose a different vhost to use for the check also:

check_rabbitmq_aliveness -H rabbit.example.com --vhost /foo

see? not complicated. two lines max. we love a low-effort icon 💅✨

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😭 ERRORS 😭

The check tries to provide useful error messages on the status line for standard error conditions. so when something goes wrong it's not just like "💀" with no explanation — it actually tells you what happened.

Otherwise it returns the HTTP Error message returned by the management interface. so if the management API has opinions, you get those opinions verbatim, no cap 📡

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💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

Returns zero if check is OK otherwise returns standard Nagios exit codes to signify WARNING, UNKNOWN or CRITICAL state.

so like — 0 = slay, anything else = we have a problem and it's one of those three moods 🔥

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

See Monitoring::Plugin(3)

The RabbitMQ management plugin is described at http://www.rabbitmq.com/management.html

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📜 LICENSE 📜

This file is part of nagios-plugins-rabbitmq.

Copyright 2010, Platform 14.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

okay so like, actually read the license. it's giving legal and it's giving important. use it responsibly bestie 📄💖

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

James Casey <jamesc.000@gmail.com>

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this absolute classic shipped as part of perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-01-26 — a true vintage icon of the nagios-plugins-rabbitmq world 🐇👑 go check your rabbits, they deserve it 🫶💖✨