I\'m using RabbitMQ on RHEL 5.3 using the Java client. I have 2 nodes (machines). Node1 is consuming messages from a queue on Node2 using the Java helper class QueueingConsume
Regarding the isOpen method, that is well described in the docs: http://www.rabbitmq.com/api-guide.html#shutdown-atomicity
Regarding the shutting down: with shutting down node1 or 2 you mean the application right, not the RabbitMQ server itself? Why would you want to know on any application if another application disconnects from the message broker? That's not the point of messaging.
The only thing you can do, is send messages with a 'mandatory' parameter. That tells the RabbitMQ server you expect at least 1 listener for the message you've sent (whether that be a direct queue or some queue in a topic/fanout exchange). If the message then can not be delivered to any queue, the message will return to your channel and forwarded to given ReturnListener.