diff --git a/helpers/deploy_rabbitmq.sh b/helpers/deploy_rabbitmq.sh
index 286e47097e607827bf84060f4d6f9f755273ed38..5fad1f6a92adbabf4b5edad8cbe06f4b5a7767dd 100755
--- a/helpers/deploy_rabbitmq.sh
+++ b/helpers/deploy_rabbitmq.sh
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ cp $kubekorner_k3s_config .
 kubeconfig=$(basename $kubekorner_k3s_config)
 # get password from any previous installation
 # if we don't do this the password will get out of sync
+# WARNING: If you can't figure out why the password isn't working and you
+#          can't authenticate the user, double check that the PVC for rabbitmq
+#          is deleted. This is storing the old password and may be messing
+#          things up.
+# Test user authentication by logging in to the rabbitmq pod and running:
+#   rabbitmqctl authenticate_user user <password>
+# where password is accessed from the kubectl secret:
+#   kubectl get secret --namespace geosphere geosphere-rabbit-rabbitmq -o jsonpath="{.data.rabbitmq-password}" | base64 --decode
 sec_info=$(kubectl --kubeconfig $kubeconfig get secret --namespace $ns geosphere-rabbit-rabbitmq || echo "")
 echo $sec_info
 auth_sec="geosphere-rabbit-rabbitmq"