diff --git a/rabbitmq/templates/bin/_rabbitmq-wait-for-cluster.sh.tpl b/rabbitmq/templates/bin/_rabbitmq-wait-for-cluster.sh.tpl
index c9895762a..10fd86f67 100644
--- a/rabbitmq/templates/bin/_rabbitmq-wait-for-cluster.sh.tpl
+++ b/rabbitmq/templates/bin/_rabbitmq-wait-for-cluster.sh.tpl
@@ -48,6 +48,24 @@ function active_rabbit_nodes () {
 }
 
 until test "$(active_rabbit_nodes)" -ge "$RABBIT_REPLICA_COUNT"; do
-    echo "Waiting for number of nodes in cluster to match number of desired pods ($RABBIT_REPLICA_COUNT)"
+    echo "Waiting for number of nodes in cluster to meet or exceed number of desired pods ($RABBIT_REPLICA_COUNT)"
     sleep 10
 done
+
+function sorted_node_list () {
+  rabbitmqadmin_authed list nodes -f bash | tr ' ' '\n' | sort | tr '\n' ' '
+}
+
+if test "$(active_rabbit_nodes)" -gt "$RABBIT_REPLICA_COUNT"; then
+    echo "There are more nodes registed in the cluster than desired, pruning the cluster"
+    PRIMARY_NODE="$(sorted_node_list | awk '{ print $1; exit }')"
+    echo "Current cluster:"
+    rabbitmqctl -l -n "${PRIMARY_NODE}" cluster_status
+    NODES_TO_REMOVE="$(sorted_node_list | awk "{print substr(\$0, index(\$0,\$$((RABBIT_REPLICA_COUNT+1))))}")"
+    for NODE in ${NODES_TO_REMOVE}; do
+      rabbitmqctl -l -n "${NODE}" stop_app || true
+      rabbitmqctl -l -n "${PRIMARY_NODE}" forget_cluster_node "${NODE}"
+    done
+    echo "Updated cluster:"
+    rabbitmqctl -l -n "${PRIMARY_NODE}" cluster_status
+fi
diff --git a/rabbitmq/templates/job-cluster-wait.yaml b/rabbitmq/templates/job-cluster-wait.yaml
index dac994e17..bf8e710bb 100644
--- a/rabbitmq/templates/job-cluster-wait.yaml
+++ b/rabbitmq/templates/job-cluster-wait.yaml
@@ -41,6 +41,24 @@ spec:
         {{ $envAll.Values.labels.jobs.node_selector_key }}: {{ $envAll.Values.labels.test.node_selector_value | quote }}
       initContainers:
 {{ tuple $envAll "cluster_wait" list | include "helm-toolkit.snippets.kubernetes_entrypoint_init_container" | indent 8 }}
+        - name: rabbitmq-cookie
+{{ tuple $envAll "scripted_test" | include "helm-toolkit.snippets.image" | indent 10 }}
+{{ dict "envAll" $envAll "application" "cluster_wait" "container" "rabbitmq_cookie" | include "helm-toolkit.snippets.kubernetes_container_security_context" | indent 10 }}
+          command:
+            - /tmp/rabbitmq-cookie.sh
+          volumeMounts:
+            - name: pod-tmp
+              mountPath: /tmp
+            - name: rabbitmq-bin
+              mountPath: /tmp/rabbitmq-cookie.sh
+              subPath: rabbitmq-cookie.sh
+              readOnly: true
+            - name: rabbitmq-data
+              mountPath: /var/lib/rabbitmq
+            - name: rabbitmq-erlang-cookie
+              mountPath: /var/run/lib/rabbitmq/.erlang.cookie
+              subPath: erlang_cookie
+              readOnly: true
       containers:
         - name: {{.Release.Name}}-rabbitmq-cluster-wait
 {{ tuple $envAll "scripted_test" | include "helm-toolkit.snippets.image" | indent 10 }}
@@ -59,11 +77,19 @@ spec:
               mountPath: /tmp/rabbitmq-wait-for-cluster.sh
               subPath: rabbitmq-wait-for-cluster.sh
               readOnly: true
+            - name: rabbitmq-data
+              mountPath: /var/lib/rabbitmq
       volumes:
         - name: pod-tmp
           emptyDir: {}
+        - name: rabbitmq-data
+          emptyDir: {}
         - name: rabbitmq-bin
           configMap:
             name: {{ printf "%s-%s" $envAll.Release.Name "rabbitmq-bin" | quote }}
             defaultMode: 0555
+        - name: rabbitmq-erlang-cookie
+          secret:
+            secretName: {{ printf "%s-%s" $envAll.Release.Name "erlang-cookie" | quote }}
+            defaultMode: 0444
 {{- end }}
diff --git a/rabbitmq/values.yaml b/rabbitmq/values.yaml
index 8313e3c35..fda9e2321 100644
--- a/rabbitmq/values.yaml
+++ b/rabbitmq/values.yaml
@@ -79,6 +79,9 @@ pod:
         rabbitmq_cluster_wait:
           allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
           readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
+        rabbitmq_cookie:
+          allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
+          readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
     test:
       pod:
         runAsUser: 999