rabbitmq-server crashes with "eheap_alloc: Cannot allocate" error message

Issue

rabbitmq-server crashes and reports the following error messages in /var/log/messages:

Oct 21 14:47:16 ctrl01 rabbitmq-server: eheap_alloc: Cannot allocate 3280272216 bytes of memory (of type "old_heap").
Oct 21 14:49:14 ctrl01 rabbitmq-server: Crash dump is being written to: erl_crash.dump...done
Oct 21 14:49:16 ctrl01 systemd: rabbitmq-server.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: Stopping and halting node rabbit@ctrl01 ...
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: Error: unable to connect to node rabbit@ctrl01: nodedown
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: DIAGNOSTICS
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: ===========
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: attempted to contact: [rabbit@ctrl01]
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: rabbit@ctrl01:
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: * connected to epmd (port 4369) on ctrl01
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: * epmd reports: node 'rabbit' not running at all
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: no other nodes on ctrl01
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: * suggestion: start the node
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: current node details:
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: - node name: 'rabbitmq-cli-65@ctrl01'
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: - home dir: /var/lib/rabbitmq
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 rabbitmqctl: - cookie hash: BxO2AVpt07xu8IfZkZu7ew==
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 systemd: Unit rabbitmq-server.service entered failed state.
Oct 21 14:49:18 ctrl01 systemd: rabbitmq-server.service failed.