Monitoring ActiveMQ with ATSD

Overview

This document describes the process of configuring ActiveMQ for availability and performance monitoring with ATSD.

Requirements

ActiveMQ version 5.x.+

Installation Steps

Configure ActiveMQ Server

Enable JMX and Log Aggregator

Log in to the ActiveMQ server via SSH.
Change to the ActiveMQ installation directory.

cd /opt/apache-activemq-5.13.1

Download the log aggregation filter .jar files to the ActiveMQ lib directory:

wget --content-disposition -P ./lib/ \
   "https://repository.sonatype.org/service/local/artifact/maven/redirect?r=central-proxy&g=com.axibase&a=aggregation-log-filter&v=LATEST"
wget --content-disposition -P ./lib/ \
   "https://repository.sonatype.org/service/local/artifact/maven/redirect?r=central-proxy&g=com.axibase&a=aggregation-log-filter-log4j&v=LATEST"

Append aggregation filter settings to the ActiveMQ log4j.properties file. Replace atsd_hostname with the hostname of the ATSD server:

cat <<EOF >> ./conf/log4j.properties
log4j.appender.logfile.filter.COLLECTOR=com.axibase.tsd.collector.log4j.Log4jCollector
log4j.appender.logfile.filter.COLLECTOR.writerHost=atsd_hostname
EOF

See Aggregation Log Filter for additional configuration options.

Modify JMX settings in ActiveMQ JVM launch options.
- Search for the ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START setting and modify the setting as specified below.
- Replace activemq_hostname with the full hostname or the IP address of the ActiveMQ server.
- This must be the same hostname that Axibase Collector uses when connecting to the ActiveMQ server.
- For more information on configuring JMX in ActiveMQ, see Apache ActiveMQ Documentation

ActiveMQ 5.11.x and later:

vi ./bin/env

ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1090"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port=1090"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=activemq_hostname"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.password.file=${ACTIVEMQ_CONF}/jmx.password"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.access.file=${ACTIVEMQ_CONF}/jmx.access"

ActiveMQ 5.10.x and earlier:

vi ./bin/activemq

ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote \
   -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1090 \
   -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port=1090 \
   -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false \
   -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=activemq_hostname \
   -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.password.file=${ACTIVEMQ_BASE}/conf/jmx.password \
   -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.access.file=${ACTIVEMQ_BASE}/conf/jmx.access"

The expected result is:

SUN_JMX_START_IMAGE

Modify JMX security credential files in the ./conf directory.

jmx.access:

# The "monitorRole" role has readonly access.
monitorRole readonly

jmx.password:

# The "monitorRole" role has password "abc123".
monitorRole abc123

Secure access to the jmx.password file by restricting permissions:

chmod 600 ./conf/jmx.password

Restart ActiveMQ server.

./bin/activemq stop
./bin/activemq start

Configure ActiveMQ JMX Job

Log in to Axibase Collector at https://collector_hostname:9443.
Click the Jobs tab in the top menu.
Locate the jmx-activemq job.
On the JMX Job page, enable job status by checking the box and selecting Enabled from the split-button at the bottom of the screen.
Adjust the cron expression if required. By default, the job is executed every 10 seconds.

For more information on cron expressions, see Scheduling.

JMX_JOB

Configuring activemq-series

Select the activemq-series configuration.
On the JMX Configuration page, enter the JMX connection parameters as above:

Host — ActiveMQ hostname. Must be the same as the activemq_hostname.
Port — JMX port.
User Name — JMX user name such as monitorRole. Read-only permissions are sufficient.
Password — Password for JMX user.
Entity — Optionally, specify the output of the hostname command on the ActiveMQ server if hostname is different from activemq_hostname (for example if activemq_hostname represents a fully qualified name). Other parameters are optional. For more information on JMX configuration, see JMX.
Host — ActiveMQ hostname. Must be the same as the activemq_hostname.
Port — JMX port.
User Name — JMX user name such as monitorRole. Read-only permissions are sufficient.
Password — Password for JMX user.
Entity — Optionally, specify the output of the hostname command on the ActiveMQ server if the hostname is different from activemq_hostname (for example if activemq_hostname represents a fully qualified name).

Other parameters are optional. For more information on JMX configuration, see JMX.

Click Test to validate the configuration.

If the specified configuration is correct, there must be no errors or empty fields in the test results.

Click Save.

Configuring activemq-property

From the table on the JMX Job page, click Edit next to the activemq-property configuration.
Set Host, Port, User Name, Password, and Entity fields as described in the previous section.
Click Test to validate the configuration.
Click Save.

Viewing Data in ATSD

Metrics

List of collected ActiveMQ metrics

Properties

List of collected Active MQ properties

Entity group

Open Settings > Entity Groups, select Import from the split-button and upload activemq_entity_group.xml.
Select the imported apache-activemq-brokers group.
Verify that the group contains your Active MQ hosts.

Entity Views

Open Entity Views > Configure, select Import from the split-button and upload activemq_entity_view.xml.
Select the imported Apache ActiveMQ Brokers view.
Select the Entity Group that you created earlier.
Click View and browse information about your entities.

Portal

Open the Portals menu and select Configure. Select Import from the split-button and upload activemq_portal.xml.
Click the Assign link and associate the portal with the entity group you created earlier.
Open the Entities tab, find the java application by name, and click the Portal icon.

Active MQ Live Portal

Rules

Setting up Mail Client

Configure Mail Client.

Import Rules

Open the Configuration > Rules page, click Import and upload jvm_rules.xml.
For each created rule, open the rule in the Rule Editor, and change the recipient address on the Email Notifications tab.
These rules automatically apply to all JVM-based applications monitored by Axibase Collector.

Imported rules:

Rule	Description
activemq_broker_configuration_change	Send a notification on configuration change.
activemq_connection_count	Raise an alert when connection count exceeds the specified threshold.
activemq_enqueue_stopped	Raise an alert when enqueueing stops (no new messages are received).
activemq_health_status	Raise an alert when Activemq health status is abnormal.
activemq_unauthorized_connection	Raise an alert when connection from unauthorized IP address is detected.

To create your own rules, refer to Rule Engine documentation.

# Monitoring ActiveMQ with ATSD

# Overview

# Requirements

# Installation Steps

# Configure ActiveMQ Server

# Enable JMX and Log Aggregator

# Configure ActiveMQ JMX Job

# Configuring activemq-series

# Configuring activemq-property

# Viewing Data in ATSD

# Metrics

# Properties

# Entity group

# Entity Views

# Portal

# Rules

# Setting up Mail Client

# Import Rules