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Apache ActiveMQ integration for Grafana Cloud

Apache ActiveMQ is an open-source message broker software that facilitates the communication between different applications or components using messaging patterns. Message brokers like ActiveMQ play a crucial role in distributed systems by enabling asynchronous communication and decoupling producers and consumers of messages. They serve as intermediaries that receive, store, and route messages between different components, applications, or services. The integration with Grafana Cloud enables users to oversee an ActiveMQ environment using five distinct dashboards. These dashboards display metrics and logs for ActiveMQ clusters, instances, topics, and queue components.

This integration supports Apache ActiveMQ version 5.x+
This integration supports the JMX exporter 0.17.0+

This integration includes 4 useful alerts and 5 pre-built dashboards to help monitor and visualize Apache ActiveMQ metrics and logs.

Before you begin

In order for the integration to properly work, you must set up the JMX Exporter for Prometheus on each instance in your cluster.

Setup JMX Exporter

To expose the JMX remotely, it needs to be enabled for the instances being monitored. A configuration option enables JMX, which exists in a env file located in the <apache-activemq-installation-dir>/bin/env directory. Within the env file, the following lines should be added:

sh Copy

ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=11099"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false"
ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START="$ACTIVEMQ_SUNJMX_START -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote"

Change the jmxremote.port on the first command above for each instance you run, then save the configuration files. For more details, refer to the official documentation.

Connect JMX to the Prometheus Exporter

In order to connect JMX to the Prometheus Exporter, a collector is configured in a config file. This config.yaml file can be placed anywhere and named anything. The contents of this file will be the following

yaml Copy

lowercaseOutputLabelNames: true
lowercaseOutputName: true
rules:
  - pattern: org.apache.activemq<type=Broker, brokerName=(\S*), destinationType=Queue, destinationName=(\S*)><>(\w+)
    name: activemq_queue_$3
    attrNameSnakeCase: true
    labels:
      destination: $2

  - pattern: org.apache.activemq<type=Broker, brokerName=(\S*), destinationType=Topic, destinationName=(\S*)><>(\w+)
    name: activemq_topic_$3
    attrNameSnakeCase: true
    labels:
      destination: $2

  - pattern: org.apache.activemq<type=Broker, brokerName=(\S*)><>CurrentConnectionsCount
    name: activemq_connections
    type: GAUGE

  - pattern: org.apache.activemq<type=Broker, brokerName=(\S*)><>Total(.*)Count
    name: activemq_$2_total
    type: COUNTER

  - pattern: org.apache.activemq<type=Broker, brokerName=(\S*)><>(.*)PercentUsage
    name: activemq_$2_usage_ratio
    type: GAUGE
    valueFactor: 0.01

  - pattern: 'java.lang<name=([^>]+), type=GarbageCollector><LastGcInfo>duration: (\d+)'
    name: jvm_gc_duration_seconds
    value: $2
    labels:
      name: $1
    type: GAUGE
    # Convert ms to s
    valueFactor: 0.001

  - pattern: 'java.lang<name=([^>]+), type=GarbageCollector><>CollectionCount: (\d+)'
    name: jvm_gc_collection_count
    value: $2
    labels:
      name: $1
    type: GAUGE

Run the Prometheus Exporter

To run the JMX to Prometheus Exporter, the Java agent is used. The command requires two arguments: a <CONFIG>.yaml file that was created above, and the <JMX_EXPORTER_PORT> that exposes the metrics.

The following command runs the JMX to Prometheus Exporter as a Java agent:

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java -javaagent:./jmx_prometheus_javaagent-0.19.0.jar=<JMX_EXPORTER_PORT>:/path/to/config/<CONFIG>.yaml -jar yourJar.jar

To validate that the JMX Exporter is setup correctly, the Prometheus metrics should be available locally via curl:

sh Copy

curl http://localhost:<JMX_EXPORTER_PORT>/metrics

Install Apache ActiveMQ integration for Grafana Cloud

1. In your Grafana Cloud stack, click Connections in the left-hand menu.
2. Find Apache ActiveMQ and click its tile to open the integration.
3. Review the prerequisites in the Configuration Details tab and set up Grafana Agent to send Apache ActiveMQ metrics and logs to your Grafana Cloud instance.
4. Click Install to add this integration’s pre-built dashboards and alerts to your Grafana Cloud instance, and you can start monitoring your Apache ActiveMQ setup.

Configuration snippets for Grafana Alloy

Advanced mode

The following snippets provide examples to guide you through the configuration process.

To instruct Grafana Alloy to scrape your Apache ActiveMQ instances, manually copy and append the snippets to your alloy configuration file, then follow subsequent instructions.

Advanced metrics snippets

alloy Copy

prometheus.scrape "metrics_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	targets = [{
		__address__      = "<instance-name>:<instance-port>",
		activemq_cluster = "<activemq-cluster-name>",
	}]
	forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.metrics_service.receiver]
	job_name   = "integrations/apache-activemq"
}

To monitor your Apache ActiveMQ instance, you must use a discovery.relabel component to discover your Apache ActiveMQ Prometheus endpoint and apply appropriate labels, followed by a prometheus.scrape component to scrape it.

Configure the following properties within each discovery.relabel component:

• __address__: The address to your Apache ActiveMQ Prometheus metrics endpoint.
• instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Apache ActiveMQ instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
• activemq_cluster: The activemq_cluster label to group your ActiveMQ instances within a cluster. Set the same value for all nodes within your cluster.

If you have multiple Apache ActiveMQ servers to scrape, configure one discovery.relabel for each and scrape them by including each under targets within the prometheus.scrape component.

Advanced logs snippets

darwin

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__      = "localhost",
		__path__         = "<activemq_install_dir>/data/activemq.log",
		activemq_cluster = "<activemq-cluster-name>",
		instance         = "<instance-name>:<instance-port>",
		job              = "integrations/apache-activemq",
	}]
}

loki.process "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]

	stage.multiline {
		firstline     = "(TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL)"
		max_lines     = 0
		max_wait_time = "3s"
	}

	stage.regex {
		expression = "(?P<level>TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL)\\s*[\\|:]\\s*(?P<message>.+)"
	}

	stage.labels {
		values = {
			level = null,
		}
	}
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq.targets
	forward_to = [loki.process.logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq.receiver]
}

To monitor your Apache ActiveMQ instance logs, you will use a combination of the following components:

• local.file_match defines where to find the log file to be scraped. Change the following properties according to your environment:

  • __address__: The Apache ActiveMQ instance address
  • __path__: The path to the log file, which is typically in the data file within the Apache ActiveMQ installation directory. An example log location looks like /apache-activemq-5.18.2/data/activemq.log on Unix based systems and like C:\apache-activemq-x.x.x\data\activemq.log on Windows.
  • instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Apache ActiveMQ instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
  • activemq_cluster: The activemq_cluster label to group your ActiveMQ instances within a cluster. Set the same value for all nodes within your cluster.

• loki.process defines how to process logs before sending it to Loki.

• loki.source.file sends logs to Loki.

linux

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__      = "localhost",
		__path__         = "<activemq_install_dir>/data/activemq.log",
		activemq_cluster = "<activemq-cluster-name>",
		instance         = "<instance-name>:<instance-port>",
		job              = "integrations/apache-activemq",
	}]
}

loki.process "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]

	stage.multiline {
		firstline     = "(TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL)"
		max_lines     = 0
		max_wait_time = "3s"
	}

	stage.regex {
		expression = "(?P<level>TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL)\\s*[\\|:]\\s*(?P<message>.+)"
	}

	stage.labels {
		values = {
			level = null,
		}
	}
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq.targets
	forward_to = [loki.process.logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq.receiver]
}

To monitor your Apache ActiveMQ instance logs, you will use a combination of the following components:

• local.file_match defines where to find the log file to be scraped. Change the following properties according to your environment:

  • __address__: The Apache ActiveMQ instance address
  • __path__: The path to the log file, which is typically in the data file within the Apache ActiveMQ installation directory. An example log location looks like /apache-activemq-5.18.2/data/activemq.log on Unix based systems and like C:\apache-activemq-x.x.x\data\activemq.log on Windows.
  • instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Apache ActiveMQ instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
  • activemq_cluster: The activemq_cluster label to group your ActiveMQ instances within a cluster. Set the same value for all nodes within your cluster.

• loki.process defines how to process logs before sending it to Loki.

• loki.source.file sends logs to Loki.

windows

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__      = "localhost",
		__path__         = "<activemq_install_dir>/data/activemq.log",
		activemq_cluster = "<activemq-cluster-name>",
		instance         = "<instance-name>:<instance-port>",
		job              = "integrations/apache-activemq",
	}]
}

loki.process "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]

	stage.multiline {
		firstline     = "(TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL)"
		max_lines     = 0
		max_wait_time = "3s"
	}

	stage.regex {
		expression = "(?P<level>TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL)\\s*[\\|:]\\s*(?P<message>.+)"
	}

	stage.labels {
		values = {
			level = null,
		}
	}
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq.targets
	forward_to = [loki.process.logs_integrations_integrations_apache_activemq.receiver]
}

To monitor your Apache ActiveMQ instance logs, you will use a combination of the following components:

• local.file_match defines where to find the log file to be scraped. Change the following properties according to your environment:

  • __address__: The Apache ActiveMQ instance address
  • __path__: The path to the log file, which is typically in the data file within the Apache ActiveMQ installation directory. An example log location looks like /apache-activemq-5.18.2/data/activemq.log on Unix based systems and like C:\apache-activemq-x.x.x\data\activemq.log on Windows.
  • instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Apache ActiveMQ instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
  • activemq_cluster: The activemq_cluster label to group your ActiveMQ instances within a cluster. Set the same value for all nodes within your cluster.

• loki.process defines how to process logs before sending it to Loki.

• loki.source.file sends logs to Loki.

Grafana Agent static configuration (deprecated)

The following section shows configuration for running Grafana Agent in static mode which is deprecated. You should use Grafana Alloy for all new deployments.

Instructions for Grafana Agent static

Dashboards

The Apache ActiveMQ integration installs the following dashboards in your Grafana Cloud instance to help monitor your system.

• Apache ActiveMQ cluster overview
• Apache ActiveMQ instance overview
• Apache ActiveMQ logs
• Apache ActiveMQ queue overview
• Apache ActiveMQ topic overview

Apache ActiveMQ cluster overview

Apache ActiveMQ instance overview

Apache ActiveMQ instance overview (jvm)

Alerts

The Apache ActiveMQ integration includes the following useful alerts:

Metrics

The most important metrics provided by the Apache ActiveMQ integration, which are used on the pre-built dashboards and Prometheus alerts, are as follows:

• activemq_memory_usage_ratio
• activemq_message_total
• activemq_queue_average_enqueue_time
• activemq_queue_average_message_size
• activemq_queue_consumer_count
• activemq_queue_dequeue_count
• activemq_queue_enqueue_count
• activemq_queue_expired_count
• activemq_queue_memory_percent_usage
• activemq_queue_producer_count
• activemq_queue_queue_size
• activemq_store_usage_ratio
• activemq_temp_usage_ratio
• activemq_topic_average_enqueue_time
• activemq_topic_average_message_size
• activemq_topic_consumer_count
• activemq_topic_dequeue_count
• activemq_topic_enqueue_count
• activemq_topic_expired_count
• activemq_topic_memory_percent_usage
• activemq_topic_producer_count
• activemq_topic_queue_size
• jvm_gc_collection_count
• jvm_gc_duration_seconds
• up

Changelog

md Copy

# 1.0.0 - October 2023

- Initial release

Cost

By connecting your Apache ActiveMQ instance to Grafana Cloud, you might incur charges. To view information on the number of active series that your Grafana Cloud account uses for metrics included in each Cloud tier, see Active series and dpm usage and Cloud tier pricing.