Managing Activemq

ActiveMQ Management Skill

Analyze and manage ActiveMQ brokers with safe, read-only operations.

MANDATORY: Two-Phase Execution

You MUST follow this two-phase pattern. Skipping Phase 1 causes hallucinated queue/topic names.

Phase 1: Discovery (ALWAYS run first)

#!/bin/bash

# 1. Broker info (Jolokia/REST API)
curl -s -u "$AMQ_USER:$AMQ_PASSWORD" \
    "http://$AMQ_HOST:8161/api/jolokia/read/org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=*"

# 2. List queues
curl -s -u "$AMQ_USER:$AMQ_PASSWORD" \
    "http://$AMQ_HOST:8161/api/jolokia/read/org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost/Queues"

# 3. List topics
curl -s -u "$AMQ_USER:$AMQ_PASSWORD" \
    "http://$AMQ_HOST:8161/api/jolokia/read/org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost/Topics"

# For ActiveMQ Artemis (newer):
# 4. List queues (Artemis)
curl -s -u "$AMQ_USER:$AMQ_PASSWORD" \
    "http://$AMQ_HOST:8161/console/jolokia/read/org.apache.activemq.artemis:broker=\"*\",component=addresses"

# 5. Queue stats
curl -s -u "$AMQ_USER:$AMQ_PASSWORD" \
    "http://$AMQ_HOST:8161/api/jolokia/read/org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost,destinationType=Queue,destinationName=my_queue"

Phase 1 outputs:

• Broker name and version
• Queue and topic list with message counts
• Consumer and producer counts

Phase 2: Analysis (only after Phase 1)

Only reference queues, topics, and destinations confirmed in Phase 1.

Shell Script Patterns

Helper Function

#!/bin/bash

# Jolokia API helper — always use this
amq_jolokia() {
    local mbean="$1"
    curl -s -u "${AMQ_USER:-admin}:${AMQ_PASSWORD:-admin}" \
        "http://${AMQ_HOST:-localhost}:8161/api/jolokia/read/$mbean"
}

# Jolokia exec helper (for operations)
amq_exec() {
    local mbean="$1" operation="$2"
    curl -s -u "${AMQ_USER:-admin}:${AMQ_PASSWORD:-admin}" \
        -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d "{\"type\":\"exec\",\"mbean\":\"$mbean\",\"operation\":\"$operation\"}" \
        "http://${AMQ_HOST:-localhost}:8161/api/jolokia/"
}

# ActiveMQ Web Console API
amq_api() {
    local endpoint="$1"
    curl -s -u "${AMQ_USER:-admin}:${AMQ_PASSWORD:-admin}" \
        "http://${AMQ_HOST:-localhost}:8161/api/$endpoint"
}

Anti-Hallucination Rules

• NEVER reference a queue or topic without confirming via Jolokia API or web console
• NEVER assume broker name — always query broker info first
• NEVER guess destination names — always list destinations
• NEVER assume Classic vs Artemis — check broker type first
• NEVER assume network connector names — list them from broker config

Safety Rules

• READ-ONLY ONLY: Use only Jolokia read operations, web console GET endpoints
• FORBIDDEN: purge, removeQueue, removeTopic, sendMessage without explicit user request
• NEVER browse messages on high-volume production queues — it can cause memory issues
• Use Jolokia read for metrics, not message browsing

Common Operations

Broker Health Overview

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Broker Info ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq '.value | {BrokerId, BrokerName, BrokerVersion, Uptime, MemoryLimit, StoreLimit, TempLimit, MemoryPercentUsage, StorePercentUsage, TempPercentUsage}'

echo ""
echo "=== Queue Summary ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq '.value.Queues | length | tostring + " queues"'

echo ""
echo "=== Topic Summary ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq '.value.Topics | length | tostring + " topics"'

echo ""
echo "=== Health ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Health,brokerName=localhost" 2>/dev/null | jq '.value'

Destination Management

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Queue Details ==="
for QUEUE in $(amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq -r '.value.Queues[].objectName' 2>/dev/null); do
    amq_jolokia "$QUEUE" | jq '.value | {Name, QueueSize, EnqueueCount, DequeueCount, ConsumerCount, ProducerCount, MemoryPercentUsage, InFlightCount}'
done

echo ""
echo "=== Topics with Subscribers ==="
for TOPIC in $(amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq -r '.value.Topics[].objectName' 2>/dev/null); do
    amq_jolokia "$TOPIC" | jq '.value | select(.ConsumerCount > 0) | {Name, ConsumerCount, EnqueueCount, DequeueCount}'
done

Network Connector Status

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Network Connectors ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost,connector=networkConnectors,networkConnectorName=*" | jq '.value | to_entries[] | {name: .key, active: .value.Started, duplex: .value.Duplex}' 2>/dev/null || echo "No network connectors configured"

echo ""
echo "=== Transport Connectors ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost,connector=clientConnectors,connectorName=*" | jq '.value' 2>/dev/null

Advisory Topics

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Advisory Topics ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq '[.value.Topics[].objectName | select(contains("Advisory"))]' 2>/dev/null

echo ""
echo "=== Connection Count ==="
amq_jolokia "org.apache.activemq:type=Broker,brokerName=localhost" | jq '.value | {CurrentConnectionsCount, TotalConnectionsCount, TotalConsumerCount, TotalProducerCount, TotalMessageCount}'

Output Format

Present results as a structured report:

Managing Activemq Report
════════════════════════
Resources discovered: [count]

Resource       Status    Key Metric    Issues
──────────────────────────────────────────────
[name]         [ok/warn] [value]       [findings]

Summary: [total] resources | [ok] healthy | [warn] warnings | [crit] critical
Action Items: [list of prioritized findings]

Target ≤50 lines of output. Use tables for multi-resource comparisons.

Counter-Rationalizations

Common Pitfalls

• Store limit: When store usage hits 100%, producers are blocked — monitor StorePercentUsage
• Memory limit: Memory usage exceeding threshold triggers flow control
• DLQ accumulation: Failed messages go to ActiveMQ.DLQ — monitor its size
• Slow consumers: Slow consumers on topics cause memory buildup — check advisory topics
• Network bridge lag: Network connectors between brokers can have replication lag
• Classic vs Artemis API: ActiveMQ Classic and Artemis have different JMX/Jolokia endpoints