activemq-helm-chart

ActiveMQ Artemis Helm Chart

This Helm chart deploys Apache ActiveMQ Artemis on Kubernetes, providing a reliable and scalable message broker.

Overview

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis is a multi-protocol, embeddable, high performance, clustered, asynchronous messaging system. This Helm chart provides a complete deployment solution for ActiveMQ Artemis on Kubernetes, including:

Prerequisites

Installing the Chart

To install the chart with the release name my-activemq:

helm install my-activemq ./active-mq

The command deploys ActiveMQ Artemis on the Kubernetes cluster with default configuration. The Parameters section lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

Uninstalling the Chart

To uninstall/delete the my-activemq deployment:

helm delete my-activemq

Parameters

Global Settings

Parameter Description Default
nameOverride String to partially override the release name ""
fullnameOverride String to fully override the release name ""
replicaCount Number of ActiveMQ replicas 1

Image Settings

Parameter Description Default
image.repository ActiveMQ Artemis image repository apache/activemq-artemis
image.tag ActiveMQ Artemis image tag 2.39.0
image.pullPolicy Image pull policy IfNotPresent
imagePullSecrets Image pull secrets []

Security Settings

Parameter Description Default
serviceAccount.create If true, create a service account true
serviceAccount.automount Automatically mount service account token true
serviceAccount.annotations Annotations for service account {}
serviceAccount.name Service account name to use ""
authentication.create If true, create a secret for authentication true
authentication.existingSecret Name of existing secret to use ""
authentication.defaultUsername Default username if not using existing secret admin
authentication.defaultPassword Default password if not using existing secret "" (random)
authentication.secretKeys.username Key name for username in the secret ACTIVEMQ_USER
authentication.secretKeys.password Key name for password in the secret ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD
podSecurityContext.fsGroup Group ID (1001) corresponding to ‘artemis’ group in container. Required for volume permissions. 1001

Pod Settings

Parameter Description Default
podAnnotations Annotations for pods {"prometheus.io/scrape": "true", "prometheus.io/port": "9404"}
podLabels Additional labels for pods {}
resources CPU/Memory resource requests/limits {}
nodeSelector Node labels for pod assignment {}
tolerations Tolerations for pod assignment []
affinity Affinity for pod assignment {}

Service Settings

Parameter Description Default
service.type Kubernetes service type ClusterIP
service.ports Service ports configuration See values.yaml

Health Checks

Parameter Description Default
livenessProbe Liveness probe configuration See values.yaml
readinessProbe Readiness probe configuration See values.yaml

Storage Settings

Parameter Description Default
persistence.claimName Name of the PersistentVolumeClaim pvc-activemq-artemis
persistence.size PVC size 10Gi
persistence.storageClass.create Create a StorageClass true
persistence.storageClass.name StorageClass name gp3
persistence.storageClass.provisioner StorageClass provisioner ebs.csi.aws.com
persistence.storageClass.parameters StorageClass parameters See values.yaml
persistence.storageClass.reclaimPolicy StorageClass reclaim policy Retain
persistence.storageClass.volumeBindingMode StorageClass volume binding mode WaitForFirstConsumer

Volume Settings

Parameter Description Default
volumes Additional volumes See values.yaml
volumeMounts Additional volume mounts See values.yaml

Environment Variable Container

Parameter Description Default
envVars Environment Variable for ActiveMQ Artemis See values.yaml 
### Example:
envVars:
  JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS: -Xms512M -Xmx1G -Xlog:gc=debug:file=/tmp/gc.log

Monitoring

Parameter Description Default
monitoring.enabled Enable monitoring components true
monitoring.jmx.enabled Enable JMX monitoring true
monitoring.jmx.exporter.image JMX exporter image bitnami/jmx-exporter@sha256:9cc4a173c69ec2619e1a40e5026193352abcf82c82486cd3d52529a8f14dfa52
monitoring.jmx.exporter.pullPolicy JMX exporter image pull policy IfNotPresent
monitoring.jmx.exporter.hostPort JMX host and port 127.0.0.1:1098
monitoring.jmx.exporter.lowercaseOutputName Convert output metric names to lowercase true
monitoring.jmx.exporter.lowercaseOutputLabelNames Convert output label names to lowercase true
monitoring.jmx.exporter.resources Resource requests and limits for JMX exporter See values.yaml
monitoring.jmx.username JMX username env $ARTEMIS_USER
monitoring.jmx.password JMX password env $ARTEMIS_PASSWORD

JMX Monitoring

The chart provides JMX monitoring capabilities for ActiveMQ Artemis. JMX monitoring allows you to:

JMX authentication uses dedicated credentials that can be configured via values:

To enable JMX monitoring with customized username and password:

monitoring:
  enabled: true
  jmx:
    enabled: true
    username: "admin"  # Optional: custom JMX username
    password: "admin"  # Optional: custom JMX password
    exporter:
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: "120m"
          memory: "500Mi"
        # limits:
        #   cpu: "200m"
        #   memory: "1Gi"

Configuration

ActiveMQ Configuration

The ActiveMQ configuration is stored in a ConfigMap and mounted to the container. The following files are included:

You can customize the broker.xml files by modifying brokerXml in values.yaml.
Example:

config:
  brokerXml:
    global-max-size: 100Mb

The above config will be custom <global-max-size>100Mb</global-max-size> inbroker.xml

Authentication

  1. Create a new secret (default behavior):
    • Set authentication.create to true
    • Username: admin (configurable via authentication.defaultUsername)
    • Password: Random 16-character string (configurable via authentication.defaultPassword)
    • Secret keys are customizable:
      • Username key: Set with authentication.secretKeys.username (default: ACTIVEMQ_USER)
      • Password key: Set with authentication.secretKeys.password (default: ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD)
  2. Use an existing secret:
    • Set authentication.existingSecret to the name of your secret
    • Configure the key names to match your existing secret:
      • Username key: Set with authentication.secretKeys.username
      • Password key: Set with authentication.secretKeys.password
  3. No secret creation:
    • Set authentication.create to false and don’t provide authentication.existingSecret
    • Default username and password to login into ActiveMQ are artemis/artemis if no authentication is configured

Persistence

The chart mounts a Persistent Volume for storing ActiveMQ data. The volume is claimed using a PersistentVolumeClaim with the name specified in persistence.claimName (defaults to pvc-activemq-artemis). The default storage size is 10Gi.

Accessing ActiveMQ

The chart exposes the following ports:

Web Console

The ActiveMQ web console is available at port 8161. To access it from outside the cluster:

kubectl port-forward svc/my-activemq 8161:8161

Then open http://localhost:8161/console in your browser.

Prometheus Metrics

The JMX exporter exposes ActiveMQ metrics in Prometheus format on port 9404. Access these metrics with:

kubectl port-forward svc/my-activemq 9404:9404

Then open http://localhost:9404/metrics in your browser or configure your Prometheus instance to scrape this endpoint.

Metrics and Monitoring

The chart includes Prometheus annotations for scraping metrics. The metrics are exposed on port 9404 by the JMX exporter sidecar container.

When monitoring.enabled is set to true, the following annotations are added to the pod:

prometheus.io/scrape: "true"
prometheus.io/port: "9404"
prometheus.io/path: "/metrics"

This enables automatic discovery by Prometheus if your cluster has service discovery configured.

Available Metrics

The JMX exporter provides various metrics, including:

JMX Configuration

The JMX configuration is stored in a ConfigMap (jmx-exporter-config) and mounted to both the ActiveMQ container and JMX exporter container. The JMX exporter uses this configuration to connect to the JMX port and expose metrics.

An init container creates the necessary JMX credentials files using the same authentication credentials as the main ActiveMQ broker. This ensures consistent authentication between broker and JMX access.

Grafana Dashboard

We also released the ActiveMQ Artemis Dashboard:

https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/23349

Chart Structure

active-mq/
├── Chart.yaml                 # Chart metadata
├── values.yaml                # Default configuration values
├── templates/
│   ├── _helpers.tpl           # Helper templates
│   ├── configmap.yaml         # ActiveMQ configuration
│   ├── storageclass.yml       # Storage class definition
│   ├── NOTES.txt              # Usage notes
│   ├── pvc.yaml               # Persistent volume claim
│   ├── secret.yaml            # Authentication secret
│   ├── service.yaml           # Service definition
│   ├── serviceaccount.yaml    # Service account
│   ├── statefulset.yaml       # Main ActiveMQ deployment
│   └── jmx-exporter-config.yaml    # JMX exporter configuration
└── charts/                    # Chart dependencies (if any)

Customization

To customize the chart, create a values.yaml file with your changes and use it when installing:

helm install my-activemq ./active-mq -f my-values.yaml

Troubleshooting

Checking Logs

kubectl logs -f deployment/my-activemq

Checking Pod Status

kubectl get pods -l app=my-activemq

Create Helm Package

Commands

helm package ./active-mq --destination .
helm repo index ./ --url  https://antiantiops.github.io/activemq-helm-chart

License

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

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