Apache ActiveMQ browser can't connect to JMX console

Question

I am using Apache ActiveMQ version 5.8.0 and I downloaded Apache ActiveMQ Browser version 2.5.2.8

Within Apache ActiveMQ I edited the activemq.xml configuration to use JMX:

<broker xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/schema/core" useJmx="true" brokerName="localhost" dataDirectory="${activemq.data}">
  <!-- This needed to be set to true, otherwise JMX won't start in 5.8.0 -->
  <managementContext>
    <managementContext createConnector="true"/>
  </managementContext>
</broker>

Within the startup script I set the JMX settings as follows:

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

When I restart Apache ActiveMQ, the log shows me the JMX is started and accessible:

JMX consoles can connect to service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:1099/jmxrmi | org.apache.activemq.broker.jmx.ManagementContext | JMX connector

Also checking if the port is listening results into a listening port:

[me@server ~]$ netstat -lptun | grep 1099
(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info
 will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.)
tcp        0      0 :::1099                     :::*                        LISTEN      16775/java

Apache ActiveMQ is running on a server. For example on IP 10.0.0.100. Apache ActiveMQ Browser runs on my PC (10.0.0.200).

When I try to connect with Apache ActiveMQ Browser the connections keeps failing. I'm using the following settings:

 JMX URL: service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://10.0.0.100:1099/jmxrmi
 JMX role: admin
 JMS password: activemq

I left the user and password at this moment as default in jmx.password and jmx.access.

I also tried when connecting with putty to create a tunnel for port 1099 to local port 1099 and then connect to localhost instead of 10.0.0.100 to be sure no firewall is the issue. But all fails.

Am I forgetting anything?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, JMX needs two ports to operate properly. And the second one (the RMI registry port) is by default picked randomly causing problems with firewalls etc.

Since JDK7u4 you can use

-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port=<port>

to set the RMI port to be used.

Answer 2

After hours of suffering. The magic to connect behind a firewall.

<managementContext>
  <managementContext createConnector="true" rmiServerPort="1098"  connectorPort="1099"  />
</managementContext>

Sample connection string:

service:jmx:rmi://10.0.4.14:1098/jndi/rmi://10.0.4.14:1099/jmxrmi

Answer 3

If you are restricted by JDK version, so cannot use -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port, you can alternatively specify the RMI registry port in the managementContext itself.

<broker xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/schema/core" useJmx="true" brokerName="localhost" dataDirectory="${activemq.data}">
    ...
    <managementContext>
        <managementContext connectorPort="1099" rmiServerPort="<port>" />
    </managementContext>
    ...
</broker>

Answer 4

For me I got this: Connection refused to host: ; nested exception is: .... even though it was TCP listening on its jmx port.

Seems I also needed -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=my.local.ip.address then it worked with normal connect url

 service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://host:your_jmxremote_port/jmxrmi

not sure why...

Possibly also needed this on activemq side, not sure:

--jmxurl service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://127.0.0.1:11099/jmxrmi