Chapter 1. Overview

All of a broker’s configuration files are stored in <broker_instance_dir>/etc. You can configure a broker by editing the settings in these configuration files.

Each broker instance uses the following configuration files:

You configure most of a broker’s functionality by editing the broker.xml configuration file. This file contains default settings, which are sufficient to start and operate a broker. However, you will likely need to change some of the default settings and add new settings to configure the broker for your environment.

By default, broker.xml contains default settings for the following functionality:

Default message persistence settings

By default, AMQ Broker persistence uses an append-only file journal that consists of a set of files on disk. The journal saves messages, transactions, and other information.

<configuration ...>

   <core ...>

      ...

      <persistence-enabled>true</persistence-enabled>

      <!-- this could be ASYNCIO, MAPPED, NIO
           ASYNCIO: Linux Libaio
           MAPPED: mmap files
           NIO: Plain Java Files
       -->
      <journal-type>ASYNCIO</journal-type>

      <paging-directory>data/paging</paging-directory>

      <bindings-directory>data/bindings</bindings-directory>

      <journal-directory>data/journal</journal-directory>

      <large-messages-directory>data/large-messages</large-messages-directory>

      <journal-datasync>true</journal-datasync>

      <journal-min-files>2</journal-min-files>

      <journal-pool-files>10</journal-pool-files>

      <journal-file-size>10M</journal-file-size>

      <!--
       This value was determined through a calculation.
       Your system could perform 8.62 writes per millisecond
       on the current journal configuration.
       That translates as a sync write every 115999 nanoseconds.

       Note: If you specify 0 the system will perform writes directly to the disk.
             We recommend this to be 0 if you are using journalType=MAPPED and journal-datasync=false.
      -->
      <journal-buffer-timeout>115999</journal-buffer-timeout>

      <!--
        When using ASYNCIO, this will determine the writing queue depth for libaio.
       -->
      <journal-max-io>4096</journal-max-io>

      <!-- how often we are looking for how many bytes are being used on the disk in ms -->
      <disk-scan-period>5000</disk-scan-period>

      <!-- once the disk hits this limit the system will block, or close the connection in certain protocols
           that won't support flow control. -->
      <max-disk-usage>90</max-disk-usage>

      <!-- should the broker detect dead locks and other issues -->
      <critical-analyzer>true</critical-analyzer>

      <critical-analyzer-timeout>120000</critical-analyzer-timeout>

      <critical-analyzer-check-period>60000</critical-analyzer-check-period>

      <critical-analyzer-policy>HALT</critical-analyzer-policy>

      ...

  </core>

</configuration>

Default acceptor settings

Brokers listen for incoming client connections by using an acceptor configuration element to define the port and protocols a client can use to make connections. By default, AMQ Broker includes an acceptor for each supported messaging protocol, as shown below.

<configuration ...>

   <core ...>

      ...

      <acceptors>

        <!-- Acceptor for every supported protocol -->
        <acceptor name="artemis">tcp://0.0.0.0:61616?tcpSendBufferSize=1048576;tcpReceiveBufferSize=1048576;protocols=CORE,AMQP,STOMP,HORNETQ,MQTT,OPENWIRE;useEpoll=true;amqpCredits=1000;amqpLowCredits=300</acceptor>

        <!-- AMQP Acceptor. Listens on default AMQP port for AMQP traffic -->
        <acceptor name="amqp">tcp://0.0.0.0:5672?tcpSendBufferSize=1048576;tcpReceiveBufferSize=1048576;protocols=AMQP;useEpoll=true;amqpCredits=1000;amqpLowCredits=300</acceptor>

        <!-- STOMP Acceptor -->
        <acceptor name="stomp">tcp://0.0.0.0:61613?tcpSendBufferSize=1048576;tcpReceiveBufferSize=1048576;protocols=STOMP;useEpoll=true</acceptor>

        <!-- HornetQ Compatibility Acceptor. Enables HornetQ Core and STOMP for legacy HornetQ clients. -->
        <acceptor name="hornetq">tcp://0.0.0.0:5445?anycastPrefix=jms.queue.;multicastPrefix=jms.topic.;protocols=HORNETQ,STOMP;useEpoll=true</acceptor>

        <!-- MQTT Acceptor -->
        <acceptor name="mqtt">tcp://0.0.0.0:1883?tcpSendBufferSize=1048576;tcpReceiveBufferSize=1048576;protocols=MQTT;useEpoll=true</acceptor>

      </acceptors>

      ...

  </core>

</configuration>

Default security settings

AMQ Broker contains a flexible role-based security model for applying security to queues, based on their addresses. The default configuration uses wildcards to apply the amq role to all addresses (represented by the number sign, #).

<configuration ...>

   <core ...>

      ...

      <security-settings>
         <security-setting match="#">
            <permission type="createNonDurableQueue" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="deleteNonDurableQueue" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="createDurableQueue" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="deleteDurableQueue" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="createAddress" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="deleteAddress" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="consume" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="browse" roles="amq"/>
            <permission type="send" roles="amq"/>
            <!-- we need this otherwise ./artemis data imp wouldn't work -->
            <permission type="manage" roles="amq"/>
         </security-setting>
      </security-settings>

      ...

  </core>

</configuration>

Default message address settings

AMQ Broker includes a default address that establishes a default set of configuration settings to be applied to any created queue or topic.

Additionally, the default configuration defines two queues: DLQ (Dead Letter Queue) handles messages that arrive with no known destination, and Expiry Queue holds messages that have lived past their expiration and therefore should not be routed to their original destination.

<configuration ...>

   <core ...>

      ...

      <address-settings>
         ...
         <!--default for catch all-->
         <address-setting match="#">
            <dead-letter-address>DLQ</dead-letter-address>
            <expiry-address>ExpiryQueue</expiry-address>
            <redelivery-delay>0</redelivery-delay>
            <!-- with -1 only the global-max-size is in use for limiting -->
            <max-size-bytes>-1</max-size-bytes>
            <message-counter-history-day-limit>10</message-counter-history-day-limit>
            <address-full-policy>PAGE</address-full-policy>
            <auto-create-queues>true</auto-create-queues>
            <auto-create-addresses>true</auto-create-addresses>
            <auto-create-jms-queues>true</auto-create-jms-queues>
            <auto-create-jms-topics>true</auto-create-jms-topics>
         </address-setting>
      </address-settings>

      <addresses>
         <address name="DLQ">
            <anycast>
               <queue name="DLQ" />
            </anycast>
         </address>
         <address name="ExpiryQueue">
            <anycast>
               <queue name="ExpiryQueue" />
            </anycast>
         </address>
      </addresses>

   </core>

</configuration>

By default, a broker checks for changes in the configuration files every 5000 milliseconds. If the broker detects a change in the "last modified" time stamp of the configuration file, the broker determines that a configuration change took place. In this case, the broker reloads the configuration file to activate the changes.

When the broker reloads the broker.xml configuration file, it reloads the following modules:

The following procedure shows how to change the interval at which the broker checks for changes to the broker.xml configuration file.

It is also possible to force the reloading of the configuration file using the Management API or the console if for some reason access to the configuration file is not possible. Configuration files can be reloaded using the management operation reloadConfigurationFile() on the ActiveMQServerControl (with the ObjectName org.apache.activemq.artemis:broker="BROKER_NAME" or the resource name server)

If you have multiple brokers that share common configuration settings, you can define the common configuration in separate files, and then include these files in each broker’s broker.xml configuration file.

The most common configuration settings that you might share between brokers include:

$ touch -m <broker_instance_dir>/etc/broker.xml

This document uses the following conventions for the sudo command, file paths, and replaceable values.

The sudo command

In this document, sudo is used for any command that requires root privileges. You should always exercise caution when using sudo, as any changes can affect the entire system.

For more information about using sudo, see The sudo Command.

About the use of file paths in this document

In this document, all file paths are valid for Linux, UNIX, and similar operating systems (for example, /home/...). If you are using Microsoft Windows, you should use the equivalent Microsoft Windows paths (for example, C:\Users\...).

Replaceable values

This document sometimes uses replaceable values that you must replace with values specific to your environment. Replaceable values are lowercase, enclosed by angle brackets (< >), and are styled using italics and monospace font. Multiple words are separated by underscores (_) .

For example, in the following command, replace <install_dir> with your own directory name.

$ <install_dir>/bin/artemis create mybroker