Apache ActiveMQ ™ -- ActiveMQ InactivityMonitor
Using ActiveMQ > Configuring Transports > ActiveMQ InactivityMonitor
ActiveMQ InactivityMonitor
The ActiveMQ InactivityMonitor is an active thread that checks the connection is still active and if it suspects the connection is not functioning correctly, it closes the connection.
Connections are monitored by:
- Ensuring data is read from the connection during the specified time period (Max Inactivity Duration).
- Writing a
KeepAliveInfomessage to the connection if no normal activemq traffic is sent across the connection during the specified time period.
Each connection has two InactivityMonitors associated, one on each end of the connection. The InactivityMonitor expects to receive data on the connection during a specified time period. If normal ActiveMQ traffic has not been sent across the connection during that period, it expects to receive a KeepAliveInfo message sent by the InactivityMonitor on the other end of the connection.
Using the default values; if no data has been written or read from the connection for 30 seconds, the InactivityMonitor kicks in. The InactivityMonitor throws an InactivityIOException and shuts down the transport associated with the connection. This results in the following DEBUG logging:
2012-06-26 17:13:55,712 | DEBUG | 30000 ms elapsed since last read check. | org.apache.activemq.transport.AbstractInactivityMonitor | InactivityMonitor ReadCheck 2012-06-26 17:13:55,712 | DEBUG | No message received since last read check for tcp:///127.0.0.1:52659! Throwing InactivityIOException. | org.apache.activemq.transport.AbstractInactivityMonitor | InactivityMonitor ReadCheck 2012-06-26 17:13:55,714 | DEBUG | Transport Connection to: tcp://127.0.0.1:52659 failed: org.apache.activemq.transport.InactivityIOException: Channel was inactive for too (>30000) long: tcp://127.0.0.1:52659 | org.apache.activemq.broker.TransportConnection.Transport | InactivityMonitor Async Task: java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker@6a346239 org.apache.activemq.transport.InactivityIOException: Channel was inactive for too (>30000) long: tcp://127.0.0.1:52659 at org.apache.activemq.transport.AbstractInactivityMonitor$4.run(AbstractInactivityMonitor.java:187) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Advanced InactivityMonitor Configuration
There are some configuration options to further fine tune the InactivityMonitor. Note, for most use cases the default values are just fine.
Parameter
Default Value
Description
wireFormat.maxInactivityDuration
30000
Timeout, in milliseconds, after which the connection is closed by the broker if no data has been received.
wireFormat.maxInactivityDurationInitalDelay
10000
Specifies the maximum delay, in milliseconds, before connection inactivity monitoring is started.
This can prove useful if a broker is under load with many connections being created concurrently.
transport.useInactivityMonitor
true
A value of false disables the InactivityMonitor completely and connections will never time out.
transport.useKeepAlive
true
Determines if a KeepAliveInfo message should be sent on an idle connection to prevent it from timing out.
Disabling the keep alive will still make connections time out when no data was received on the connection for the specified amount of time.
These parameters can be specified directly on the client side connection URL, e.g. tcp://localhost:61616?wireFormat.maxInactivityDuration=30000, or on the broker's transport connector URL:
What happens if the maxInactivityDuration and maxInactivityDurationInitalDelay are set to different values on either side of the same connection?
At startup the InactivityMonitor negotiates the appropriate maxInactivityDuration and maxInactivityDurationInitalDelay. The shortest duration is taken for the connection.
Can the InactivityMonitor on a connection be disabled?
Setting transport.useInactivityMonitor=false will disable the InactivityMonitor. Configuring wireFormat.maxInactivityDuration=0 will achieve the same result.