activemq-artemis/docs/user-manual/en/configuration-index.md

Configuration Reference

This section is a quick index for looking up configuration. Click on the element name to go to the specific chapter.

Server Configuration

broker.xml

This is the main core server configuration file which contains to elements 'core' and 'jms'. The 'core' element contains the main server configuration while the 'jms' element is used by the server side JMS service to load JMS Queues, Topics

The core configuration

This describes the root of the XML configuration. You will see here also multiple sub-types listed. For example on the main config you will have bridges and at the list of bridge type we will describe the properties for that configuration.

Name	Description
acceptors	a list of remoting acceptors
acceptors.acceptor	Each acceptor is composed for just an URL
address-settings	a list of address-setting
allow-failback	Should stop backup on live restart. default true
async-connection-execution-enabled	If False delivery would be always asynchronous. default true
bindings-directory	The folder in use for the bindings folder
bridges	a list of bridge
broadcast-groups	a list of broadcast-group
check-for-live-server	Used for a live server to verify if there are other nodes with the same ID on the topology
cluster-connections	a list of cluster-connection
cluster-password	Cluster password. It applies to all cluster configurations.
cluster-user	Cluster username. It applies to all cluster configurations.
connection-ttl-override	if set, this will override how long (in ms) to keep a connection alive without receiving a ping. -1 disables this setting. Default -1
connectors.connector	The URL for the connector. This is a list
create-bindings-dir	true means that the server will create the bindings directory on start up. Default=true
create-journal-dir	true means that the journal directory will be created. Default=true
discovery-groups	a list of discovery-group
diverts	a list of diverts to use
graceful-shutdown-enabled	true means that graceful shutdown is enabled. Default=true
graceful-shutdown-timeout	Timeout on waitin for clients to disconnect before server shutdown. Default=-1
grouping-handler	Message Group configuration
id-cache-size	The duplicate detection circular cache size. Default=20000
jmx-domain	the JMX domain used to registered MBeans in the MBeanServer. Default=org.apache.activemq
jmx-management-enabled	true means that the management API is available via JMX. Default=true
journal-buffer-size	The size of the internal buffer on the journal in KB. Default=490 KiB
journal-buffer-timeout	The Flush timeout for the journal buffer
journal-compact-min-files	The minimal number of data files before we can start compacting. Setting this to 0 means compacting is disabled. Default=10
journal-compact-percentage	The percentage of live data on which we consider compacting the journal. Default=30
journal-directory	the directory to store the journal files in. Default=data/journal
journal-file-size	the size (in bytes) of each journal file. Default=10485760 (10 MB)
journal-max-io	the maximum number of write requests that can be in the AIO queue at any one time. Default is 500 for AIO and 1 for NIO.
journal-min-files	how many journal files to pre-create. Default=2
journal-sync-non-transactional	if true wait for non transaction data to be synced to the journal before returning response to client. Default=true
journal-sync-transactional	if true wait for transaction data to be synchronized to the journal before returning response to client. Default=true
journal-type	the type of journal to use. Default=ASYNCIO
large-messages-directory	the directory to store large messages. Default=data/largemessages
management-address	the name of the management address to send management messages to. It is prefixed with "jms.queue" so that JMS clients can send messages to it. Default=jms.queue.activemq.management
management-notification-address	the name of the address that consumers bind to receive management notifications. Default=activemq.notifications
mask-password	This option controls whether passwords in server configuration need be masked. If set to "true" the passwords are masked. Default=false
max-saved-replicated-journals-size	This specifies how many times a replicated backup server can restart after moving its files on start. Once there are this number of backup journal files the server will stop permanently after if fails back. Default=2
memory-measure-interval	frequency to sample JVM memory in ms (or -1 to disable memory sampling). Default=-1
memory-warning-threshold	Percentage of available memory which will trigger a warning log. Default=25
message-counter-enabled	true means that message counters are enabled. Default=false
message-counter-max-day-history	how many days to keep message counter history. Default=10 (days)
message-counter-sample-period	the sample period (in ms) to use for message counters. Default=10000
message-expiry-scan-period	how often (in ms) to scan for expired messages. Default=30000
message-expiry-thread-priority	the priority of the thread expiring messages. Default=3
page-max-concurrent-io	The max number of concurrent reads allowed on paging. Default=5
paging-directory	the directory to store paged messages in. Default=data/paging
persist-delivery-count-before-delivery	True means that the delivery count is persisted before delivery. False means that this only happens after a message has been cancelled. Default=false
persistence-enabled	true means that the server will use the file based journal for persistence. Default=true
persist-id-cache	true means that ID's are persisted to the journal. Default=true
queues	a list of queue to be created
remoting-incoming-interceptors	A list of interceptor
resolveProtocols	Use ServiceLoader to load protocol modules. Default=true
scheduled-thread-pool-max-size	Maximum number of threads to use for the scheduled thread pool. Default=5
security-enabled	true means that security is enabled. Default=true
security-invalidation-interval	how long (in ms) to wait before invalidating the security cache. Default=10000
security-settings	a list of security-setting
thread-pool-max-size	Maximum number of threads to use for the thread pool. -1 means 'no limits'.. Default=30
transaction-timeout	how long (in ms) before a transaction can be removed from the resource manager after create time. Default=300000
transaction-timeout-scan-period	how often (in ms) to scan for timeout transactions. Default=1000
wild-card-routing-enabled	true means that the server supports wild card routing. Default=true

#address-setting type

Name	Description
match	The filter to apply to the setting
dead-letter-address	dead letter address
expiry-address	expired messages address
expiry-delay	expiration time override, -1 don't override with default=-1
redelivery-delay	time to redeliver a message (in ms) with default=0
redelivery-delay-multiplier	multiplier to apply to the "redelivery-delay"
max-redelivery-delay	Max value for the redelivery-delay
max-delivery-attempts	Number of retries before dead letter address, default=10
max-size-bytes	Limit before paging. -1 = infinite
page-size-bytes	Size of each file on page, default=10485760
page-max-cache-size	Maximum number of files cached from paging default=5
address-full-policy	Model to chose after queue full
message-counter-history-day-limit	Days to keep in history
last-value-queue	Queue is a last value queue, default=false
redistribution-delay	Timeout before redistributing values after no consumers. default=-1
send-to-dla-on-no-route	Forward messages to DLA when no queues subscribing. default=false

#bridge type

Name	Description
name	unique name
queue-name	name of queue that this bridge consumes from
forwarding-address	address to forward to. If omitted original address is used
ha	whether this bridge supports fail-over
filter	optional core filter expression
transformer-class-name	optional name of transformer class
min-large-message-size	Limit before message is considered large. default 100KB
check-period	TTL check period for the bridge. -1 means disabled. default 30000 (ms)
connection-ttl	TTL for the Bridge. This should be greater than the ping period. default 60000 (ms)
retry-interval	period (in ms) between successive retries. default 2000
retry-interval-multiplier	multiplier to apply to successive retry intervals. default 1
max-retry-interval	Limit to the retry-interval growth. default 2000
reconnect-attempts	maximum number of retry attempts, -1 means 'no limits'. default -1
use-duplicate-detection	forward duplicate detection headers?. default true
confirmation-window-size	number of bytes before confirmations are sent. default 1MB
producer-window-size	Producer flow control size on the bridge. Default -1 (disabled)
user	Username for the bridge, the default is the cluster username
password	Password for the bridge, default is the cluster password
reconnect-attempts-same-node	Number of retries before trying another node. default 10

broadcast-group type

Name	Type
name	unique name
local-bind-address	local bind address that the datagram socket is bound to
local-bind-port	local port to which the datagram socket is bound to
group-address	multicast address to which the data will be broadcast
group-port	UDP port number used for broadcasting
broadcast-period	period in milliseconds between consecutive broadcasts. default 2000
jgroups-file	Name of JGroups configuration file
jgroups-channel	Name of JGroups Channel
connector-ref

#cluster-connection type

Name	Description
name	unique name
address	name of the address this cluster connection applies to
connector-ref	Name of the connector reference to use.
check-period	The period (in milliseconds) used to check if the cluster connection has failed to receive pings from another server with default = 30000
connection-ttl	Timeout for TTL. Default 60000
min-large-message-size	Messages larger than this are considered large-messages, default=100KB
call-timeout	Time(ms) before giving up on blocked calls. Default=30000
retry-interval	period (in ms) between successive retries. Default=500
retry-interval-multiplier	multiplier to apply to the retry-interval. Default=1
max-retry-interval	Maximum value for retry-interval. Default=2000
reconnect-attempts	How many attempts should be made to reconnect after failure. Default=-1
use-duplicate-detection	should duplicate detection headers be inserted in forwarded messages?. Default=true
forward-when-no-consumers	should messages be load balanced if there are no matching consumers on target? Default=false
max-hops	maximum number of hops cluster topology is propagated. Default=1
confirmation-window-size	The size (in bytes) of the window used for confirming data from the server connected to. Default 1048576
producer-window-size	Flow Control for the Cluster connection bridge. Default -1 (disabled)
call-failover-timeout	How long to wait for a reply if in the middle of a fail-over. -1 means wait forever. Default -1
notification-interval	how often the cluster connection will notify the cluster of its existence right after joining the cluster. Default 1000
notification-attempts	how many times this cluster connection will notify the cluster of its existence right after joining the cluster Default 2

#discovery-group type

Name	Description
name	unique name
group-address	Multicast IP address of the group to listen on
group-port	UDP port number of the multi cast group
jgroups-file	Name of a JGroups configuration file. If specified, the server uses JGroups for discovery.
jgroups-channel	Name of a JGroups Channel. If specified, the server uses the named channel for discovery.
refresh-timeout	Period the discovery group waits after receiving the last broadcast from a particular server before removing that servers connector pair entry from its list. Default=10000
local-bind-address	local bind address that the datagram socket is bound to
local-bind-port	local port to which the datagram socket is bound to. Default=-1
initial-wait-timeout	time to wait for an initial broadcast to give us at least one node in the cluster. Default=10000

#divert type

Name	Description
name	unique name
transformer-class-name	an optional class name of a transformer
exclusive	whether this is an exclusive divert. Default=false
routing-name	the routing name for the divert
address	the address this divert will divert from
forwarding-address	the forwarding address for the divert
filter	optional core filter expression

#queue type

Name	Description
name	unique name
address	address for the queue
filter	optional core filter expression
durable	whether the queue is durable (persistent). Default=true

#security-setting type

Name	Description
match	address expression
permission
permission.type	the type of permission
permission.roles	a comma-separated list of roles to apply the permission to

---

##The jms configuration

Name	Type	Description
queue	Queue	a queue
queue.name (attribute)	String	unique name of the queue
queue.durable	Boolean	is the queue durable?. Default=true
queue.filter	String	optional filter expression for the queue
topic	Topic	a topic
topic.name (attribute)	String	unique name of the topic

Using Masked Passwords in Configuration Files

By default all passwords in Apache ActiveMQ Artemis server's configuration files are in plain text form. This usually poses no security issues as those files should be well protected from unauthorized accessing. However, in some circumstances a user doesn't want to expose its passwords to more eyes than necessary.

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis can be configured to use 'masked' passwords in its configuration files. A masked password is an obscure string representation of a real password. To mask a password a user will use an 'encoder'. The encoder takes in the real password and outputs the masked version. A user can then replace the real password in the configuration files with the new masked password. When Apache ActiveMQ Artemis loads a masked password, it uses a suitable 'decoder' to decode it into real password.

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis provides a default password encoder and decoder. Optionally users can use or implement their own encoder and decoder for masking the passwords.

Password Masking in Server Configuration File

The password masking property

The server configuration file has a property that defines the default masking behaviors over the entire file scope.

mask-password: this boolean type property indicates if a password should be masked or not. Set it to "true" if you want your passwords masked. The default value is "false".

Specific masking behaviors

cluster-password

The nature of the value of cluster-password is subject to the value of property 'mask-password'. If it is true the cluster-password is masked.

Passwords in connectors and acceptors

In the server configuration, Connectors and Acceptors sometimes needs to specify passwords. For example if a users wants to use an SSL-enabled NettyAcceptor, it can specify a key-store-password and a trust-store-password. Because Acceptors and Connectors are pluggable implementations, each transport will have different password masking needs.

When a Connector or Acceptor configuration is initialised, Apache ActiveMQ Artemis will add the "mask-password" and "password-codec" values to the Connector or Acceptors params using the keys activemq.usemaskedpassword and activemq.passwordcodec respectively. The Netty and InVM implementations will use these as needed and any other implementations will have access to these to use if they so wish.

Passwords in Core Bridge configurations

Core Bridges are configured in the server configuration file and so the masking of its 'password' properties follows the same rules as that of 'cluster-password'.

Examples

The following table summarizes the relations among the above-mentioned properties

mask-password	cluster-password	acceptor/connector passwords	bridge password
absent	plain text	plain text	plain text
false	plain text	plain text	plain text
true	masked	masked	masked

Examples

Note: In the following examples if related attributed or properties are absent, it means they are not specified in the configure file.

example 1

<cluster-password>bbc</cluster-password>

This indicates the cluster password is a plain text value ("bbc").

example 2

<mask-password>true</mask-password>
<cluster-password>80cf731af62c290</cluster-password>

This indicates the cluster password is a masked value and Apache ActiveMQ Artemis will use its built-in decoder to decode it. All other passwords in the configuration file, Connectors, Acceptors and Bridges, will also use masked passwords.

JMS Bridge password masking

The JMS Bridges are configured and deployed as separate beans so they need separate configuration to control the password masking. A JMS Bridge has two password parameters in its constructor, SourcePassword and TargetPassword. It uses the following two optional properties to control their masking:

useMaskedPassword -- If set to "true" the passwords are masked. Default is false.

passwordCodec -- Class name and its parameters for the Decoder used to decode the masked password. Ignored if useMaskedPassword is false. The format of this property is a full qualified class name optionally followed by key/value pairs, separated by semi-colons. For example:

<property name="useMaskedPassword">true</property>
<property name="passwordCodec">com.foo.FooDecoder;key=value</property>

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis will load this property and initialize the class with a parameter map containing the "key"->"value" pair. If passwordCodec is not specified, the built-in decoder is used.

Masking passwords in ActiveMQ ResourceAdapters and MDB activation configurations

Both ra.xml and MDB activation configuration have a 'password' property that can be masked. They are controlled by the following two optional Resource Adapter properties in ra.xml:

UseMaskedPassword -- If setting to "true" the passwords are masked. Default is false.

PasswordCodec -- Class name and its parameters for the Decoder used to decode the masked password. Ignored if UseMaskedPassword is false. The format of this property is a full qualified class name optionally followed by key/value pairs. It is the same format as that for JMS Bridges. Example:

<config-property>
  <config-property-name>UseMaskedPassword</config-property-name>
  <config-property-type>boolean</config-property-type>
  <config-property-value>true</config-property-value>
</config-property>
<config-property>
  <config-property-name>PasswordCodec</config-property-name>
  <config-property-type>java.lang.String</config-property-type>
  <config-property-value>com.foo.ADecoder;key=helloworld</config-property-value>
</config-property>

With this configuration, both passwords in ra.xml and all of its MDBs will have to be in masked form.

Masking passwords in activemq-users.properties

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis's built-in security manager uses plain properties files where the user passwords are specified in plaintext forms by default. To mask those parameters the following two properties need to be set in the 'bootstrap.xml' file.

mask-password -- If set to "true" all the passwords are masked. Default is false.

password-codec -- Class name and its parameters for the Decoder used to decode the masked password. Ignored if mask-password is false. The format of this property is a full qualified class name optionally followed by key/value pairs. It is the same format as that for JMS Bridges. Example:

<mask-password>true</mask-password>
<password-codec>org.apache.activemq.artemis.utils.DefaultSensitiveStringCodec;key=hello world</password-codec>

When so configured, the Apache ActiveMQ Artemis security manager will initialize a DefaultSensitiveStringCodec with the parameters "key"->"hello world", then use it to decode all the masked passwords in this configuration file.

Choosing a decoder for password masking

As described in the previous sections, all password masking requires a decoder. A decoder uses an algorithm to convert a masked password into its original clear text form in order to be used in various security operations. The algorithm used for decoding must match that for encoding. Otherwise the decoding may not be successful.

For user's convenience Apache ActiveMQ Artemis provides a default built-in Decoder. However a user can if they so wish implement their own.

The built-in Decoder

Whenever no decoder is specified in the configuration file, the built-in decoder is used. The class name for the built-in decoder is org.apache.activemq.artemis.utils.DefaultSensitiveStringCodec. It has both encoding and decoding capabilities. It uses java.crypto.Cipher utilities to encrypt (encode) a plaintext password and decrypt a mask string using same algorithm. Using this decoder/encoder is pretty straightforward. To get a mask for a password, just run the main class at org.apache.activemq.artemis.utils.DefaultSensitiveStringCodec.

An easy way to do it is through activemq-tools--jar-with-dependencies.jar since it has all the dependencies:

    java -cp activemq-tools-6.0.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar org.apache.activemq.artemis.utils.DefaultSensitiveStringCodec "your plaintext password"

If you don't want to use the jar-with-dependencies, make sure the classpath is correct. You'll get something like

    Encoded password: 80cf731af62c290

Just copy "80cf731af62c290" and replace your plaintext password with it.

Using a different decoder

It is possible to use a different decoder rather than the built-in one. Simply make sure the decoder is in Apache ActiveMQ Artemis's classpath and configure the server to use it as follows:

    <password-codec>com.foo.SomeDecoder;key1=value1;key2=value2</password-codec>

If your decoder needs params passed to it you can do this via key/value pairs when configuring. For instance if your decoder needs say a "key-location" parameter, you can define like so:

    <password-codec>com.foo.NewDecoder;key-location=/some/url/to/keyfile</password-codec>

Then configure your cluster-password like this:

    <mask-password>true</mask-password>
    <cluster-password>masked_password</cluster-password>

When Apache ActiveMQ Artemis reads the cluster-password it will initialize the NewDecoder and use it to decode "mask_password". It also process all passwords using the new defined decoder.

Implementing your own codecs

To use a different decoder than the built-in one, you either pick one from existing libraries or you implement it yourself. All decoders must implement the org.apache.activemq.utils.SensitiveDataCodec<T> interface:

public interface SensitiveDataCodec<T>
{
   T decode(Object mask) throws Exception;

   void init(Map<String, String> params);
}

This is a generic type interface but normally for a password you just need String type. So a new decoder would be defined like

public class MyNewDecoder implements SensitiveDataCodec<String>
{
   public String decode(Object mask) throws Exception
   {
      //decode the mask into clear text password
      return "the password";
   }

   public void init(Map<String, String> params)
   {
      //initialization done here. It is called right after the decoder has been created.
   }
}

Last but not least, once you get your own decoder, please add it to the classpath. Otherwise Apache ActiveMQ Artemis will fail to load it!