RabbitMQ

Overview

RabbitMQ exposes comprehensive metrics through its management plugin that can be collected using the OpenTelemetry Collector's RabbitMQ receiver. This integration provides deep visibility into queue performance, message rates, consumer health, and resource utilization.

Prerequisites

Before setting up RabbitMQ monitoring, ensure:

• RabbitMQ is running with the management plugin enabled
• The management API is accessible (default port: 15672)
• You have credentials to access the RabbitMQ management interface
• OpenTelemetry Collector is deployed in your environment using the OpenTelemetry Collector contrib distribution.

Setting up RabbitMQ

Using RabbitMQ Operator on Kubernetes

For Kubernetes environments, we recommend using the RabbitMQ Cluster Operator to deploy and manage RabbitMQ clusters.

Install the RabbitMQ Operator

Deploy a RabbitMQ Cluster

Create a RabbitMQ cluster with the management plugin enabled:

Manual RabbitMQ Setup

If deploying RabbitMQ manually, ensure the management plugin is enabled:

Collector Configuration

The OpenTelemetry Collector uses the RabbitMQ receiver to collect metrics from the RabbitMQ management API. Add the following configuration to your collector:

For more configuration options see the receiver documentation in the OpenTelemetry Collector contrib repository

Environment Variables

Configure the following environment variables for the collector:

• RABBITMQ_USERNAME: RabbitMQ management username
• RABBITMQ_PASSWORD: RabbitMQ management password

Collector Deployment

Deploy the OpenTelemetry Collector with the RabbitMQ receiver configuration. For detailed deployment instructions, see our other integrations for deploying the OpenTelemetry Collector:

• OpenTelemetry Operator for Kubernetes

• Helm Chart for The OpenTelemetry Collector

Verification

After configuring the collector, verify that metrics are being collected:

1. Check the collector logs for successful connections to RabbitMQ
2. Navigate to the Metrics Explorer in Dash0
3. Search for metrics with prefix rabbitmq.
4. Verify key metrics like rabbitmq.message.published and rabbitmq.node.mem_used are appearing

Available Metrics

The RabbitMQ receiver collects the following key metrics:

Node Metrics

• rabbitmq.node.disk_free: Available disk space
• rabbitmq.node.mem_used: Memory usage
• rabbitmq.node.fd_used: File descriptors in use
• rabbitmq.node.sockets_used: Network sockets in use
• rabbitmq.node.proc_used: Erlang processes in use

Message Metrics

• rabbitmq.message.published: Messages published to queues
• rabbitmq.message.delivered: Messages delivered to consumers
• rabbitmq.message.acknowledged: Messages acknowledged by consumers
• rabbitmq.message.current: Current messages in queues (ready and unacknowledged)

Consumer Metrics

• rabbitmq.consumer.count: Number of consumers connected

References

• OpenTelemetry RabbitMQ Receiver Documentation
• RabbitMQ Management Plugin
• RabbitMQ Cluster Operator