RabbitMQ

The OpenTelemetry Collector's RabbitMQ receiver collects 76+ metrics from RabbitMQ 3.x and 4.x, including queue depth, message rates, consumer counts, node memory, disk usage, I/O performance, and garbage collection statistics. This guide configures the receiver, sets up monitoring credentials, and ships metrics to base14 Scout.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
RabbitMQ	3.x	4.x
Management plugin	enabled	enabled
OTel Collector Contrib	0.90.0	latest
base14 Scout	Any	-

Before starting:

RabbitMQ management plugin enabled (HTTP API on port 15672)
A user with monitoring privileges
OTel Collector installed - see Docker Compose Setup

What You'll Monitor

Messages: published, delivered, acknowledged, dropped, current depth
Node memory: used memory, memory limit, memory alarm status
Node disk: free disk, disk limit, disk alarm status
Resources: file descriptors, sockets, Erlang processes
I/O: read/write counts, bytes, average times, sync and seek stats
Runtime: uptime, GC counts, context switches, Mnesia transactions
Connections: connection/channel created and closed rates, queue lifecycle events

Full metric reference: OTel RabbitMQ Receiver

Access Setup

Ensure the RabbitMQ management plugin is enabled:

Enable RabbitMQ management plugin
# Enable management plugin
rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management

# Verify management plugin is running
rabbitmq-plugins list | grep management

Create a dedicated monitoring user (optional but recommended):

Create monitoring user
# Create monitoring user
rabbitmqctl add_user rabbitmq_monitor <password>

# Set permissions for monitoring
rabbitmqctl set_permissions -p / rabbitmq_monitor "" "" ".*"
rabbitmqctl set_user_tags rabbitmq_monitor monitoring

# Test connectivity
curl -u rabbitmq_monitor:<password> http://localhost:15672/api/overview

Minimum required permissions:

monitoring tag - required for management API access
No write permissions to queues or exchanges are needed

Configuration

config/otel-collector.yaml
receivers:
  rabbitmq:
    endpoint: http://<rabbitmq-host>:15672
    username: ${env:RABBITMQ_USERNAME}
    password: ${env:RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}
    collection_interval: 10s

    metrics:
      # Queue metrics
      rabbitmq.consumer.count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.message.acknowledged:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.message.current:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.message.delivered:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.message.dropped:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.message.published:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - memory
      rabbitmq.node.mem_used:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.mem_limit:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.mem_alarm:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.mem_used_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - disk
      rabbitmq.node.disk_free:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.disk_free_limit:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.disk_free_alarm:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.disk_free_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - file descriptors
      rabbitmq.node.fd_used:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.fd_total:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.fd_used_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - sockets
      rabbitmq.node.sockets_used:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.sockets_total:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.sockets_used_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - processes
      rabbitmq.node.proc_used:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.proc_total:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.proc_used_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - runtime
      rabbitmq.node.uptime:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.run_queue:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.processors:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.context_switches:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.context_switches_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - garbage collection
      rabbitmq.node.gc_num:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.gc_num_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.gc_bytes_reclaimed:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.gc_bytes_reclaimed_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - I/O read
      rabbitmq.node.io_read_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_read_bytes:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_read_avg_time:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_read_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_read_bytes_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_read_avg_time_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - I/O write
      rabbitmq.node.io_write_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_write_bytes:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_write_avg_time:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_write_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_write_bytes_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_write_avg_time_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - I/O sync and seek
      rabbitmq.node.io_sync_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_sync_avg_time:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_sync_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_sync_avg_time_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_seek_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_seek_avg_time:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_seek_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_seek_avg_time_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_reopen_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.io_reopen_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - Mnesia transactions
      rabbitmq.node.mnesia_ram_tx_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.mnesia_disk_tx_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.mnesia_ram_tx_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.mnesia_disk_tx_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - message store
      rabbitmq.node.msg_store_read_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.msg_store_write_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.msg_store_read_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.msg_store_write_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - queue index
      rabbitmq.node.queue_index_write_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_index_read_count:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_index_write_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_index_read_count_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - connections and channels
      rabbitmq.node.connection_created:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.connection_closed:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.connection_created_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.connection_closed_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.channel_created:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.channel_closed:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.channel_created_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.channel_closed_details.rate:
        enabled: true

      # Node metrics - queue lifecycle
      rabbitmq.node.queue_declared:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_created:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_deleted:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_declared_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_created_details.rate:
        enabled: true
      rabbitmq.node.queue_deleted_details.rate:
        enabled: true

processors:
  resource:
    attributes:
      - key: environment
        value: ${env:ENVIRONMENT}
        action: upsert
      - key: service.name
        value: ${env:SERVICE_NAME}
        action: upsert

  batch:
    timeout: 10s
    send_batch_size: 1024

# Export to base14 Scout
exporters:
  otlphttp/b14:
    endpoint: ${env:OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT}
    tls:
      insecure_skip_verify: true

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [rabbitmq]
      processors: [resource, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/b14]

Environment Variables

.env
RABBITMQ_USERNAME=rabbitmq_monitor
RABBITMQ_PASSWORD=your_password
ENVIRONMENT=your_environment
SERVICE_NAME=your_service_name
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://<your-tenant>.base14.io

Verify the Setup

Start the Collector and check for metrics within 60 seconds:

Verify metrics collection
# Check Collector logs for successful connection
docker logs otel-collector 2>&1 | grep -i "rabbitmq"

# Test RabbitMQ management API
curl -u ${RABBITMQ_USERNAME}:${RABBITMQ_PASSWORD} \
     http://<rabbitmq-host>:15672/api/overview

Check RabbitMQ node status
# Check node status
rabbitmq-diagnostics -q ping

# List queues
rabbitmqctl list_queues

# Check cluster status (if clustered)
rabbitmqctl cluster_status

Troubleshooting

Connection refused on port 15672

Cause: Management plugin is not enabled or not listening on the expected port.

Fix:

Enable the plugin: rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management
Verify the management port: ss -tlnp | grep 15672
Check if RabbitMQ is running: systemctl status rabbitmq-server or docker ps | grep rabbitmq

Authentication failed

Cause: Monitoring credentials are incorrect or the user lacks the monitoring tag.

Fix:

Test credentials directly: curl -u user:pass http://localhost:15672/api/overview
Verify user tags: rabbitmqctl list_users
Add the monitoring tag if missing: rabbitmqctl set_user_tags rabbitmq_monitor monitoring

No metrics appearing in Scout

Cause: Metrics are collected but not exported.

Fix:

Check Collector logs for export errors: docker logs otel-collector
Verify OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT is set correctly
Confirm the pipeline includes both the receiver and exporter

Memory or disk alarm metrics showing 1

Cause: RabbitMQ has triggered a resource alarm - this is a real operational issue.

Fix:

rabbitmq.node.mem_alarm = 1 means memory usage exceeds the threshold - publishers are blocked
rabbitmq.node.disk_free_alarm = 1 means free disk is below the limit
These metrics are working correctly - resolve the underlying resource issue

FAQ

Does this work with RabbitMQ running in Kubernetes?

Yes. Set endpoint to the RabbitMQ management service DNS (e.g., http://rabbitmq.default.svc.cluster.local:15672) and inject credentials via a Kubernetes secret. The Collector can run as a sidecar or DaemonSet.

How do I monitor a RabbitMQ cluster?

The management API returns cluster-wide data from any node. Point the receiver at one node and you'll get metrics for all nodes. For redundancy, add multiple receiver blocks pointing to different nodes:

config/otel-collector.yaml (multi-node)
receivers:
  rabbitmq/node1:
    endpoint: http://rabbitmq-1:15672
    username: ${env:RABBITMQ_USERNAME}
    password: ${env:RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}
  rabbitmq/node2:
    endpoint: http://rabbitmq-2:15672
    username: ${env:RABBITMQ_USERNAME}
    password: ${env:RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}

What permissions does the monitoring account need?

The monitoring user tag is required for management API access. No queue read/write permissions are needed. The Collector only reads metrics - it does not modify RabbitMQ data.

Does this work with both RabbitMQ 3.x and 4.x?

Yes. The configuration has been validated against both RabbitMQ 3.x and 4.x with identical metric output. The management API is stable across these versions.

What's Next?

Create Dashboards: Explore pre-built dashboards or build your own. See Create Your First Dashboard
Monitor More Components: Add monitoring for Redis, PostgreSQL, and other components
Fine-tune Collection: Adjust collection_interval based on your messaging workload

OTel Collector Configuration — Advanced collector configuration
Docker Compose Setup — Run the Collector locally
Redis Monitoring - Alternative caching service monitoring

Was this page helpful?

Prerequisites​

What You'll Monitor​

Access Setup​

Configuration​

Environment Variables​

Verify the Setup​

Troubleshooting​

Connection refused on port 15672​

Authentication failed​

No metrics appearing in Scout​

Memory or disk alarm metrics showing 1​

FAQ​

What's Next?​

Related Guides​

Prerequisites

What You'll Monitor

Access Setup

Configuration

Environment Variables

Verify the Setup

Troubleshooting

Connection refused on port 15672

Authentication failed

No metrics appearing in Scout

Memory or disk alarm metrics showing 1

FAQ

What's Next?

Related Guides