mq_influx

README

MQ Exporter for InfluxDB monitoring

This README should be read in conjunction with the repository-wide README that covers features common to all of the collectors in this repository.

This directory contains the code for a monitoring solution that exports queue manager data to an InfluxDB data collection system. It also contains configuration files to run the monitor program

The current version of the collector is designed using the InfluxDB V2 APIs which are different from the V1 API and configuration parameters.

This uses a token-based authentication method rather than userid/password. Influx claim that the V2 APIs can still connect to a V1 database using an apiToken of a format that combines the userid and password.

The monitor collects metrics published by an MQ V9 queue manager or the MQ appliance. The monitor program pushes those metrics into the database, over an HTTP connection, where they can then be queried directly or used by other packages such as Grafana.

You can see data such as disk or CPU usage, queue depths, and MQI call counts.

Example Grafana dashboards are included, to show how queries might be constructed. The graphs shown are similar to the corresponding Prometheus-based dashboard, also in this repository.

To use the dashboard, create a data source in Grafana called "MQ Influx" that points at your database server, and then import the JSON file.

Configuring MQ

It is convenient to run the monitor program as a queue manager service. This directory contains an MQSC script to define the service. In fact, the service definition points at a simple script which sets up any necessary environment and builds the command line parameters for the real monitor program. As the last line of the script is "exec", the process id of the script is inherited by the monitor program, and the queue manager can then check on the status, and can drive a suitable STOP SERVICE operation during queue manager shutdown.

Edit the MQSC script and the shell script to point at appropriate directories where the program exists, and where you want to put stdout/stderr. Ensure that the ID running the queue manager has permission to access the programs and output files.

There are a number of required parameters to configure the service, including the queue manager name, how to reach a database, and the frequency of reading the queue manager publications. Look at the mq_influx.sh script or the yaml configuration file to see how to provide these parameters.

The queue manager will usually generate its publications every 10 seconds. That is also the default interval being used in the monitor program to read those publications.

Configuring InfluxDB

No special configuration is required for InfluxDB. You may want to create an MQ-specific bucket, and suitable userids with API tokens to access that bucket.

Metrics

Once the monitor program has been started, you will see metrics being available.

The example Grafana dashboard shows how queries can be constructed to extract data about specific objects or the queue manager.

More information on the metrics collected through the publish/subscribe interface can be found in the MQ KnowledgeCenter with further description in an MQDev blog entry

The metrics stored in the Influx database are named after the descriptions that you can see when running the amqsrua sample program, but with some minor modifications to match a more useful style.