1. What is ActiveMQ Artemis?

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis is an open source project to build a multi-protocol, embeddable, very high performance, clustered, asynchronous messaging system. Apache ActiveMQ Artemis is an example of Message Oriented Middleware (MoM).

2. What is the ActiveMQ Artemis Helm Chart

A chart is package composed of files that describe a related set of Kubernetes resources. The packages stand in a Helm repository. This Git repository is a Helm repository too.

Helm packages can have dependencies much like Debian packages can have dependencies, and they greatly simplify the management of complex distributed systems in Kubernetes.

This chart bootstraps a cluster of ActiveMQ Artemis nodes with a configurable size. The topology is a symmetric cluster with only one active master.

3. Prerequisites

• Kubernetes 19+ with Beta APIs enabled
• PV provisioner support in the underlying infrastructure

4. Installing the Chart

Just like in Debian, Fedora or similar. First we need to add a repository to our list:

helm repo add activemq-artemis https://vromero.github.io/activemq-artemis-helm/

At this point when the package is searched for it should be found:

CHART VERSION	APP VERSION	DESCRIPTION                                       
activemq-artemis/activemq-artemis	0.0.1        	           	a multi-protocol, embeddable, very high perform...

If the package could be found in the previous step, to install the chart with the release name my-release just:

helm install --name my-release activemq-artemis/activemq-artemis

The command deploys ActiveMQ Artemis on the Kubernetes cluster in the default configuration. The configuration section lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

By default a random password will be generated for the artemis user. If you'd like to set your own password change the artemisPassword in the values.yaml.

You can retrieve your password by running the following command. Make sure to replace [YOUR_RELEASE_NAME]:

kubectl get secret my-release-activemq-artemis -o jsonpath="{.data.artemis-password}" | base64 --decode; echo

Tip: List all releases using helm list

After the install some information should have appear in the console. If you missed it and want to check it out again try:

helm status my-release

5. Uninstalling the Chart

To uninstall/delete the my-release deployment:

helm delete my-release

The command removes all the Kubernetes components associated with the chart and deletes the release.

6. Configuration

The following tables lists the configurable parameters of the MySQL chart and their default values.

Parameter	Description	Default
imageTag	vromero/activemq-artemis image tag.	Most recent release
imagePullPolicy	Image pull policy	IfNotPresent
artemisUser	Username of new user to create.	artemis
artemisPassword	Password for the new user.	simetraehcapa
replicas	Number of nodes in the cluster.	2
persistence.enabled	Create a volume to store data	true
persistence.size	Size of persistent volume claim	8Gi RW
persistence.storageClass	Type of persistent volume claim	nil (uses alpha storage class annotation)
persistence.accessMode	ReadWriteOnce or ReadOnly	ReadWriteOnce
persistence.testJournalPerformance	See docker image docs	AUTO
resources.request.memory	Memory resource requests/limits	256Mi
resources.request.cpu	CPU/Memory resource requests/limits	100m

Some of the parameters above map to the env variables defined in the vromero's ActiveMQ Artemis image refer to it for values, meaning, etc.

Specify each parameter using the --set key=value[,key=value] argument to helm install. For example,

$ helm install --name my-release \
  --set artemisUser=my-user,artemisPassword=my-password \
  activemq-artemis

The above command creates a user named my-user, with the password my-password.

Alternatively, a YAML file that specifies the values for the parameters can be provided while installing the chart. For example,

$ helm install --name my-release -f values.yaml activemq-artemis

Tip: You can use the default values.yaml as template.

7. Persistence

The ActiveMQ Artemis image stores the broker data in /var/lib/artemis/data and configurations at the /var/lib/artemis/etc path of the container.

By default a PersistentVolumeClaim is created and mounted into the /var/lib/artemis/data. In order to disable this functionality you can change the values.yaml to disable persistence and use an emptyDir instead.

"An emptyDir volume is first created when a Pod is assigned to a Node, and exists as long as that Pod is running on that node. When a Pod is removed from a node for any reason, the data in the emptyDir is deleted forever."