How To Install Apache ActiveMQ on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache ActiveMQ on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache ActiveMQ is a free, multi-protocol, Java-based message broker software written in Java. It supports industry-standard protocols that allow communication between separate applications.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of Apache ActiveMQ on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Apache ActiveMQ on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing Java.

To install the open-source version of Java, run the command:

sudo apt install default-jre

Check the java version:

java -version

Step 3. Installing Apache ActiveMQ on Ubuntu 20.04.

First, download ActiveMQ from the Apache office package repository:

cd /tmp
wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/activemq/5.15.8/apache-activemq-5.15.8-bin.tar.gz

Next, extract the downloaded folder and move its content to the /opt directory and create a folder called activemq:

tar -xvzf apache-activemq-5.15.8-bin.tar.gz
sudo mv apache-activemq-5.15.8 /opt/activemq

After that, run the following commands below to create a username activemq as well as a group name:

sudo addgroup --quiet --system activemq
sudo adduser --quiet --system --ingroup activemq --no-create-home --disabled-password activemq
sudo chown -R activemq:activemq /opt/activemq

Step 4. Create Apache ActiveMQ Systemd.

Run the commands below to create a service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/activemq.service

[Unit]
Description=Apache ActiveMQ
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
User=activemq
Group=activemq

ExecStart=/opt/activemq/bin/activemq start
ExecStop=/opt/activemq/bin/activemq stop

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

After saving it, run the commands below to enable the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start activemq
sudo systemctl enable activemq

Step 5. Accessing Apache ActiveMQ.

ActiveMQ will be available on HTTP port 8161 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to http://your-domain.com/8161/admin/ or http://your-server-ip/8161/admin/ and you should be prompted for a username and password. The default is admin/admin

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Apache ActiveMQ. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing Apache ActiveMQ in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa systems. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Apache ActiveMQ website.